Tripod Legs

[lexcorp]

Greetings and Salutations,

I'm in 2nd year engineering at the university of toronto and i was wondering if you guys could help me out.

we're asked to design a new product choosing from a wide range of topics for a tradeshow. My group chose the one where we had to design a new support for wildlife photographer lens, because they are often heavy (eg. canon 500 mm f4 IS USM)

Anyway, my group and i have developed a support where the person wears a belt and suspenders, which has 3 beams attached to it (i'll post pics once we're finished everything).

Since our design does not require exact materials and specifications, since it's only a model, we have used television antennas for the beams because they extend like tripod legs (sort of).

My main question is how much would it COST to manufacture such tripod legs (made out of some aluminum alloy).

I have searched for such and i see it retails around $150. However, I was hoping some of you would know how much it costs to actually manufacture these legs because we need to incorporate all production costs to calculate the selling price.

Thanks in advance

[robertwgross]

My main question is how much would it COST to manufacture such tripod legs (made out of some aluminum alloy).

I have searched for such and i see it retails around $150. However, I was hoping some of you would know how much it costs to actually manufacture these legs because we need to incorporate all production costs to calculate the selling price.


You speak of tripod legs in general, and you say that they retail for $150. However, you do not identify a brand or a model, so how do you expect anybody to know any details?

That $150 price might be cost-based, or it might be value-based, or it might be market-based.

---Bob Gross---

[lexcorp]

Well,

Our prof told us to basically get ballpark estimates from companies. I've tried contacting a few photography companies but was unsuccessful.

The particular legs I was referring to were Bogen ones, the most inexpensive ones I could find. It's just a rough estimate we're looking for. We have to try to minimize production costs so we could minimize selling price, because there are several other groups doing this topic as well and cost is a factor at the tradeshow.

Thanks for your help

[robertwgross]

I guess there are only dozens of models of Bogen tripod legs. Without knowing which one, I would guess that the entire factory cost (materials, labor, testing, packaging, etc.) would come to no more than 1/3 of the retail cost. Some manufacturers will have advertising costs on top of that. That figure will likely vary depending on the primary type of material, e.g., carbon fiber, aluminum, or other.

---Bob Gross---