Budget and interest. If your budget allows, and your interest is genuine, then you should stay away from "entry level" cameras. I am familiar with Nikon, not canon or other brands, so I will use Nikon as a reference. The Nikon D3xxx and D5xxx series cameras are beginner, or entry level cameras. They are very decent cameras, but if your interest in photography is genuine, you will out grow these models soon. I would suggest a Nikon D7200 at the very least for quality images and a camera that will last you for some time for general photography. If you are interested in action, such as sport photography, or birds in flight, I would suggest the Nikon D500. The above mentioned cameras are "cropped sensor", or DX model cameras. For a full frame camera, I would suggest a D750, or a D810, both made by Nikon. The new D850 would be a top of the line camera. What ever body you choose, I would recommend purchasing only FX lenses, as you will grow with your photography and may decide on a full frame body in the future. You will be able to use the FX lenses on a DX camera body, but you will not be able to use a DX lens on a full frame body.
I am sure that Canon makes great models as well. If you have a quality camera store in your area, stop in and get a feel for the different models and see which camera body fits your hand the best and ask questions to the sales person. Good luck on whatever you choose.

Really enjoying this board! Nice to talk with a bunch of experts!
I spent $335 on a carbon fiber Gitzo 350 (3 sections) and love it! LIght, STURDY, and compact.
I bought an Arcatech Ball Head for $240. The machining and quality are some of the best in any products that I have ever seen!!

I’ll be mounting a Nikon D800 with battery pack and a heavy Nikon 14-24 lens. To get to height, i will need to extend the center pole, which I’m told schweckles the stability of the tripod system.

So, my questions for the experts:
Should I buy a 4 section Gitzo 530 of similar to get the height I think I will need?
What about an L-bracket? What benefits? What brand? What are their differences?
Thanks to all in advance.
As always, please have a Great Day!

I hate to add this to the mix but your comment was so funny it reminded me of this one that went around a few years ago.

Subject: The Gerbil and the Flame

As promised, gives new meaning to the phrase “come on baby light my fire.” At lease he didn’t have ants in his pants!

This was an actual article in the LA Times:
From Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah.

“In retrospect, lighting the match was my big mistake. But I was only trying to retrieve the gerbil.” Eric Tomaszewski told bemused doctors in the severe Burn Unit of Salt Lake City Hospital. Tomaszewski, and his homosexual partner Andrew “Kiki” Farnum, had been admitted for emergency treatment after a fleching session had gone seriously wrong.. “I pushed a cardboard tube up his rectum and slipped Raggot, our gerbil in,” he explained. “As usual, Kiki shouted out ‘Armageddon,’ my cue that he’d had enough. I tried to retrieve Raggot but he wouldn’t come out again, so I peered into the tube and struck a match, thinking the light might attract him.” At a hushed press conference, a hospital spokesman described what happened next. “The match ignited a pocket of intestinal gas and a flame shot out of the tube, igniting Mr. Tomaszewski’s hair and severely burning his face. It also set fire to the gerbil’s fur and whiskers which in turn ignited a larger pocket of gas further up the intestine, propelling the rodent out like a cannonball.” “Tomaszewski suffered second degree burns and a broken nose from the impact of the gerbil, while Farnum suffered first and second degree burns to his anus and lower intestinal track.”

Editor’s Notes: Top Ten Scariest Things About This Story

10. “I pushed a cardboard tube up his rectum... “
9. “So I peered into the tube...” (I’m sorry, but that’s like looking through a telescope into hell. I’d rather use binoculars to stare at the sun.)
8. That poor gerbil (who obviously suffers from low self esteem) being shot out of the guy’s ass like Rocky the flying Squirrel on Rocky & Bullwinkle.
7. Suffering a broken nose from a gerbil being launched out of someone’s anus. I’m just guessing, but I seriously doubt that said gerbil was springtime fresh after his journey into Kiki;s “tunnel of love.”
6. People walking around with these volcanic-like pockets of gas in their rectums.
5. People who do this kind of thing and then admit what they were doing when taken to the emergency room. Sorry, but I think I would have made up a story about a gang of roving, pyromaniacal, anal sex fiends breaking into my house and sodomizing me with charcoal lighter fluid before admitting the truth. Call me old fashioned, but I just can’t imagine looking at a doctor and saying, “well Doc, it’s like this. You see, we have this gerbil named Raggot and we took this cardboard tube...”
“First and Second degree burns to the anus.” Wouldn’t this make the burning itch and discomfort of hemorrhoids a welcome relief? How does one ever take a healthy dump after something like this? And the smell of a burning anus must be in the top five most horrible scents on the face of God’s green earth.

3. People named “Kiki” which is obviously a Polynesian word for: “Idiotic white men who insert rodents up their butts.”
2. What kind of hospital would hold a press conference on this? 1. This happened in Salt Lake city.
1. What kind of people are those Mormons? I am getting a whole new image of the Osmond Family.

END