Looking for a tripod to to shoot long range photos with telephoto lens

Hello,

I have a Sony a57 camera and I'm looking to travel around Europe at around Christmas time to take many shots of nature landscape and wildlife possibly and some long exposure shots during the nighttime.

For that I will need a tripod and I'm wondering whether I could get any advice regarding this matter. I took a quick look at Jessops camera shop and some tripods, tried them out but then again prices fluctuate highly and sales consultant made an impression that all of then are just good be it cheap or over 100 pounds one.

Naturally I don't trust most consultants before I actually get to lay my eyes on what other people think about that same item.

Would anyone be so kind to suggest what tripod shout I get for 70-300 lens? I'll most likely be buying it off amazon.co.uk and my price range in around 100£ +/- 30 pounds.

Thank you

 

Manfrotto tripods are medium priced but high quality. I've read good things about the MK294A3, which comes with a detachable ball head.

 

All of my tripods have been cheap. One thing I have found is that if you are swapping the camera on and off the tripod frequently, then a quick release plate is key. Only one of my tripods has this, and it's the tripod I now use 90% of the time. Beyond that tidbit, I'm too cheap to be any help. But here are a few links -

Choosing a Tripod « Nick Carver Photography – Fine Art Landscape Photography, Online Photography Courses, Private Photography Lessons and Photography Classes | Blog

Photomart Togblog Gazette » Choosing a Tripod (Part 1)

How to Choose and Buy a Tripod for a DSLR Camera

Kelly Cook

 

Thanks for replies, though I'm even more confused than I was before.

Most likely now I'll settle with 30£ tripod and a Sony G 70-300mm SSM f4.5 lens instead of
150£ tripod and a Tamron SP 70-300mm f4 lens.

 

You should find plenty of lens reviews by users on the alphamountworld and dyxum sites.

Another tripod feature that I've found handy is to be able to reverse the center column to get the camera down to near ground level.

By far the most common failure point for my cheap tripods has been the screw than attaches the camera. On some cheap tripods it is easy for these screws to eventually work their way out of the slot, or what ever, in the plate on top. Then they are the devil to try and put back in. Beware of cheeszy screws.

Kelly

 

Get a manfrotto. You can buy them cheap on ebay!