Travelling tripods and heads

As promised, an update on my final purchase. I ended up buying a Carbon Fibre Benro tripod – the C-227 (copy of the Gitzo G1227) and matched it with the Benro KS-0 head which is similar to the RRS and Kirk heads.

Why?
Initially I was taken with the Slik sprint pro (and have since recommended it to a couple of friends) and Gjman was spot on with his interpretation of my initial post. When it came to the crunch though I had a vision of me on a Himalayan plateau trying desperately to keep everything steady in the wind thus I decided to change from my original spec and look at more expensive options.

As you can see from the previous posts this took me to the Gitzo Basalt range, but having read John J80’s sage advice I pitched towards the Carbon fibre. I am glad I did. I am over the moon with the resulting set up and in my book I saved a fortune by going for the Benro (I realise this is debateable due to the lack of field testing for the Benro Vs Gitzo).

The full set up weighs in around 2.01 kg.

The Legs.
I picked up the legs on uk ebay for £158 delivered. When compared against the Gitzo legs at £420 I feel this is a bargain. I’m not an engineer, but the construction quality appears to be outstanding and the weight rating is extremely conservative – I have hung my own personal weight from it and I guess I am something like 75-80Kg. The tripod itself looks the business and weighs in at 1.6Kg.

I’m 6 foot and the camera sits perfectly at eye level without the centre column extended and I need a box/ tip toes to view at full height. In hindsight I think I should have gone for the smaller C-127 model since the reduction in weight (1.32Kg) would be welcome and I have no doubt that it could suspend enough weight to keep it still and would be tall enough for full usage. However since Benro are not available on UK high street* I had to take the risk based upon the spec, but I can’t imagine a situation that the C-227 would not be perfect for.

I have to say that this isn’t the most compact of tripods, but given the height it achieves and the weight it can suspend I suppose that is unavoidable. It does come in a superb bag with an excellent shoulder strap that can be removed and put directly onto the legs to make carrying a breeze.

The head.
The head ticked all the boxes with the exception of the spirit level, but I figured I could get a hot shoe one if necessary. I decided to skimp on weight and go for the KS-0 rather than the recommended KS-1 and I am certainly not disappointed, in fact for travelling, and at £50 delivered, I think I have made the perfect choice given my budget.

The ability to lock the ball head and then pan independently will be a great feature for my photography and it has no problem holding my rig. The quick release plate is very light and unobtrusive so I can’t imagine a time when I will remove it from my camera body, thus preserving the screw thread on the body.

Again, I am no expert, but the I find the head to be precise and well made – I have no doubt that the RRS and Kirk heads are better, but given my current level of expertise (all the gear and no idea) the weight of my rig (350D + USM 75-300 58mm lens is max weight) and the purpose (long term travelling) I don’t believe the ratio of increased quality to increase in price stacks up.

The field test.
I’ve got a year to go now before I can return and make claims over the perfect travelling tripod, and I hope that I will not find the construction quality wanting when the going gets tough. I’ll look to post a full review at some point during the year away.

* Is the Benro story true? Internet rumour has it that Gitzo decided to outsource production of their tripods to china. Having taught the Chinese everything they know about tripods they started production, but found identical tripods appearing on the Chinese markets with the Benro label on it. Turns out that the Chinese outsourcers were teaching another Chinese firm everything that Gitzo had taught them. Gitzo found out, pulled out and threatened to take the firms to court but had no real powers in China hence Benro still produce, but aren’t on the high streets around the Western world. Does anybody know if this is true or is it just a rumour started by the chaps at Benro to help sell their replicas? As for the tripod’s ability to take long term abuse, I look forward to finding out!

Thanks for all your help guys – VERY much appreciated!

Very good post and kinda exactly what I would have done ... I have tried the Feisols and they are excellent (had two, but didn't give them a huge amount of use so sold them) and now have the Dynatran CF 94 model which is also excellent: light, strong and seem built to last. Bought it to travel to Africa this year. I checked out the CF and Basalt Gitzo models and also a couple of nice Manfrotto's and, from a fit for purpose v's value point of view I chose the Dynatran and saved a pot of cash. The Gitzo's look cool and have the brand, but I really doubt they will do a better job and if my 94 ever breaks I can buy a new one and still be quids in hard to look beyond the 488RC2 tho' for a ballhead. IS there a reason you didn't go that route?

Cheenis wrote in post #2570176
* Is the Benro story true? Internet rumour has it that Gitzo decided to outsource production of their tripods to china. Having taught the Chinese everything they know about tripods they started production, but found identical tripods appearing on the Chinese markets with the Benro label on it. Turns out that the Chinese outsourcers were teaching another Chinese firm everything that Gitzo had taught them. Gitzo found out, pulled out and threatened to take the firms to court but had no real powers in China hence Benro still produce, but aren’t on the high streets around the Western world. Does anybody know if this is true or is it just a rumour started by the chaps at Benro to help sell their replicas? As for the tripod’s ability to take long term abuse, I look forward to finding out!

Thanks for all your help guys – VERY much appreciated!

Congratulations

There may be a grain of truth to this. The Benro's seem to have a very close featureset to the Gitzo and seem to be so much of a clone that it lends the story credibility. Outsourcing is not always the solution to the world's problems - though some look at it that way.

Let us know how it holds up as the months go by. I had my ballhead for six months, no problems. Still keeping the legset although I upgraded the ballhead to something else.

I'm torn between Feisol and Benro at the moment. Am I correct in saying the current Benro range has anti-rotation legs and some degree of weatherproofing, whereas the feisols don't have either?

I saw one review of a Feisol tripod that mentioned, because of the lack of antirotation legs, you have to open the twist locks in a specific order, and this didn't look appealing.

Any chance of a couple of snaps of your Benro C-227 and head Cheeis? Thanks for the review.

On the Benro vs Gitzo issue. See this thread:

http://forums.dpreview​.com …age=14472214&ch​angemode=1

I think this is accurate.

Then, since this thread started, this one popped up over at Fred Miranda:

http://www.fredmiranda​.com/forum/topic/49688​4/0

(Which also has some good information on the legs as well as ballheads.)

leading to this:

http://www.tomwebsterp​hoto.com/Essays/Benro/​benroks2.htm

I'd be concerned about the Benro Ballhead and I'd check to see if you can verify its construction against your model. If you are going to be going around for a year, you might want to consider changing out the ballhead if this is the case for reliability reasons.

Looks to me like Benro knocked off the Gitzo's of about 2 generations ago (i.e. 1227/8 which was replaced by the 6X versions in 1257/8 and then subsequently by the 2530/40). But is still not as stable as the 1227/8. From the thread's above, and with my experience in Asia with manufacturing and knockoffs, the company that does the knockoff gains much from the experience but does not come close in competency to the company that originally developed the intellectual property. There is no substitute for doing the R&D that generates the IP in the first place - they always miss the majority of the subtelties and that usually has an overall impact in quality, reliability and overall operation. I suspect it is no different here.

Bottom line, I suspect the legs are going to be adequate and similar to the older Gitzo's of about 3 generations ago although I'd be worried about the long term reliability. The ballhead is another matter and I'd probably put that puppy on ebay.

J.

Cheenis,

Assume you got yours off ebay? Which supplier did you use? I've been looking at the KS-1, esp after recent reviews onhere

JohnJ80 wrote in post #2575347
Looks to me like Benro knocked off the Gitzo's of about 2 generations ago (i.e. 1227/8 which was replaced by the 6X versions in 1257/8 and then subsequently by the 2530/40). But is still not as stable as the 1227/8. From the thread's above, and with my experience in Asia with manufacturing and knockoffs, the company that does the knockoff gains much from the experience but does not come close in competency to the company that originally developed the intellectual property. There is no substitute for doing the R&D that generates the IP in the first place - they always miss the majority of the subtelties and that usually has an overall impact in quality, reliability and overall operation. I suspect it is no different here.

Bottom line, I suspect the legs are going to be adequate and similar to the older Gitzo's of about 3 generations ago although I'd be worried about the long term reliability. The ballhead is another matter and I'd probably put that puppy on ebay.

J.

That probably explains why Gitzo seems to be replacing its ENTIRE product lineup at one go. A lot of the tripod numbers mentioned by POTN'ers can't be found in their current catalog.

In a way it's good to know that people can't just copy everything and expect the same results.. otherwise there'd be no incentive to do any research any longer

I still have my aluminium legset and it seems to be working out well. Vibration hasn't been an issue either. One thing I can definitely say - while it isn't up to par with a real Gitzo, it sure as heck beats a whole lot of other junk out there that is either much heavier, or carries much less weight and doesn't do it as well. I've been through my share of crap tripods and this is definitely not one of them.