I was waiting to hear that and thank goodness you mention it!

Not true if you’re using manufacturer’s prime lens as the camera is intelligent enough to adjust accordingly, which is great news, using a third party lens definitely needs it switched off

Yes, the Slik 700DX is my current favorite "heavy duty" tripod, because it's decently large and heavy, yet not /too/ ridiculously heavy for those times when I need to travel a bit further. The leg locks aren't flimsy, they're very strong and they will not break unless you absolutely neglect the tripod and let it get totally encrusted in mud or saltwater for a long period of time. If you take decent care of the 700DX, it will last a lifetime. Mine is probably getting close to 10 years old! For the price, you really can't beat it. I would recommend some others that are a bit lighter and yet even stiffer, however they're all far, far more expensive. (Such as Feisol) Benro and Oben are decent brands, and if you get one of the tripods in the 3-5 lb range you'll probably get one that is very stiff and strong, but it won't stand the test of time as well as the Slik 700DX; it'll start giving you a bit of trouble after a few years.

the Slik 700DX is a much bigger, heavier model that is more along the lines of the older Manfrotto 3021 type series- built like a rock, heavy as a rock, and certainly able to stiffly support any of your big lenses and cameras. I don't know what you meany by "Manfrotto Compacts", but if you're talking about their BeFree series and those similar weight class tripod legs, then yeah, those are a bit flimsy and wobbly, even when they're brand-new, let alone when they've had a year of abuse. You'll always see a bit of shake when you're actually touching your focus ring, but with a heavy-duty tripod and head, it will certainly be minimized, and if you use live view at 100% or 200% zoom, you'll see just how quickly the shake will fade. My favorite head for pairing with the Slik 700DX is the Oben BC-126 or BC-139. They're a bit more expensive than most of the other "generic" brand ballheads, but they're worth it because they're all-metal, no rubber on any of the knobs, which is something that always melts or cracks on the other generic tripods after a few days in the hot sun. Also, they're one of the most affordable ballheads to have a tension screw that is built-into the main knob, instead of the annoying-as-heck third knob like on Mefoto tripods. I hate third-knob tension knobs because I always wind up accidentally turning the tension knob thinking its the panning knob. Hope this advice helps!

Hi @RockLakeMama, Yes, you'll absolutely have a "surprising" level of noise in your nightscape images, especially in shadowy foreground areas, if you're a landscape photographer who is used to shooting at ISO 100 all the time. Having said that, it comes with the territory and as long as you expose your images correctly, it's not that bad. Noise reduction stacking is possible, however it can require special techniques in order to avoid simply breaking even. In other words, if you merely cut your shutter speed in half and shoot two photos, then layer blend them in Photoshop, you'll have roughly the same amount of noise as you would if you'd just used a 1-stop higher ISO. The trick, then, is to shoot more than just 2 exposures, at whatever shutter speed can work for you, and then use a specialized app such as Starry Landscape Stacker or Sequator to re-align all the stars in the sky, while leaving the earth in the image un-moved. That's a technique which would require a whole separate video to teach! Stay tuned...

Great information. Thanks!

Hi Bill! You are totally correct- the "turn sharpening to the max" tip is just a visual aide for while you're shooting. It will not affect your raw photos at all once you import them into lightroom! (However, it will affect your raw photos by helping you NOT accidentally take soft pics anymore, haha!) Just remember that if you ever shoot video or JPG, DO NOT use this level of sharpening, it will totally ruin your JPG images or videos. Thankfully, more and more cameras are offering to memorize completely different Picture Styles or Picture Controls when you switch from photo to video mode, so it's not a problem if you only ever shoot raw stills and video, but never JPG stills.

Great, thanks for the response, now to find some dark sky and get shooting.......

Oben, BC-126 is a great mid-sized head, or the BC-139 or 166 for truly massive setups; alternately if you're on lightweight legs and using a lightweight camera, the BC-108 and 117 are both still plenty strong. I like Oben heads because they're the only affordable brand on the market that isn't terrible. I've tried almost every other affordable (cheap generic brand, really) ballhead on the market, and they all start wobbling eventually. Some of them can fail catastrophically, others just have the grip rubber on the knobs start falling off. Either way, they're all terrible. Oben heads don't have any rubber knobs, and overall they stand the test of time when it comes to just being sturdy and not risking your gear smashing to the ground. :-) BTW I paid my own money for that head, so that's not a sales pitch haha.

Hi Gerald! Great question. It's partly a matter of personal taste, and partly a matter of technical compromise. Personally, I agree with you- if I had to pick just one subject, I would probably focus on the trees in the foreground, and let the stars be slightly blurred, because I think that is a more artistic option than having a blurred tree. However, most everybody will probably rather have EVERYTHING in focus, to be honest. In which case, you'd have to either stop down, or do focus stacking. If people are interested in a video tutorial about nightscape photography focus stacking, we'll try and do one! It's definitely one of the more advanced subjects in nightscape photography, but it's a great challenge that is fun and rewarding to accomplish!

You should do fine I have a 15-55mm that can go down to F/4.

That's literally what the "Spot Stars" feature, which I mentioned, does for you- the NPF rule. Thanks for mentioning it specifically, though!

@@MatthewSaville Musta missed that. Probably too busy writing my comment immediately ha my bad!

my bad for not specifically explaining that it was the NPF rule. Personally, I'm lazy, so I just go with the 250 rule and call it a day.