Tripods

A good tripod is worth its weight in gold for night photography. My recommendations below are for Manfrotto tripods. This is not because they are the best of the best, it is because they are best of what is most available where I live and the brand I have used for 15 years. And I have a tripod that is that old and still going strong!
For more detailed reviews of other tripods check out: https://thecentercolumn.com/

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Please watch this video to learn more about what tripod to buy:

Tripod Legs

Two main factors here:

1- Weight vs Cost? Aluminum legs will be heavier and cheaper, Carbon Fibre legs will be lighter and more expensive.
I have both, in a perfect world all of my tripods would be carbon fibre but my budget has not always supported that.
2- Height? How high and how low do I need my tripod to go?
I don’t need tripods that go very high (I’m only 5’4” after all), but I do like my tripods to be able to get very low to the ground.

Aluminum Legs

Manfrotto 055 3-Section

This is a taller, heavier version of my main tripod. I have this one to use with my tracker to keep it stable.

Manfrotto 190X 3-Section

This is my main tripod, I have a newer version in aluminum and an older version in carbon fibre.

Carbon Fibre Legs

Manfrotto 055 3-Section

This is a taller, heavier version of my main tripod. I would have this one to use with my tracker to keep it stable if I had the budget for it at the time (I didn’t and I don’t need two of these!).

Manfrotto 190X 3-Section

This is the closest that there is available right now the older version of this tripod (13 yrs old!) that I still use.

Tripod Heads

I prefer to use a 3-way pan and tilt head for most of my work because I like the ability to isolate just one axis for movement.

However for Milky Way photography I like to use a ball head to get the range of motion that I need.

Ball Heads

Manfrotto XPRO Ball Head

This is my main ball head, I regularly use this with my heavy setup for taking deepscape images on my tracker.

Manfrotto 494 Ball Head

This is my light weight head that I use with my lighter setup (wide angle lenses, primes, etc.)

3-Way Pan/Tilt Head

Manfrotto MH804 3-Way Pan/Tilt Head

I’ve had this ball head for 13 years and it’s still fantastic! I don’t love it for Milky Way because you have to mount the camera backwards to be able to get it to 90˚ tilt back.