Review Horus Bennu C-2830v Carbon Fibre Tripod

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Horus Bennu C-2830v Carbon Fibre Tripod.

Introduction

Here's a quick look at the Horusbennu CF tripod I've just received. There is very little in the way of reviews or detailed feedback on this brand so i thought i'd try and help anyone considering the same tripods I was looking at. I'll give my initial impressions and describe the buying experience then once I've had a chance to use it properly I'll update here with how it does in the field.

Apologies in advance for the noisy iPhone pics!

Horus Bennu (HB for simplicity from now on) are a Korean company selling to the UK via Korea-based agents on eBay. Their websitencan be viewed at www.horusbennu.com but will need translating. Their tripods are manufactured in China and have many features and design cues from other manufacturers (Benro, Giottos, Redsnapper, 3LeggedThing). The have a range of aluminium and carbon fibre tripods and heads, with a good choice of leg diameters and number of sections at reasonable prices. Most also convert to a monopod by unscrewing one of the legs and relocating the head plate.

I was very tempted by one of their travel CF tripods but in the end I went with a 'standard' CF tripod as it was about £50 cheaper and offered a 28mm diameter leg with 3 leg sections for maximum stability, and also stood slightly taller fully extended, with the only drawback being the longer folded length.


Specifications

Brand: HorusBennu
Model: C-2830v
Leg construction: Carbon Fibre (7x)
Leg sections: 3, twist-lock type
Max leg diameter: 28mm
Folded length: 59cm
Max Height: 127cm (150cm with centre column extended)
Min height: 16cm with short centre column.
Weight: 1.32kg
Max load: 7kg

Purchasing

HB tripods are available from a couple of sellers on eBay, I opted for IMKshop as they were recommended in another discussion thread.
The C-2830v is offered at £105 "Buyit now or best offer", my first offer of £85 was rejected but my second offer of £95 was accepted.
Free shipping is offered but I opted to pay for express shipping option at £15 as I wanted it to arrive during my 2-weeks off from work.

Offer was made 13/1/2013 at 7pm and accepted within 5 hours, payment made at 7am on the 14/1/2013. Package was collected on the 15/1/2013 at 6pm. Below is a copy of the tracking info.




As you can see it took 12 days from payment being made to me collecting the tripod from the parcelforce depot. Most of that time was spent in Heathrow waiting for customs charges to be applied (this was around the snowy weather so could have caused delays here). I was charged £15.06 VAT (fair enough) and £13.50 handling fee by ParcelForce (WTF grrrr...).



So all in: £95 tripod, £15 shipping, £15.06 VAT, £13.50 ransom gives a grand total of £138.56 to get the tripod in my hand. This is more than i initially expected but still seems like a bargain for the quality of the item. In hindsight I probably should have gone for the free shipping option and saved the £15 express delivery charge and the parcelforce/royal mail fee is reduced to £8 for non-express (EMS) items saving over £20 total. It might have taken twice as long for it to arrive but I wasn't in a particular rush for it, it was just convenient to have it arrive in my time off period.

Unpacking

The tripod arrived well packaged in a snug cardboard box covering the manufacturer's box. Inside here was the tripod bag containing the tripod and accessories.



Included in the kit are:
1x Tripod
1x Short Centre Column
2x Allan (hex) keys
1x tripod bag with shoulder strap.
 
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First impressions.

The bag seems well made with durable nylon and plastic zips. There is enough room in the bag for the tripod with a small ballhead attached.



The tripod itself seems well built with 3-section carbon fibre legs and twist type locks. One of the legs is padded to protect your hands in the cold, the padding is a neoprene-type material with the HB name embossed into it and feel well made. The legs pull open to the first stop without any faffing about with locks, and the action feels nice and firm. There are Allan keys included in the kit to adjust the resistance of the leg hinge joints. The Legs have a 7-layer carbon fibre construction with anti-rotation system. The finish is matte and looks good aside from one or two little bobbles in the coating, but these are nearly noticeable. The bottom of the centr column has a spring loaded hook that pulls down to hang your bag or a weight from to aid stability.

At the top of each leg is a locking clip to be pulled open to allow the legs to extend past the first stop, the clip pulls out and stays there until you push it back in and again has a firm smooth action. Each clip is stamped with the 'Horus Bennu' name, although on one of them the printing has a flaw and is a bit faded giving a clue that although this is a well made piece of equipment some of the attention to detail is lacking. At the top of one of the legs is a small circular bubble level which seemed to be fairly accurate in a quick test, centring itself with the legs fully extended on a flat surface. One thing to note to is that once the legs are extended I got the impression they were not perfectly straight on the thinnest sections. It's not enough to measure or even see clearly on a flat surface it just doesn't look 100% on the bottom section to my eye, but not really a cause for concern.







The bottom of the legs have spikes which can be covered by screwing down the rubber feet over them. I'm not sure how this system is implamented in other brands but here I think it's simple but not very elegant leaving about 1/4" of screw thread visible between the bottom of the leg and the rubber foot. Also one of the spikes is visibly blunter that the other two, this is unlikely to affect the stability on soft ground but still just shows a little lack of finesse.



The twist lock joints are simple and effective, the feel fairly positive in operation but lack dust-proofing being used by some other manufacturers.

 
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Folded length measures 60cm and around 11cm diameter at widest point.




Max height 126cm or 151cm with centre column extended.




One of the cool features of this tripod is that you can detach the padded leg and convert it to a monopod. It takes a couple of minutes to do; unscrew the leg, unscrew the head plate and screw them together. As an option you can screw the short centre column between them to get a wee but extra height and in this configuration the monopod is 136cm up to the head plate.

 
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Some images with my 3 Legged Thing AH1 ball head attached and my D300 with sigma 24-70 f/2.8 lens. It feels stable but will update this thread once I get the chance to use it in anger.





In summary this seems like a good purchase for the price, it's well made in general with only a few cosmetic details really giving any clue this isn't a £300+ tripod. Although the Horus Bennu brand are really creating 'homage' pieces very similar to other manufacturers the are using quality materials and manufacturing from Chinese sub-contractors who no doubt also produce quality pieces for better know names.

If I can use an automotive analogy for the tripod world:
Gitzo are the expensive Italian supercars with precision engineering; Ferrari, Lamborghini.
Manfrotto are the German reliable brand with quality manufacturing and known badge; VW, BMW, Audi.
Horrus Bennu would then be one of their Korean compatriots like Kia; Quality kit, needing a little refinement but good value.

If anyone has any specific questions about the tripod or my experience please feel free to ask here.

Cheers,

Ryan.
 
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Nice review, but you should fix the spelling of Horusbennu as such, rather than two separate words - both in the posts and the thread title.

Can't say I'm fussed on the patently obvious Gitzo copying of the Hammerite'd finish of the tripod's body. Hate it on the Gitzo as it looks so naff, it amazes me Horusbennu have saw fit to follow suit.

Your car analogy is wrong - Gitzo may be Ferrari/Lambo in cost terms, but Ferrari and Lambo being referred to as precision engineering is wrong.
For that, you'd need to look more at Lexus, of which only the LFA would cover both aspects.
 
PJ S said:
Nice review, but you should fix the spelling of Horusbennu as such, rather than two separate words - both in the posts and the thread title.

Can't say I'm fussed on the patently obvious Gitzo copying of the Hammerite'd finish of the tripod's body. Hate it on the Gitzo as it looks so naff, it amazes me Horusbennu have saw fit to follow suit.

Your car analogy is wrong - Gitzo may be Ferrari/Lambo in cost terms, but Ferrari and Lambo being referred to as precision engineering is wrong.
For that, you'd need to look more at Lexus, of which only the LFA would cover both aspects.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback.

The brand name is written as two words on each of the leg clips and on the logo of my tripod, and as one word embossed onto the foam grip.
Until Horus Bennu start consistently branding themselves I'll probably use either spelling.


HorusBennu tripod by Ryan Milton, on Flickr

The hammered paint is kinda cool. Reminds me of old metalwork tools I used in school that were probably made in the 60's. Not very modern or to everyone's tastes though I'd agree.

My car analogy was a bit loose and almost tongue in cheek, but I'd still stand by my statement about Ferrari and Lamborghini. Virtually every car that rolls of the line is a beautiful, exquisite example of the finest automotive engineering.

Lexus make some good cars no doubt, and the LFA falls into the 'supercar' bracket, but I'd say they are more of a technology-led brand with their base firmly in the saloon and SUV market. The LFA probably accounted for a tiny wee percentage of Lexus total sales worldwide.
 
I appreciate the images show a separation between the words, but you only need look at their website and some of the products which one presumes are current, and you'd see the name is now one.

I wasn't wanting to get embroiled in a discussion about cars and which niche sector they slot into, my point was your impression of Ferrari and Lamborghini (supercar sector manufacturers only) as "precision engineered" is not quite as accurate as if you used the Lexus LFA or even the Bugatti Veyron.
Lexus practically invented the concept of tight tolerance panel gaps, and would still be considered the benchmark.
That's precision engineering until you contemplate they also had to invent the only bi-axial carbon fibre loom machines in the world, which was used for making parts of the LFA.
There's a YT video you can watch to learn about it.
I'd also say the LFA's engine is another element, as it's the only engine in a production road car that accelerates so quickly, a mechanical speedo and rev counter couldn't keep up, a digital one had to be utilised.

Anyway, enough about cars - how's the tripod holding up to being used in the house?
Nice and steady, even with the cross-breeze from the doors being ajar? :p

:LOL:
 
*** thanks for spending your time to write this review it will help somebody for sure ***

So that ebay seller stated proper price on parcel? not as usual "gift with value $10"... that's just shows that seller is decent.
 
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