Right, lets put a conclusion to this post; I eventually bought a Benro TSL08CN00 Slim Carbon-Fibre Tripod with Ball head new for about £75 during Black Friday/Easter Monday/Cyber Thursday month long event (you get what I mean). I did very little research other than look at the spec; it was light – just over 1kg, it could carry a payload of 4kg, folds down to 51cm so fits into my works laptop bag – just! and has a max height of 122cm with the column down – slightly short but I can cope with that. Against my Manfrotto it just looks stupid!
When I was looking through the forum for recommendations, I did get the feeling that there is a bit of tripod snobbery in that you can’t compromise and if you buy cheap you are not going to get something fit for purpose. I’m not really in that camp; I think it is horses for courses i.e I wouldn’t take a studio style tripod on a Ryanair flight to say Budapest to do some cityscapes. And as I stated in my original post I was looking for a second tripod as I already have, what I believe, is a good landscape tripod with the Manfrotto with a decent head on (it’s not let me down and I’m sure there are better out there) and I was looking for something specific, especially to by discrete enough to avoid the tripod police in and around the London Eye etc and be small/light enough to escape with if spotted. The Manfrotto weighs about 2kg more and is at least twice to size so it isn’t subtle to take to work and slip out for a crafty photoshoot. So, weight and size tick the box and so did the price (yes, slightly higher than I originally stated but that always happens)
Once I got over the size factor, I quite like the Benro. The ball head is limited with only one lock on it so for panoramas it wouldn’t be great (it does have a bubble level) but I’m sure I could swap the heads around if I needed to. The one thing I like with the Benro head is that it is an Arce-Swiss with a quick release plate. Having just moved to using an L-bracket I find that useful. Now, I’ve also got a quick release plate as a spare when I am using a longer lens that has a tripod mount on the lens. It has defined twist lock legs which are different to what I am used to but they are quick and precise. The centre column reverses to enable low level and the legs spread nice and wide – I do like that, and on a tripod. The centre column also has a hook on it that allow me to hook my camera/work backpack on it to give it that extra stability.
All in all, I am pleased with it; it is cheap, it is light, it does have some flex in the legs but I can work with that limitation but it allows my to weigh it down for stability and the head is limited in its flexibility but covers the bases with regards to the quick release plate and Arce-Swiss. I’m sure it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but we are all different, have different kit and different requirements.
