Gates Tripod

Hi

I was considering purchasing a Gates Tripod for my Z1 housing. I was hoping if any of you had any feedback to offer with positives and negatives towards them, before i buy or try to make something myself.

Thanks

Seeesharky

We have one. Never used, never used so no feed back. Just switched from Gates to L&M. So it is available for sale.

Sure I will buy it from you. How much do you want for it? Any other Gates stuff for sale?

Send me a PM with details.

Thanks

Seeesharky

They work well but a little fiddly to get setup. Very light and compact though which means that you can carry on the housing at all times so that's a big bonus

Thanks Jonny

I appreciate your comments

I had a friend tell me how annoying the ball and socket joints were to manage with a bit of surge. But as far as I know this is the only option around on the market, if anyone knows of anything else I would be keen to know about them.

Thanks

Seeesharky

Thanks Jonny

I appreciate your comments

I had a friend tell me how annoying the ball and socket joints were to manage with a bit of surge. But as far as I know this is the only option around on the market, if anyone knows of anything else I would be keen to know about them.

Thanks

Seeesharky

I like mine. I also like to carry an extra 3 lb weight. I make the housing with tripod close to neutral for hand held shots. Place the 3 lb weight on top of the housing when using the tripod.

Did you look into the ULCS tripod: http://www.backscatter.com/HostedStore.Las...d5438141fccb988

Xit404 also has one which can pretty much be attached to any housing: http://www.backscatter.com/sku/xit-tlb.lasso

I am looking for a solution for my L&M housing myself. I have their tripod adapter and tried a cheap topside tripod with it and although it works, it does not allow very close shots.

As for tripods, I'm looking at the above list and also the Aquatica: Aquatica tripod

It's good news/bad news.

The Gates tripod has advantages: It seems very solid and if you fold the legs flat, the housing can pretty well sit flat on the sand to give you the lowest possible perspective. But it doesn't do tilt/pan unless you slide it or readjust the legs.

The Aquatica has the advantage of a real (I think!) tilt/pan head but with the legs folded flat it still sits 6" above the sand.

I'm leaning toward the Aquatica at the moment because of its functionality. If it looked sturdier/more stable I'd get one today, unless the photos are deceiving and it really is a solid platform. Terrestrial photography has taught me I need the steadiest camera mounting to get the best shots.

Tom

The Aquatica has the advantage of a real (I think!) tilt/pan head but with the legs folded flat it still sits 6" above the sand.

Interesting product... Where do you get the 6'' limitation from? The Backscatter description reads "A single knob adjustment of this cleverly designed tripod allows it to lie flush at ground level for those hard to get ultra macro sequences".

I'd be curious to hear about hands-on experience with it from videographers...

Interesting product... Where do you get the 6'' limitation from? The Backscatter description reads "A single knob adjustment of this cleverly designed tripod allows it to lie flush at ground level for those hard to get ultra macro sequences".

I'd be curious to hear about hands-on experience with it from videographers...

Here's the quote:

OK, we have 6'' of elevation from the ground at its minimum, be aware that

you could remove the tripod head and easily mount it on a flat board to get

even lower, that would shave an extra 3 inch while retaining some of the

tilt feature of the tripod head.

 

The weight top side is 1075gr/2.37 pound and immersed in fresh water it

comes to 675gr/1.48, expect even lighter weight in salt water.

 

If you are going to add weight to stabilize, I would suggest to add a 2

pound bullet weight to each legs and attach it with Tie Wrap

 

Regards

 

Jean Bruneau, Aquatica Technical Advisor

3025 De Baene

Montreal, Qc

Canada, H4S 1K8

Here's the quote:

6'' is not much and seems to correspond to the height of the tiltable head. If you shoot downwards on the ground, you probably can bring your lens quite close from your subject. If you want to shoot flat on the ground, I would agree with Aquatica: why would you need a tripod in the first place? Removing the tripod seems to be a simple matter of unscrewing the large wheel shaped screw head showed on the picture, so that should be easy. I am not sure how easy it would be to put back in the water though...

After looking a bit closer to the pictures, it appears that the principle used by both Aquatica and ULCS to attach the legs are similar. ULCS has a clever set of extensible legs that could be useful in some cases. I wonder whether you can buy the Aquatica tripod head only and use the ULCS legs with it?