Beginner Tripods - Why Twist Lock and not Lever Lock?

[RedRobin]

I never fold a tripod with a camera mounted on it. Nor have I ever done so. It only takes a second or so to demount a camera with QR. Then I was brought up using large format and heavy tripods.

....You and I are talking about different things. You are saying it only takes seconds to quick release and demount a camera < True, but I am talking about making adjustments to leg lengths while in the field and you aren't going to demount your camera just to do that.... are you? Perhaps if your target subject isn't alive, it won't move and you then have time and hopefully a safe place to put down your camera.

The question, already answered in this thread a number of times, is whether a tripod with lever locks or twist locks is 'better' or preferred.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

....You and I are talking about different things. You are saying it only takes seconds to quick release and demount a camera < True, but I am talking about making adjustments to leg lengths while in the field and you aren't going to demount your camera just to do that.... are you? Perhaps if your target subject isn't alive, it won't move and you then have time and hopefully a safe place to put down your camera.

The question, already answered in this thread a number of times, is whether a tripod with lever locks or twist locks is 'better' or preferred.

I do not shoot wild life. And I mount my nodal ninja pano head directy onto the legs, as I find it quicker and more stable to level the head and camera by adjusting the leg lengths, than fiddling with a three way or ball head. Mind you it is exceptionally quick to demount the head complete with camera, as that itself is attached with a QR. And it is the safer way to move between positions, rather than toting the lot attached.

There again I use a cross shoulder bag and never put my camera or bag down. I put the camera and bracket directly in the bag.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I have a Sirui tripod that I use with my cameras that has twist locks and Velbon tripods with lever lock clamps that I use for camcorders, to be honest I don't mind using either but, depending on the design, the twist locks may be less likely to snag on anything when moving the tripod around, and twist lock type tripods are probably going to be easier to slide back into carrying bags. I suppose it comes down to personal preference in the end.

The only tripod leg locks that I ever wore out was on an old velbon 88 in other ways it was a nice light weight tripod. They finally just disintergrated.

 

[Mr Badger]

I use Velbon purely because that's what I had to hand a few years back when I first needed to build an infrared lighting rig for a night-vision camcorder. It was a D700 from around 18 years ago, not particularly light but makes a sturdy enough platform to use in a 'locked off' position with the lights and camcorder mounted on it. I've since picked up a couple more D700 and 600 tripods off eBay to use on additional NV rigs and they do a good enough job for what I need. Using the same series tripods means that I can use just one type of QR plate on my kit, which makes setting the kit up a lot easier as it's all interchangeable. Oh, and to prevent speculation, I use the NV camcorders for monitoring nocturnal wildlife, not for ghost hunting, although I believe some people do use them for that.

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I use Velbon purely because that's what I had to hand a few years back when I first needed to build an infrared lighting rig for a night-vision camcorder. It was a D700 from around 18 years ago, not particularly light but makes a sturdy enough platform to use in a 'locked off' position with the lights and camcorder mounted on it. I've since picked up a couple more D700 and 600 tripods off eBay to use on additional NV rigs and they do a good enough job for what I need. Using the same series tripods means that I can use just one type of QR plate on my kit, which makes setting the kit up a lot easier as it's all interchangeable. Oh, and to prevent speculation, I use the NV camcorders for monitoring nocturnal wildlife, not for ghost hunting, although I believe some people do use them for that.

I bet you get more genuine shots of wildlife than they do of ghosts

 

[Raymond Lin]

Lever locks has a habit of pinching fingers etc. Also with twist lock you can control how tight the lock is, lever locks tend to be a bit binary and require 'tuning' occasionally. I also suspect twist lock are lighter and weight is a key specification for tripods.

I can live with pinching fingers, just shake it off.

I can’t live with a dropped or broken camera.

Tuning ...yeah, in owning my Manfrotto 055pro since 2001, I’ve tightened it once. So you do need it, infrequently. Every 2 decades, I’ll live

Funny that my carbon fibre is a twist lock. It takes so much longer and hassle to use.

 

[Kaolin]

I can live with pinching fingers, just shake it off.

I can’t live with a dropped or broken camera.

Tuning ...yeah, in owning my Manfrotto 055pro since 2001, I’ve tightened it once. So you do need it, infrequently. Every 2 decades, I’ll live

Funny that my carbon fibre is a twist lock. It takes so much longer and hassle to use.

I have a mix of aluminum Manfrotto 55 and 190 tripods in the lab I manage. Over the years we have broken 2-3 clamps (spares are readily available). I get regular complaints about trapped fingers... In regular use the tripods all require at least an annual check on the clamp tightness. I have never had tune or fiddle with the clamps on my Gitzo which gets (similar) regular use. Horses for courses I guess but I know how I spend my money. We also have a couple of Manfrotto 058 tripods and these have never missed a beat, just as well as they are used with large specialist cameras.

 

[LCPete]

I've had tripods with twist and lever locks and prefer lever for what I do macro and wildlife
I've had my manfrotto 190 carbon the one with the centre column that goes horizontal for years and I've never had to adjust the lever clamps

 

[old bloke]

I have both types, with the lever type the only time I ever trapped my fingers was with an early Manfrotto but they changed the design of the clamps a long time ago and I have never had a problem with my current 057 carbon model I also have a Novoflex alloy tripod and a compact no name carbon one with twist locks and no problems with any of them.