[slodave]

The ball head I have on my tripod can hold the combined weight of the 200-400mm lens and huge D2x body, but it's right at max. Total weight is 9.75 lbs. I did not feel like grabbing my dad's tripod. His ball head is big, but heavy. You really want to use a cable release, which I forgot to grab. The cable release is $50 and I don't use it that often, so I borrow it from my dad when needed. When you press the shutter button, it causes the whole thing to vibrate. I set it for a 20 second delay, but the mirror causes the rig to vibrate. Had I had the cable, I could lock the mirror up, wait 20 secs and then fire the shutter. Oh well.