A short break from the previous fashion portraits, here is a shot from the last devMeet in Kassel, Germany. I did a long exposure to get rid of the people who walked up the stairs, to at least make them appear as ghosts.
A really nice effect I did not account for before the exposure were the ghost-hands on the rails, this finally gave the picture a spooky flair I was aiming for.
After all the tripod blues I finally bought a proper replacement of my old one. It was clear that only a carbon-fiber tripod can suit all my needs (very high, lightweight and small in pack size) as I wanted to finally go for a compromise between a sturdy tripod suitable for long-exposures and also a lightweight travel tripod with a small pack size to be able to carry it while being fixed to a backback.
I checked out Manfrotto, Gitzo, Giotto, Feisol and Siuri and figured out that the latter one offers an interesting selection of tripods with a rather good price-value rate. So I finally it turned out that their M-3204X tripod suits my needs very well, moreover they also offer great ballheads which received only good reviews. As tripod head I chose the Sirui K-20x ballhead.
In total this makes a minimal pack size of 51cm, a weight of 2.1kg and a maximum height from ground to my camera viewfinder of 1.96m. With the possibility of turning the legs around 180° it’s possible to shoot photos as close to the ground as you wish.
It also includes retractable stainless steel spikes, which are not mandatory for example with Manfrotto.
Just look at the picture, it does the tripod justice, it’s just perfect for my height of 1.95m.
I’m happy now, let’s see how well the tripod does in the field 😉