# Tripod weight rating advice



## jwong (Feb 26, 2012)

Tripods and heads have weight ratings. Are these ratings set by the material strength directly? What type of knockdown factor is required to ensure stability?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 26, 2012)

Weight ratings and stability may not always go hand in hand. The weight rating is how much gear a tripod can carry without causing it to wear out prematurely.

A low weight rated tripod can be very stable. The longer leg tripods made from limber composites can be very strong, but if the legs flex too much, they are not stable. Hanging a heavy weight ot camera bag from the underhook of a tripod usually helps stabilize it by taking all the play out of the joints, and by lowering the center of gravity.

Generally, you will not go wrong by getting a leading brand like Gitzo, but some lesser brands have very good models as well.


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## jwong (Feb 26, 2012)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Weight ratings and stability may not always go hand in hand. The weight rating is how much gear a tripod can carry without causing it to wear out prematurely.
> 
> A low weight rated tripod can be very stable. The longer leg tripods made from limber composites can be very strong, but if the legs flex too much, they are not stable. Hanging a heavy weight ot camera bag from the underhook of a tripod usually helps stabilize it by taking all the play out of the joints, and by lowering the center of gravity.
> 
> Generally, you will not go wrong by getting a leading brand like Gitzo, but some lesser brands have very good models as well.



Thanks, Mt Spokane. Would you recommend getting a tripod with or without a center column?


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 26, 2012)

jwong said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > Weight ratings and stability may not always go hand in hand. The weight rating is how much gear a tripod can carry without causing it to wear out prematurely.
> ...



A center column is fine as long as you do not raise it. Get longer legs instead of planning to raise a center column. A raised center column will cause instability more than anything else, assuming a decent set of legs.

Here is a link to some stability tests. YMMV.

http://regex.info/blog/2007-09-17/575

http://regex.info/blog/2007-09-18/576


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## Michael_pfh (Feb 26, 2012)

jwong said:


> Tripods and heads have weight ratings. Are these ratings set by the material strength directly? What type of knockdown factor is required to ensure stability?



I am using a Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 carbon fiber tripod which according to its specs supports up to 8kg of load. However I frequently 'overload' it when using a Manfrotto 393 head (1.6kg) + 1d4 (1.2kg w/o battery) + 400 2.8L (6.1kg) + teleconverter (0.3kg) and did not notice any instability with the center column extended, even without a counterweight. 

Not sure if all tripods could be overloaded without a negative impact on stability though...


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## ions (Feb 26, 2012)

Keep in mind that a centre column attached to a reticulating head can be immensely invaluable in still life/table top and so on type photography. Not that what is said above is inaccurate, depends on your use.


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## Sinsear (Feb 26, 2012)

High-end tripods are usually heavily underrated (much like the gauge of electrical wiring and the amperage that they support), so RRS, for example, claiming to be able to support 50 lbs can easily accommodate 75 lbs without issue. As weight goes up, there is a higher probability of failure. A tripod rated for 50 lbs and loaded with 50 lbs probably has a failure rate of ~.1%, whereas if you load it to 75 lbs, the failure rate goes up to ~.5%, which is deemed too high by the manufacturer, hence they rate their tripod to 50 lbs.


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## jwong (Feb 26, 2012)

Thanks all for the advice. It has definitely given me good guidance in the tripod search.


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