Porsche GT2RS

[Puma Cat]

Porsche GT2RS at at recent real estate shoot. It was all I could do to pull myself away. Must...resist...the...GT2RS...

Just a rough "first draft" – still have to edit this a bit more to tidy some things up...but you'll get the idea!

[audiohippo]

OMG! That is so sexual! Love it.

Just need to organise a 120 year repayment plan that is back end loaded.

[GeAllan70]

I'll Take it!

Where do I sign?....

[bart]

Stephen, a wonderful picture of that gracious monster!

I drive in a much more modest car, but a good friend of ours with a couple of Porsches lets me drive his from time to time.
I guess they are the wet dream of almost every boy...

[BuffaloBill]

Can you recommend a lightweight/reliable tri-pod for Fuji camera/lens?

[Antonmb]

Beautiful shot of a beautiful car.

[Masterlu]

Originally Posted by BuffaloBill

Can you recommend a lightweight/reliable tri-pod for Fuji camera/lens?

I can; Gitzo

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by BuffaloBill

Can you recommend a lightweight/reliable tri-pod for Fuji camera/lens?

Ivan's right on the money. Get a carbon fiber Gitzo. I spent years and years shooting with other tripods, only to have them all break. At the worst possible time. This last spring, I had two tripods break on me in the same week, one right when I showed for a pro assignment. Arggh!

Finally, I bought a nice, clean, mint and very gently used carbon fiber Gitzo 1327 from a seller on Fred Miranda's Buy/Sell forum in May. Best tripod I've ever owned, hands down. And, it's SO stable. It's an absolute joy to use.

Trust me on this. DON'T Do what I did for decades. Just get a Gitzo.

[Masterlu]

Gitzo has always been the best, and will remain the best. Get their head as well; I own two of them.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Masterlu

Gitzo has always been the best, and will remain the best. Get their head as well; I own two of them.

I've found heads to be very application-specific. The Gitzo heads are well-made, and fine for general photography. For video, you need a pan/tilt head. For landscape, most serious photographers typically use a good ballhead. I use a Markins Q-ball, but Really Right Stuff is generally regarded as having the best ballheads, clamps and L-plates, and very likely owns the largest market-share. Their stuff is excellent and they have an unsurpassed reputation for quality.

For real estate and architectural work, a geared head is an absolute must. I use a Benro geared head, but a lot of pros use the Manfrotto 405 or 410 as it can be serviced and rebuilt, if required. Geared heads are the most effective way for getting the optical centerline of the lens "square" with the geometric center of room, so that one minimizes extension distortion. Also, when shooting successive frames for ambient and flash brackets, and window or floor "pulls", you can't have the head move even fraction of a millimeter as this will show up when you try to align your brackets into a layer stack in PS for masking and cutting paths.

Architectural photographers typically use geared heads from Arca-Swiss, the Arca Cube being the best of these by far as it lets you do some technically complex "moves" that no other head can do. These moves can be critical when using tilt-shift lenses to keep the optical center of the lens aligned with the camera sensor or film-plane when doing tilts, shifts, or swings, for example. Again, the key here is to prevent various types of distortions that occur when "swinging" lenses around.

I'm gettin' pretty technical here, but for commercial work, heads are very much a "right tool for the right job" kinda thang.