Do you need to mount the focusing rail on a ball head/pan head in order to be able to tilt the rail up or down when shooting an image?
1076515
Yes. The rail has movements only in one plane. You must provide the tools (ball head, pan head, etc.) to move the whole plane up, down, tilt...
1076516
Botom connect with a normal plate to a tripod.if you wish to tilt or pan you definitely need an articulation of some sort so the answer is yes.
1076517
Yes. The rail only goes straight back & forth and side to side. It has a threaded hole on the bottom for tripod mounting.
1076518
Yes, that's only practical way to shoot, hand holding camera with rail is not feasible option.
1761891
yes, but you may have clearance issues from the three legs if it isn't at the very bottom of the camera and you'll need to tinker with the legs to get it at a perfect 90 degrees. I'll say that it's best to select an angle for the mount head and leave it there vs. moving it and instead moving the legs to adjust if possible. The friction lessons it seems with each adjustment and eventually the head will just wobble around with no tension screw to tighten it like a traditional tripod.
433092
I really don't see the need for the ball head on a P&S; camera. You pretty much have full movement for positioning the camera when mounted to the magnetic version. I have no regrets with the purchase of this item.
1271296
I already had a ball head so I just put that on so if you don't have one then yes you will need to purchase a camera mount.
471467
This pistol grip ball head is used so that you don't have to level your tripod. It doesn't have anything to do with the viewfinder. If your view finder is out of reach, you'll have to guess.
745435
Pans and tilts are very smooth with this head. We use it under a Canon XF300. The secret is to make sure the camera is balanced without any tension, then add in enough tension to make movements comfortable for you. When used in conjunction with a handle mounted controller and a solid tripod, camera shake or vibration is eliminated. This is a good choice and very economical.
472947
dangling like a bat? it should be fine. it's hard to explain but, the partial ball joint/spin/slot arrangement allows you to cover most angles. the sensor spotlights I have used recently have a similar arrangement. there are cables running through there so it's probably best to get it approximately aligned before mounting the base and then you can tweak it from there. my cameras point mostly away from the base but you can set it up to go ~90 degrees from the surface going sideways or up and down. you just have to spin the slot first if you are doing steeper angles. take a little care with the lock screw though. if you notch the ball joint you will end up with some play in that spot. dangling like a bat? it should be fine. it's hard to explain but, the partial ball joint/spin/slot arrangement allows you to cover most angles. the sensor spotlights I have used recently have a similar arrangement. there are cables running through there so it's probably best to get it approximately aligned before mounting the base and then you can tweak it from there. my cameras point mostly away from the base but you can set it up to go ~90 degrees from the surface going sideways or up and down. you just have to spin the slot first if you are doing steeper angles. take a little care with... » Read More dangling like a bat? it should be fine. it's hard to explain but, the partial ball joint/spin/slot arrangement allows you to cover most angles. the sensor spotlights I have used recently have a similar arrangement. there are cables running through there so it's probably best to get it approximately aligned before mounting the base and then you can tweak it from there. my cameras point mostly away from the base but you can set it up to go ~90 degrees from the surface going sideways or up and down. you just have to spin the slot first if you are doing steeper angles. take a little care with the lock screw though. if you notch the ball joint you will end up with some play in that spot. « Show Less
1226035
No, nothing is required to set up like so. However it is very unstable to set up like the picture depicted. Rather than mounting the slider at its ends onto the tripod, mount its center part onto the tripod for maximized stability.
584840
Yes. It has a standard 1/4 - 20 screw thread. I actually took mine apart because I didn't need X and Y movement for focus stacking. You actually can end up with two rails.
879355
Yes. I use the stock pic rail with a scope. You may not be able to put lense caps on if it's a low profile scope and you can't flip the sight up but that has nothing to do with the stock.
839654
The ball head comes with its own plate that is simliar to a ARCA plate. It is as noted earlier small. I have mounted a 70-400mm lens on it and provided one does not push it to extreme angles in appears to work ok. Obviouly this is not the most optimum approach but I wanted to find out out how far I could go for travel purposes.
316535
If you are only looking for tilt head only it should work fine. You may be better off with a ball head that will tilt and pan right and left. I use this Oben on my monopod w/ a tele lens for shooting sports and have been very happy with it.
732828
Yes you need to purchase a head for this tripod. And i only use it for still photography and i purchased a $85 ball head and it works amazing. And this tripod is a musy buy.
678470
Yes. There's a handle underneath that you can loosen and angle slightly sideways. It's more used if you're shooting on an unlevel surface, and need to level the head.
240421
Yes, but that said it is a fixed camera so where you aim it is what you get. When I purchased this I thought you could pan tilt etc. Not the case. It is fixed.
994587
I was unhappy that there is not a ball head to allow for much more adjusting of my Nikon D5100. It is fairly stable, although do not stand in front of it with your back turned....walked into mine. It feel over with my camera. Yikes. My big 105mm lens and camera do not seem too heavy so the Handycam will hold the weight. Panning the camera could be a problem. No Instructions available from Polaroid either...grrrr. Ask on Flickr about using this tripod.
1688967
Yeah, it comes with an adapter screw thread that makes it work without a tripod head. But i would strongly suggest using it with a tripod head. Otherwise the camera is only stuck in one position on the slider and it's direction is determined by where the thread of the screw stops. So this can make it very hard to set up your shot.