I was hopeful this morning that the light would stream over the headland and bath a stormy looking Corbiere in golden sunrise light. Unfortunately, the forecasted stong winds squalls were more like set in storms. Either way I was hoping it would put my new tripod to test.
This is the weather on arrival! I sat in the car and had a cup of coffee instead!
I waited around and got out of the car a few times. The wind was that strong that the rain was like little daggers on my face.
While the clouds eventually cleared and the rain stopped for the sun to come through enough for some photography, the wind was still pretty strong at force five or six! At this point sunrise had been and gone, so I decided to go round the headland between La Pulante and Petit Port Beach.
A few weeks ago, I purchased a shiney new tripod. Until then I have been using a smaller Manfrotto Element tripod which I bought last year. I really didn't think investing too much money would be needed despite advice from youtube not too.
It is a perfectly good tripod, its lightweight and it packs up nice and compact. However I found that with a heavy lens it would slip giving blury shots.
This was especially the case without an L bracket, an item which once you use, you wonder how you never lived without. I have used 3 Legged Thing Zelda since buying my Z7, it does what it says on the tin! You can read more about the Zelda here .
I also found it almost impossible to level to take panoramas. I would resort to taking my shots much wider that I needed, so I could crop in afterwards.
After a year and a half of good use, a few times in the sea the twist lock legs started to stick. So I decided it was time to upgrade.
Having already bought one of their dedicated L brackets for my Nikon Z7, I decided to go for 3 Legged Thing Winston with the Air head 360. You can read more information about the Winston here.
I have to say that using a more robust tripod has made a big difference. Getting sharper images becomes alot easier. The Nikon Z7 is not a heavy camera by any means even with my 70 - 200 attached, but this morning into a strong headwind Winston was rock solid! This make such a difference, and I cant believe I have waiting this long to make the change.
I find the Air head 360 really good, the ability to level the head using the in camera levelling and then pan using the top of the tripod head rather than the bottom very handy indeed.
The twist locks are also really smooth, its great that it doesn't need much turn to lock them. Hopefully they will stay like that if I make sure I rinse it down every time its been in or near the sea.
Below are a few of the shots from this morning. Not the greatest light, but its nice to get a few images on such a wet and windy morning. Corbiere is such an iconic place to take photos, so I will definitely be back!
Exposure: Nikon Z7 - Sigma 70 - 200mm f2.8 APO DG HSM (Adapted) @ 82mm - f7.1 - 1/250 Second ISO160
Exposure: Nikon Z7 - Sigma 70 - 200mm f2.8 APO DG HSM (Adapted) @ 82mm - f8.0 - 1/200 Second ISO250
Exposure: Nikon Z7 - Sigma 70 - 200mm f2.8 APO DG HSM (Adapted) @ 130mm - f8.0 - 1/200 Second ISO320