I am looking for a tripod kit for my Sony FS7. Preferably 100mm bowl, carbon sticks may not be realistic but... I'm open to all suggestions.

I'm not a heavy user and was looking at (used) Sachtler but someone pointed me towards Cartoni which he said is very good and at 1/3 of the Sachtler price. I don't know if that's true because the Cartoni HD 2 stage is still more than €1600,- (Strangely enough, I can't find that much info on Cartoni and on their website they still use the term HDV-camera which doesn't instill great confidence...)

Hi Jeroen, welcome.

The best advice I can give you is this, read this thread, send the mails and just play with the gear instead of taking pot luck, that always ends in tears.

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/tripod-sticks-heads/520138-sachtler-vinten-free-home-trials.html

By the way, trawling through back issues of threads in this forum, there are thousands, should give you just about all the info you need to take an educated guess as to which way to jump, the short way is above.


CS

Thanks, Chris, I followed your advice and will post my findings.

Vinten. Never ever let me down.

Vinten. Never ever let me down.

Which one and for what camera's?

I had the Sachtler FSB10 on trial with CF sticks with groundlevel spreader and it was a very nice package. I didn't like the ground spreader, though and I really didn't like the price: 4000 euro's. I went to IBC to try the FSB8 (2500,-) but found it too light, too short and generally too small for the Sony PXW-FS7. After trying a Cartoni Focus 12 at IBC, I decided to buy it along with the Cartoni carbon fibre 1 stage, mid spreader. 1900,- for the package.

The sticks are very solid and the Focus 12 head (100mm bowl) is on par with the Sachtler FSB 10 as far as smoothness is concerned. I'm not a great fan of the continuous drag-buttons but I have pretty much the same setup when I shoot so don't expect to have to balance often.

I think this is a great deal for people who want a top quality 100mm tripod system for camera's like the FS7. What this has over Sachtler is that you can balance a camera from 0-12 kilo's. Plus a 5 year warranty after registering at their website. (nice detail: I wrote them a note and was answered by mrs Cartoni herself :-) ! A real old-fashioned family business- all heads handmade in Italy!

I wil update this post after extensive use.