Tripod recommendation

[starscy]

What would be a good tripod and head for binoculars weighting close to 5kg such as the Helios Apollo 22x85 and the Helios Quantum-4 25x100?

[BinocularSky]

Manfrotto 475 with a 501 head. You will need to reverse the head, otherwise you are limited to 60* elevation. Some info here. Seriously consider a decent parallelogram -- they make a hell of a difference.

[nightvision]

Manfrotto 475 with a 501 head. You will need to reverse the head, otherwise you are limited to 60* elevation. Some info here. Seriously consider a decent parallelogram -- they make a hell of a difference.

Do you know where a parallelogram can bought?

[nightvision]

Found them here: Universal Astronomics UniMount. - SCS Astro

...expensive!

[BinocularSky]

I have a UA T-mount (bought direct from UA before SCS became the UK agent). It's a short version of the Millenium Mount in nightvision's link. I have never regretted buying it; it is a superb bit of kit and gets an enormous amount of use. It's the one in my link above. There are cheaper ones here and here.

If you have wood- or metal-working skills, you can make one. One of the best I have used is Graham Wood's one -- it was using Graham's that convinced me to get one. I also like the look of Scott Wilson's one, but haven't got as far as getting my grubby paws on it. More sophisticated, and heavier duty. Mind you, all P-mounts are scalable.

I recently saw a binocular mount someone had made from an angle-poise lamp. Worked quite well -- insufficient for yours, but the basic idea of springs instead of counterweights is, again, scalable..

Of course, what you really want is one of these.

[scogyrd]

If you have wood- or metal-working skills, you can make one.

I made a basic one and I have no woodworking skills whatsoever. IMO they look a lot more complicated to make than they actually are, once you've got the wood laid out in front of you it's pretty easy to see how it all goes together. The most important thing is to make sure the holes are all the same distance apart, which is pretty straightforward if you use the first arm you make as a template, and the first post as a template for the other.

My p-mount is no t-mount though, but it did cost less than a tenner.