Vanguard Alta Pro 2+ 263AB100 vs Nikon Nikkor AF-S 200-500mm

Vanguard doesn’t even sell accessories that fit it, which seems a little ridiculous to me. Maybe there is some other user of the tripod that the 3/8” works for besides camera equipment, but otherwise it is frustrating that I have to buy an adapter to use any accessories on this when they could’ve made it a 1/4” thread. While small, I paid a good chunk of money for this tripod, and the details matter

So this review is using the Nikon D7100; a good camera in it’s own right. First, I hadn’t anticipated the length and the heft of this beast. Mercy, it adds some weight. I went through the steps of calibrating the lens to my body which took a bit longer than I thought it might and found it to be a “+9”

This was my second Vanguard camera tripod. My first, the very tough Auctus Plus 283AT was my everyday tripod (most architecture) for almost ten years. I still use it but I wanted to have a lighter tripod last year and settled on this one. It seemed a good buy and worked acceptably

If for no other reason to get the weight off your neck. Oh and the reason I finally pulled the trigger on buying it now was the free filter, these are BIG filters and starting around $125 so that was a great discount. Thanks Amason.

Took some 30 sec exposures alongside a busy highway with 18 wheel tractor trailers going by at 65 mph and still got tack sharp images. Their passing was enough to blow my hair around, but didn't budge the camera. It's not exactly what I would call lightweight, but I've gladly carried it for several miles into the swamps of Florida to get the shot I was after. Very impressed with this piece of equipment

Try to avoid shooting at f/22 (2,870 lines) and f/32 (1,817 lines). When tested with the same D810, the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary shows similar sharpness (3,073 lines) and edge softness at 150mm, but at 200mm is a stronger performer than the Nikkor. The Sigma scores 3,803 lines at 200mm f/5.3, with strong performance from edge to edge

Don’t buy this tripod if you use a large telephoto or zoom lens ie., Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6. I understand the product isn’t “heavy duty”, the ball will nod hold larger lenses

I was using my 300mm f/4D AF-S plus Nikon 1.4TCII, which got me to 420mm at f/5.6. This combo works really well due to sharpness, light weight, smaller size and good reach