What is your opinion of this Tripod/Ball Head?

After years of putting up with a super cheap, heavy tripod I am ready to get a much better one. However, I am not prepared to spend $600, $700, or more on one.
I did find a carbon fiber tripod and Ball head that look fairly good to me, but without experience with one I don't know for sure.
I am not a pro, just a hobby. I am getting into bird photography, but I like shooting everything. I am constantly shooting events which don't really need a tripod, but I do have an event coming up where I am shooting graduation formal shots & a tripod would work well for that. I mostly want a good one with ball head to set up in my blind for birding.

I was wanting some feed back from anyone who has had experience with these Benro tripod & head:

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …80F_4_Section_C​arbon.html

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …uble_Action_Bal​lhead.html

Between the two, I would spend around $440 which is more in my price range.

you can get a stronger/lighter, better benro off of ebay. and if you are going to buy a head seperatly don't buy benro (there legs are great but not so much with the ballheads) and that head is very overpriced (they price it that way so it looks like you get a better deal when you buy a kit with it included. what I would do is this
http://www.ebay.com …ipods&hash=item​20ce97b6d7

http://www.ebay.com …ipods&hash=item​3f1b6847cb

The 82 is with a tall monopod built in and is a fair amount taller than the 80 with the center column down. but alot of people think that the monopod option makes the pod less stable (there is no evidence either way so it is just personal opinion).

So my suggestion would be to get one of these kits (many on this forum have bought from this selller and he is highly recommended (I bought mine from him for over 100 bucks savings from buying it in the us), and then sell the head and buy something like the photoclam pro 38ns (or if you can find one and want something a little smaller you could go for the 36ns if you can find one).

So that would give you cheaper/lighter/strong​er, and better ballhead than what you were looking at for just about the same price. and same brand.

mine1 wrote in post #16870261
you can get a stronger/lighter, better benro off of ebay. and if you are going to buy a head seperatly don't buy benro (there legs are great but not so much with the ballheads) and that head is very overpriced (they price it that way so it looks like you get a better deal when you buy a kit with it included. what I would do is this
http://www.ebay.com …ipods&hash=item​20ce97b6d7

http://www.ebay.com …ipods&hash=item​3f1b6847cb

The 82 is with a tall monopod built in and is a fair amount taller than the 80 with the center column down. but alot of people think that the monopod option makes the pod less stable (there is no evidence either way so it is just personal opinion).

So my suggestion would be to get one of these kits (many on this forum have bought from this selller and he is highly recommended (I bought mine from him for over 100 bucks savings from buying it in the us), and then sell the head and buy something like the photoclam pro 38ns (or if you can find one and want something a little smaller you could go for the 36ns if you can find one).

So that would give you cheaper/lighter/strong​er, and better ballhead than what you were looking at for just about the same price. and same brand.

Thanks for the advice. You have definitely given me something to consider. If you sold the ball head that comes with the kit, what would it bring?

I am not really sure. I figure it will atleast get you 65-75 bucks. hell might even find a buyer at 100. if you can't stretch the budget for the photoclam head you could go with something like this

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …n8AMg&Q=&is=REG​&A=details

with that even if you only got 55 bucks for the b1 you would still come in under the 440 you were looking at before.

Contact the seller, DC-Photo-Stuff, make an offer to purchase the legs only if you don't want that head. They are good folks to work with.

yah but they are not going to give you much of a discount without the head. for example they sell the 2680 legs for 338 and the kit for 358. so for 20 bucks I would take the head.
http://www.ebay.com …ipods&hash=item​20c9e130da

http://www.ebay.com …ipods&hash=item​484693a2c6

and for another 7 bucks I would go with the 2 quick release plate kit.

Wow, guys I am seeing how uninformed I am about tripods, heads, and options that fit them.

Thank all of you for helping get me up to speed. POTN is worth every penny...........Wait, it is free.

I did like 6 months of research before buying mine. Now tell me you can stretch that budget to 530-600 and I will recommend a totally different setup lol.

mine1 wrote in post #16871510
I did like 6 months of research before buying mine. Now tell me you can stretch that budget to 530-600 and I will recommend a totally different setup lol.

mine1, in case I am able to stretch it, what do you recommend?

feisol ct-3442
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …HEATQ&Q=&is=REG​&A=details

and photoclam Pro 38ns,
http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …0EAIg&Q=&is=REG​&A=details

If the budget didn't allow you could go with the sirui k20x ballhead I mentioned earlier. or you could even go for a bigger photoclam head if you wanted the 40 is only a little more cost than the 38.

the Feisol is the most is the tripod I see recommended most on any forum I go too. (at least in the under $600 legs area). and the photoclam heads get excellent reviews for usually under 100 bucks cheaper than there direct competition.

you might be able to save a few bucks on the tripod (which never goes on sale) through greentoe.com, but I am not sure.

As far as bang for your buck I think (I have not owned either of these tripods, but do have the benro one step down from the one I recommended) the benro (bought from hong kong) with the sirui head pretty much can't be beat. but that is only if you sell the kit head for at least 55 bucks (which I am pretty sure you could). I use the kit head (30mm ball not the 36mm ball that would come with yours), and it works well enough for me, and I am sure the 36mm version is much smoother, but when I have the extra cash I will upgrade it to a photoclam. and you have some pretty heavy/long lenses so I would spring the extra 100 or so bucks (in the end) to get the better ball head). In either situation I suggested you would not feel like you had not spent enough on a tripod for your expensive lenses.

ohh and if this makes any difference to you I the feisol is quite a bit lighter than the benro I linked, and the one you linked. close to a full pound lighter with the photoclam head.

Just keep in mind the ergonomics of the ballhead. Make sure you are OK with the position of the locking knob. The current photoclam ballheads are on the opposite side from where I like them.

If you don't need the short folded length this is the 3 section version of the feisol I linked earlier. This guy has great feedback on FM forums and it comes with a panning base. It is also a tiny bit lighter than the 3442 and it also is an inch or 2 taller. It has been listed for a little while so I am sure you could get him to go down on the price. which could possibly get you back down to the 450 range with ballhead that you were looking at to begin with, but I guess that depends on how you feel about used equipment.

http://www.fredmiranda​.com/forum/topic/12880​91

Just click on the green box next to the sellers name to see his feeback there