anyone have one of the newer "silk road" giottos tripods?

im thinking of moving off of my gitzo g2220 explorer to a lighter tripod that does much of the same thing. was looking at the Giottos Pro Series 9354 aluminum one as the carbon versins are too expensive.

does anyone have any opinions on the general selection of silk road tripods? im skeptical of the weight on this one in particular as it is listed on most sites as 3.5lbs (making this on par with the carbon versions). whereas amazon says item weight is 4.6

I have one of their MTL 9360B aluminum tripods. It has an multi-positional center column, though no where near as easy to use as your explorer.

I did notice Giottos just redesigned their whole line. The YTL looks easier to operate (more smooth) than my MTL. I ended upgrading to RRS earlier this summer. No multi-positional center column but so far, so good. I did use said column for macro shots but as I said, so far, I haven't missed it much.

just checked in with someone on amazon and the tripod im looking at is 4.5lbs. false advertisement giottos!!

I think that if you want the adaptability of your Gitzo Explorer you are not going to get anything lighter without compromising rigidity severely. Unfortunately it is heavy for a reason.

manfrottox 055CXpro4 looks pretty good and "cheap"
not sure about its stability. legs look pretty thin.

kaitanium wrote in post #16363037
just checked in with someone on amazon and the tripod im looking at is 4.5lbs. false advertisement giottos!!

Is that product weight, or shipping weight? Packaging is still an important thing to know about.

Have a look at the Benro A2970F or if you want carbon fiber, the Benro C2970F. I use a Benro A2970T and it's got the twist locks I prefer; it's a good solid tripod.

someone on amazon weighed his. i asked a question. he said it was 4.5.

oo that benro looks great too. ill probably go for A1980F. its pretty light! gosh i wish it had the Y section of the giottos but i will take a good look at it. thanks for the recommendation

Looks like Benro have phased out my twist lock version and now you can only buy the flip lock version. Pity. FWIW my aluminum A2970T weighs 4.7 lbs. Benro make good tripods and I think you'd find the A1980F stable and very durable if it's the correct size for your camera/lens.

yea i just need a relatively cheap light one to replace the one i have. i dont use tripods that often. the A1980F looks like it would fit the bill. spec'ed at a hair lower than 4lbs too! no need to pay $250+ for a 0.5 difference with carbon

i have the 9383 and its awesome! VERY sturdy, lots of features and together with the 498rc2, solid as a rock!

i use 2 of them for my timelapse doly rail rig which weighs a LOT!