Hear, hear! Your 883 deserves it and you can't get much better than that anyway.I am beginning to think that a rock solid platform may be even more important than the scope itself for a good viewing experience.
John
Hear, hear! Your 883 deserves it and you can't get much better than that anyway.I am beginning to think that a rock solid platform may be even more important than the scope itself for a good viewing experience.
Hi Hermann,Sirui seems to get a lot of love around here at the moment. Let me add a dissenting voice: I was looking for a lightweight tripod for quite some time. So I got myself a Sirui T-1204x. It looked quite good for use with small scopes. At least on paper and in the shop. But it wasn't. I've rarely seen a tripod - even in this weight class - as vibration prone as this tripod. Pretty horrible, actually. Almost as bad as the ubiquitous junk you find all over the place.
If you want a light-weight tripod, Gitzo is the way to go. I've got the 1545T because I need the height, and it works reasonably well with medium-sized scopes like the Nikon EDIIIA.However, she replaced it with a light-weight Gitzo, which while being an overall Improvement, still was a bit too vibration-prone for my liking.
My conclusion was that you have to have a certain amount of mass in a tripod to make it reasonably well-behaved with regard to vibrations, but I haven't really put that theory to the test.
I ended up with a heavy carbon fibre legged tripod (the legs are VERY beefy), and a Sirui VH 10x fluid head. What a huge improvement over the lightweight set up I have. The scope is very solidly supported with little shake. Highly recommended.
Ahhh. Things have evolved. I have acquired some photography equipment which has impacted my needs. Here goes:Hi,
Seeing that you mentioned using the Sirui VA-5 previously, which I'm considering for my Kowa 883 too, I'd be curious to hear why you switched to the heavier and (if I understand it correctly) non-Arca-Swiss-compatible VH10.
From our discussion of anti-rotation measures I seem to remember that you're using an Arca Swiss system ... does that mean you're using an adapter plate in adition to the "anti-rotation plate"?
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Regards,
Henning
The light set up I have now is evolving and I am not sure I am going to stay with it. It has a VA-5 head. The VA-5 head is nice and it does support the 883 scope just fine. But, the arca swiss clamp on that head does not permit top loading - you have to slide the scope into the clamp and you can't use safety stop screws on your plates which I do use with my heavy set up.
If you have an 883 scope I encourage you to find a plate that works to establish a rock solid connection with the scope foot that does not loosen or twist. Kirk works. Others do. But there are many that do not. Then, once you have that sorted out - get a head and clamp that work with that plate.