Review: Manfrotto 546B Pro Video Tripod

Paul: Show us on the 504 how that one has to go in because it can't snap in, it has to actually slide in.

Jake: Yeah. All you do is loosen up the tightener on the side and it's got a press button here, it keeps it from being pulled out or in. You press the press button and slide it off back.

Paul: That's nice because if you do have something you're trying to get a whole lot of ... A wide variety of shots in a short time frame. Like, with us with the dog, the dog's going to get tired out eventually and maybe the ball thrower's going to get tired out too. We could easily just snap on, snap the other one on, and just swap them really quickly and easily, so that was an advantage. In between, just tell us a little bit about your personal one here, this 502.

Jake: OK. Yeah. I got the 502 originally for this GH2 rig, GH4 rig. I really love what the yag on here and a bar system and matte box, this is the perfect size rig for this. Moderately, maybe slightly heavier DSLR rig to middle size prosumer camera grade rig. It's really nice. It's the perfect tension, it's the perfect counterweight. This camera doesn't have a variable counterweight, it's basically built on to it. For this camera, it's really where it needs to be. It holds it right there perfectly.

Paul: Yeah. That's your personal one, so you've got it dialed into what you want.

Jake: Well, it's dialed in this camera. Now, I've since picked up the 700 and it is not meant for the 700. The 700 is vastly too ... It's way to heavy for this tripod or at least this head. I do use it. In fact, I've put 45 pound rigs on this, big FS7 rigs with bar systems and an [audyssey 00:04:29] and basically all of the bells and whistles and ridiculously heavy systems and it has performed under those kind of strains. It's not rated for them, but it does perform on under them. I do notice essentially the tensioner doesn't compensate for the camera at that point.

You have to do a lot more with the tripod, as opposed to letting the tripod do the work. Which is the problem, as you put heavier cameras on smaller tripod heads is you can no longer rely on the tripod for its ability to compensate for motion. The nice part about a tensioner is you can put motion on it and once you set the tensioner right, you can get a nice smooth drag without having to worry about basically shaky jitteriness of a cheaper head because the head is doing work.

Paul: Yeah. Another difference between these larger heads and this smaller one is the fact that, for example this handle is not adjustable. It's adjust in that you can go left to right, you can adjust the angle, but it doesn't slide in or out and it also get in the way. If you try to get a low angle like this, you're going to have to adjust it and that's something you don't want to do, especially when you're shooting some sort of action where you're wanting to do something quickly.

Jake: Yeah. This one's in the middle. It does have a little bit of ability. If you loosen up, you can force it through the other side, although it likes to stay in that same spot. You do have a little bit more ability to shift it around. Really, what it comes down to is being able to get really nice smooth pans though and to extend the arm out as far as you can on the 504.

Paul: Yeah. That's the great thing about this one because that it handle gets super long.

Jake: It get super long.

Paul: Gives you good leverage.

Jake: Yeah. Especially, if you're doing sports shooting and you need to manage your pan over long focal lengths, this is really very nice. Plus, it helps you smooth it out.

Paul: One of things you talked about before to me was the latches on the legs.

Jake: Yeah.

Paul: They're really difficult, which in a way is good because you want it to be tight, but on the other hand, you said that yours as its aging it's starting to show its age and starting to slide a little bit.

Jake: Yeah. I ...

Paul: You've had this for about a year, you said?

Jake: I've had for about a year and a half. With these legs, there's a wearing period. I don't think. Out of a box, you have to break them in a little bit. Some equipment's like that and some isn't. These legs are definitely like that. That latch system, I don't mind it being tough. In fact, it comforts me to know that the camera can't go anywhere. I have noticed that the more I use these legs the more I open and close the latches that the bolts on the inside of these latches start to loosen up and the camera will literally sag on one leg, and so I can no longer a lot of times rely on a level that I set because especially under larger strains, like the 700, which these legs are rated for a large camera. They should handle a 700 and you just have to constantly those screws. The annoying part about them is it's not a Phillips head or flat head, something easily adjustable or even an Allen. I carry an Allen set with me all the time. It's a torx bit.

Paul: OK. We talked about the spreader a little bit as well. It's not very intuitive with trying to rotate these. We played around with them earlier. We showed how you can get super low with this set of legs. It's really nice. You almost can replace your hi-hat with it, but it's a little bit of a chore to get it there. The one thing about those is those little butterfly knobs there, it's not intuitive which way you turn them. It's not really obvious. Jake found that it seemed like if you turn it towards the word lock, that locks. It also doesn't have an arrow indicating this way is lock. It's something we just had to figure out.

Jake: It's not something you can see really easily as well. It's a small inscribed word and at the same time, you should just be able to reach down and intuitively know which way it goes and it's not always obvious. I regularly spend a little bit of time figuring out which way they spin on set.

Paul: Yeah. Once you get the hang of it, sure it's good. On the other hand, you've been using this for a year.

Jake: I've been using it for a year and I can't get it right.

Paul: You want it to be more intuitive than having to retrain yourself on it. Of course, these also have flat rubber feet that you can use. Of course, they can easily flip right off and have spiked feet for outdoor use. You can go really low with this like a hi-hat, but you do have have the potential of running into this long handle here to adjust the bowl because it's pretty long. Whereas, a lot of heads have just a knob or something smaller so you get closer to the ground. On the opposite side of that, this thing gets really tall, which is great especially if you're somewhere trying to shoot over heads, maybe on a news conference or something. Sorry, the star of the show is interrupting here. You can get this really tall to shoot over heads without the need to have apple boxes or something that you got to set it up on. You can see the camera is now basically over our heads height and of course you just tilt your monitor down get the nice height out of it.

Jake: Any monitoring system has to be able to compensate for a tall camera, but swing that around.

Paul: Yeah. This one doesn't have a center column like my older model here does have the ability to raise up even taller. This one can crank up, but of course with that center column coming up, you're going to risk having a little more movement to it.

Jake: Yeah. This one's pretty sturdy even this far out.

Paul: This one come with all three legs. You still have the stability of the three point plain to keep from moving around.
Jake: The nice part I found also working with this tripod is if you're working on uneven ground, which can be a real challenge, a lot of times with tripods you're having to drop one leg far to the ground. You can compensate a lot by just using one arm with the spreader working with that. It saved me a couple of times. It makes the tripod a much more stable system on uneven ground.

Paul: That's a couple of Manfrotto's offerings. We have the 504HD, which is for really big, heavy rigs. It's got a 75mm bowl. Then, we have the 502, which is a bowl head as well, and then 500, which is only a flat base. There are several other options out there. The question is does your head support the weight that you need and can it move smoothly with the action you have to follow?