I'm probably blathering old news here, but after a couple of years of using "off-the-shelf" tripods, my brother had "an extra" tripod that he didn't need and gave it to me. Well it sat in my back room for several months before I pulled it out to look it over.

It's a Bogen 5030 with a 5033 head (I think that's the number). Anyway, I used it for the first time last weekend while shooting the WB doc - and man-o-man is it a dream, compared to the ones I was using.

Doing a search on this site came up with several posts about the spring action legs (yes, that surprised the crap out of me - not knowing it was going to happen!). The movement is soooo smooth - no jerkiness. I am amazed.

My GL1 looks kind of funny sitting on this monster, but I don't care. It's like putting an insta-matic on top of a boulder!

Sorry for the ramble, but I was excited about how well this tripod works!

Congratulations!

Tripod users basically fall into two categories... the ones who think cheapies work as good as better pods... and then the ones who have actually USED a decent pod.

There is never anyone who fits into BOTH groups at the same time.

I'm a little embarrassed to say that I actually had the Bogen in my back bedroom and went to the local camera store and bought a floor model "generic" tripod and used it for several months, before blowing the dust off the Bogen to see how it worked. That spring-loaded leg almost smashed my foot!

As far as control and ease of use, I can't even begin to explain the difference!