Hi. I am about to buy a Canon XF300 and don't know what tripod with videohead to buy. Have been looking at Sachtler ACE M and Manfrotto MVH502A+546BK as a kit. What would you recommend based upon experience? Will they carry this camera with possibly a LED lamp in the hotshoe and reciever for LAV mic?

IMO, sticks on the Ace are a bit light-duty. You won't go wrong with a Vinten Vision Blue.

Hi there. I use the Sachtler ACE M (rated for up to 8.8 pound loads) with the Canon XF300, with a F&V Z96 LED Video Light and sometimes a Sennheiser G2 receiver and so far it has worked fine...the camera alone is 6.5 pounds maybe...everyone is crazy about the VINTEN VISION BLUE but I here in Canada nobody carried it and even after contacting VINTEN directly it was impossible to arrange for a quick test...and I wasn't willing to pay over $1,200 without even seeing one up close...so after thinking about a bit I decided to buy the Sachtler ACE M for less than half that price. The head is very good for sure.The drag adjustments, counterbalance etc work fine...and it's not too heavy!
I can honestly say that it is better than my Manfrotto 501HDV which I still use with a Konova slider.

Sachtler is releasing a new model ACE L with higher specs and I will look at that one when it comes out..sometime!
Maybe next time I go to NYC I will look at the Vinten Blue just for fun..
Good luck
E

There are quite a few threads of discussion on this topic that will give you a broad perspective. Creating another repeat will only provide a perspective as big as those who respond and not of the many who;ve already responded all the other times the same question was asked. Search on "tripod xf300" and you'll have answers.

I agree that you should do a search on this on the forum. As I've stated before, Vinton is great, but for my money, I ended up going with sticks by Manfrotto (the wonderful carbon fibre legs and a head by Libec. Libec legs are ok, just not well suited to high winds. I would buy a libec again if I needed to.

Does Manfrotto make CF legs with a levelling bowl? I used my to use my 516 head on my 055ProC3 legs swapping out the Hydrostatic ball head that normally lives on those legs. Appart from the lack of a levelling bowl, the set up was probably too light, and not ideal on anything other than a solid flat surface. (I really must get some spikes for those legs.

I really like the 525MVB legs that I now use with the 516 head, and the set up works really well. Smooth start and stop to both pans and tilts, and heavy enough to be stable, but easy to carry on your shoulder.

Incidentally, I have decided that some of my sharpest still shots were taken with the camera rested on brick or stone walls. One of the trade stands at a convention I attended last year, had a Canon 500mm f4 mounted on a 1DMK4 on 055CF legs and hydrostatic head. This was the first floor (as opposed to ground floor) which I assume was suspended concrete. Looking through the viewfinder, without touching the rig in any way, it was amazing how much shake there was simply from people walking past.

Our customers have been very plesed with the ACE M , the Sachtler engineering is present and the price is right.

I love Vintens but dont like the new ones as much as the old ones. I have a Vision 3 (not the new AS version) These are very versatile since you can put different springs into them to get the counterblance you need (something like 0-23lbs) The counterblance on the AS and the Blue dont work great on smaller cameras. You can usually pick a good used one up on ebay for around $700-800.