Reddit mentions of Dolica ZX600B103 Professional 60-Inch ZX Series Carbon Fiber Tripod with Ball Head and Carry Bag (Black)

a) Great tripods cost a lot of money.

b) Paying a lot of money does not guarantee having a great tripod.

c) Ball heads are amazing. They are the difference between being utterly miserable and being enjoying working with a tripod greatly.

d) Good tripods do not have to cost a lot of money. And this is the part that's typically missed.


Carbon fiber tripod with ball head, works fine for mirrorless systems and smaller DSLRs:
http://www.amazon.com/Dolica-ZX600B103-Professional-60-Inch-Series/dp/B008JE4S6G/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1417893931&sr=8-8&keywords=dolica+proline+tripod

Lose the carbon fiber, still get a good tripod for $40 less:
http://www.amazon.com/Dolica-GX650B204-Proline-Series-Aluminum/dp/B004XC3GZW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1417893931&sr=8-3&keywords=dolica+proline+tripod

I am not going to claim that these are what everyone needs (pro photog with large DSLR and pro zooms probably should get something sturdier). But since you are asking the above question, I think you'll be fine with one of the Dolica Prolines. And often if you need more stability, you can just hang something hefty from the hook on the center column. And I had no issues hauling one to a few peaks around update New York.

And since the popular thing is to show what you shot with one...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/tatarstas/15016232807/in/photostream/lightbox/

Using aluminum Dolica Proline for $60. I have other shots with exposures as long as 2-3 minutes that are just fine, and I didn't start adding weight for stabilization.

Thanks, there's some ringing caused by sharpening and star size reduction plus a bit of saturation, that's probably causing that artifact. I'm still learning how to do a good star size reduction process without creating that ringing artifact, it's pretty difficult.

I love the iOptron, I'm using a dolica tripod (just a standard one, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008JE4S6G/ref=sr_ph?ie=UTF8&qid=1463427071&sr=1&keywords=dolica+tripod) which works very well. When I put my big Tamron 150-600mm lens on it I do put some hanging weight for stability, but otherwise I just open the legs to the second widest position and it's very stable. I was trying some really long exposures this weekend while waiting for the moon to set, I can do up to 15 minutes with my 85mm f1.4 lens with pretty much no star trailing and a good alignment, maybe even longer (I stopped at 15 minutes). The only difficult part with the iOptron I've encountered is taking shots of targets in the northern half of the sky, the body of the skytracker tends to get in the way (design flaw). I think the Star Adventurer would be better for this purpose since the body design is much lower profile.

If you plan on hiking with your tripod, I would definitely get something carbon fiber to reduce weight.

This tripod from ZOMEi lists itself as a "hiking" tripod because you can remove the legs and use them as hiking poles. I've never seen anything else like it, but the reviews are good.

I personally have an aluminum version of this tripod which has worked great for the most part. However, I did break one of the clips that extend the legs by accidentally pushing it the wrong direction while using it in single digit temperatures, so I can't really blame Dolica for my own fault.

I think you might need an adapter, it looks like your camera comes with a 3/8" hole and I think most tripods/cameras use 1/4". I would grab one just in case since adapters are pretty cheap on amazon.

I have used an older version of this Dolica for more than a couple of years now and it has been working out for me really well. And its Carbon Fiber as well.

I really like the Dolica ZX600B103 Professional 60-Inch ZX Series Carbon Fiber. Day to day though I keep it on a Joby SLR Gorilla pod so I can interchange easily with RX100 or phone.

Ah okay, do you have any suggestions? I've been looking at these two
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008JE4S6G/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_N-S0tb1571ECZXZJ or Dolica AX620B100 62-Inch Proline Tripod and Ball Head https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001D60LG8/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_naT0tb05BEEREJQF