Gitzo 1548 for all uses?

"why spend money on multiple tripods if one can fit the bill"

Because you have to carry it. A 1548 will indeed to everything, but If I'm wandering around looking for landscape shots with a 24mm lens, I really wouldn't want to haul around a 1548 with a Wimberly head on it.

I think I currently own 3 field tripods. I carry the one most appropriate for the task at hand. If I'm going out on a day hike, I carry just one of course, not all of them!

The Gitzo 1548 is a big tripod and for a carbon fiber, it is relatively heavy also. IMO, it is clearly an overkill unless you are using a 600mm/f4 or 400mm/f2.8, and some people use those lenses on a 1348 and they are happy with it. Of course, opinions vary. The problem is that using the 1548 negates some of the advantage of using a carbon fiber, namely light weight. And I would imagine that it is hard to travel by air with it.

Personally, I prefer the 1325 because one fewer leg section means faster operation and it fits my height (6'1"/186cm) and my biggest lens (500mm/f4) perfectly. It is on the longer side closed but it fits in duffel bags for air travel very well.

Your mileage clearly may vary depending on your hieght, what type of cameras and lenses you want to put on your tripod, your mode of transportation, the amount of weight you can carry, etc. I do own several tripods for different occasions; there isn't one that fits all occasions.

Tripods are compromises. I haven't seen one that does everything well.

The 4 section G1548 is heavier than my 3 section G1325. It really isn't significantly taller (at 58-59 inches they both are on the short side). The G1325 handles my 600 f/4 AFS if I leave 2 inches of overlap and give up 4 inches. A trade of I'll take for the weight difference when hiking long distances. But I'll use my tall heavy G1410 for big glass within 1/4 mile of the car.

G1325 and G1548 will get down to 10-12 inches above ground depending on camera body/lens with an ArcaSwiss B1 or Kirk BH-1.

If you want more height, the 6 section G1548GT has it but do you really want to mess with 6 sections?

I shoot off a Gitzo 1410 and have done so for the last 5 years. I use the Kirk BH-1 for everything except the 500mm, for which I use a Wimberly. For me, I do not mind the additional weight of the 1410 since at the end of the day I am trying to achieve razor sharp images and this is the most important tool to do so. Keep in mind with carbon fibre that it becomes brittle at the cold temperatures you are describing. Also, for getting low to the ground for macro work or shooting duckes at eye level, you will be hard pressed to get a Bogen superclamp on a carbon fiber leg at the tightness required without cracking it.

I have been using 600/4 w/Wimberley on 1348 for some time and find it adequate under light or no wind. (I am 5'10" and do not extend last section except under rare circumstances.)

1548 may be justified if you have to work in windy environment and thus want more stability, but in this case even 1548 may easily be not enough and you might wish instead to look toward stability (and weight) of wooden tripod. (Which is much better suited to cold than CF, anyway.)

> for getting low to the ground for macro work or shooting duckes at eye level, you will be hard pressed to get a Bogen superclamp on a carbon fiber leg at the tightness required without cracking it.

Do not know about 1548, but 1348 can get very low to the ground.

P.S. Have you ever actually tried shooting with camera upside down?

P.P.S. Keep in mind that Wimberley is a specialized head and is not universal substitute for ballhead. Also, if you use body with booster, 100-400 does not balance well on Wimberley (non-booster configuration is ok, as long as 100-400 is extended).

Yes, I use another tripod. I only use the 1548 for bird photography to support a 500 lens with TC's.

For landscapes, macro and general nature work I prefer a Benbo mk1. That tripod is a little heavier than the 1548 (3.4 to 3.1 kg I think) but you can get the camera into just about any position you want to. My only complaint with it is, as it only has 2 leg sections it will not go to eye level without the centre column. I'm 5'9".

I've never liked the idea of suspending a camera underneath a tripod. If you do a lot of macro work, consider a tripod that can be set at the heights you will need.

The 1548 does have 3 angles you can set the legs at. The lowest will get the camera down to ground level. And varying the leg lengths will allow for some flexibility in positioning the camera.

Unless you have limited needs, I doubt there is one single tripod that will cover all your requirements. I use a third tripod, a very light Benbo Trekker (2kg), when a lot of hiking and climbing is involved. So I really have no excuse to ever be without one. Of course if I'm shooting birds and decide to do some flowers etc, then the 1548 has to do, but sometimes I wish I had the Benbo.

Have you tried working with a reversed centre column? Try it before saying anything more about it. It's quite an experience! I think a relatively general purpose tripod is the G1348 w/out a centre column. It goes to something like 11 cm which is very low (and 167 cm when fully extended). It can't be used in all cases since the relatively long legs may interfere with vegetation since they practically lie on the ground. In that case, I use a small specialized tripod which has quite small legs and that goes to something like 2 cm.

It helps to realize that you won't always have the necessary tools for shooting everything you'd like, but that's just as well. You can still find many things to shoot even with a limited set of equipment. Forget about having one tool to do everything - you'll be disappointed.

I've shot macro upside down with my Manfrotto 190 so I understand what all it entails. It's mainly required for flowers, etc. that are to tall for bean bagging it or to short to shoot with camera right side up.

Hi: Everyone has their own solution to the tripod issue. Mine is to carry a light nylon bag capable of holding about 4 pounds of rocks ,sand or gravel. After my lightweight tripod is positioned I merely fill the bag with sand and suspend it from the centerpost so that it just touches the ground. it makes a heavyweight out of a lightweight.Needless to say I empty the bag before moving on to a new location.

I use a G1548 with Arca swiss B1g for every subject, and I use it for all my pictures. Often it is overkill, but I invested a lot in glass so I don't want to have unsharp images because I don't want to carry a good tripod.

A 600mm f4 on a 13xx? I was in a well known zoo in Germany last week and I was able to compare at least 7 different combinations of tripods and heads, all with 500 f4's and 600 f4's. Only one body was unmovable. Mine. Others had very good heads (heavy linhofs eg) and not the head moved but the legs, and this was a Gitzo CF 13xx. Others had a G1548 with a louzy head. I'm not saying you don't get good pictures with it. I'm just saying I want sharp pictures in every condition, no matter what glass I put on it. And although I plan my trips and subjects, I often end up doing something else.

Just my 0.02 €

Rollin

I think I'm a staunch defender of the 1548 and would not consider putting my 600 on anything else. However, I just got back from Cabo San Lucas where there was birdlife but landscapes and cityscapes were the real action. Now, I hope to find out the lightest, most compressible tripod that will handle, say, 12 knots of wind for landscapes. A real light tripod would have been very handy and I've rediscovered (and ignored) that for years.

Mike