Hiking with Tripods

[arghman]

...am considering purchasing a Slik Sprint Pro (lightweight + min ht is about 6", important for us macro weenies, I wouldn't get enough use out of a tripod yet to justify a pricey one), unfortunately haven't been able to get to a store that carries one -- I have to try it out in person before buying so won't take the mail order route.

still, encouraging that the brand has been mentioned well here.

 

[AHIKER]

Not anymore...

I am a retired semi-professional photographer who hikes about 600 miles a year. I took my camera last year when I did part of the AT in Georgia along with a panoramic Hasselblad XPAN camera. My idea was to get the mountains at sunset. It became clear to me about 3 days into the hike that since the sun sets at about 8:30 in April and I go to bed at 6:30 (get up at 5:30) that I wasn't going to get any pictures! I shipped it all home! This year I did some research and ended up buying an 8 MP NIKON Coolpix camera with anti-vibration technology. On a 5 day hike in Tenn (Erwin to Elk City) on the AT I took over 100 pictures and without a tripod 95% of them came out great!!! This camera weighs 21 ounces but without having to carry a tripod it doesn't seem to be a problem. The camera comes with a 35mm-350mm zoom. I bought a wide angle adapter lens that brings it down to 28mm. I paid $572 for the camera (after a $100 rebate) and I am very pleased with it! I do have a carbon fiber Gitzo tripod but even though it's carbon it is still quite heavy. I will take my coolpix hiking but won't be carrying any tripods in the future!
Gordon