Good evening,

first i shoot event video for comercial reasons. I shoot wildlife for my own pleasure which is the reason I even have a video camera.

After much research I have decided to invest in a vinten vision three head with vinten 3776-3 eng t1 carbon legs. total is about 2000 bucks via b&H.

Was wondering if the legs would be heavey enough to deal with the persistant winds we have here in the prairies and still keep xl2 stable when at large magnifications.

If not, what other legs would work and enhance the steadiness.

I do not want to go over a grand on the legs if possible.

Dale, this is a hard question to answer because people rarely have experiences with many different legs. They just have experience with what they have and can't compare to other models. So it's hard to advise which would work best in your application, which is a very demanding one. Long telephoto in windy conditions is about as bad as it gets. What you could do is google for wildlife cinematographers and email them and ask them for their experience with tripods.

With that said, I think your current choice might work. I've seen the aluminum version of those legs and they seemed pretty decent. But the only real way to tell is to test it in your actual application. The only other thing I can suggest is stepping up to 100mm tripods. You'll need a 100-75 bowl adapter but these tripods hold up to 100 lbs (which would suggest they are a little more sturdy but also heavier) and the cost goes up to about $1500. There are choices from Vinten, Sachtler and Miller. Sorry this reply probably didn't help you much.