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Looking the major tripod manufacturers today - you have Gitzo, Manfrotto and the rest. The rest includes quite ok brands like Velbon or Slik and the china brands which I wont mention...
I guess the perfect travel tripod would be the Gitzo carbon fiber GT1540 until you hit the cost issue (around 500 USD)... ugh.. thats serious $$$
So what is a perfect travel tripod to me?? It
- must be light at around 3lbs (1.36kg) or so
- must extend to the right height for me - at least 1.2m for the legs w/o the center column, plus head and camera this would bring it to around 1.5-1.6m through the eyepiece.
I guess the perfect travel tripod would be the Gitzo carbon fiber GT1540 until you hit the cost issue (around 500 USD)... ugh.. thats serious $$$
So what is a perfect travel tripod to me?? It
- must be light at around 3lbs (1.36kg) or so
- must extend to the right height for me - at least 1.2m for the legs w/o the center column, plus head and camera this would bring it to around 1.5-1.6m through the eyepiece.
- must fold and fit into a backpack while at <50cm,>
My Manfrotto 719B NEARLY fulfils all of the requirements and its 1/5 the cost of the Gitzo at around 100 bucks new. It went with me on my New Zealand trip and did its job well. Its only weakness is the built-in head which cannot support heavier lens setups like a 70-200mm f2.8. In a fit of shopping-lust, I replaced it with a Velbon carbon fiber version with a Kirk Enterprises head and my 719b is used now as an overweight light stand.
2 comments:
The locking mechanism breaks easily, do not buy it!
The locking mechanism on mine never gave me any problems. I sold mine already but I would support and buy Manfrotto again as their products are generally well designed and the last I checked still Made in Italy.
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