Opinions on this tripod

[skd]

I do not have a massive budget but need a new tripod, While looking on eBay I came across this tripod

Does anyone have experience in using one of these or have any opinions on it before I buy.

thanks for any input

 

[Yellowbelly]

Hi George. I cannot offer any opinion on the tripod you refer to, but I would strongly advise you to go to a good shop or two and handle the tripods they have. If you carefully evaluate the ones they have from various price brackets, you will realise why it can be very difficult geting a good cheap tripod.

Pictures on web sites tell you very little about weight, rigidity, stability, ease of operation and build quality and you run a serious risk of wasting that budget of yours.

Incidentally, I am not a shop owner or dealer of any kind, just one who over the years has made mistakes.

 

[matt666]

It looks virtually identical to mine, which is a Hama Traveller. It's OK, probably not the sturdiest money can buy but it's good for what I use it for.

 

[modchild]

Hi George, while I don't know the particular model I can vouch for the make. I bought a Fancier wf-5603 Pro model about 2 years ago and it still gets plenty of use and is as solid as a rock. While I was shooting a wedding recently I had a gripped 5D3 and Sigma 24-70 f2.8 HSM and it did the job perfectly.

I've had a gripped 5D3, 5D2 and 7D on it with a Sigma 150-500 OS and Kenko Pro300 DGX 1.4x converter attached and I've also used the same bodies with a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS MkII with Canon 2x Mk3 converter attached and it's rock solid.

The model I got came with a removable leg to use as a monopod, has a mini ball head attached to use with the monopod, and a different ball head to the one in the ebay listing but the tripod legs look very similar to my one. Mine is also rated to 8Kg but I've not put anywhere near that amount on as the camera and lens only comes in at around 3Kg but it's handled that with ease, even when I picked everything up by the legs to move it the ball head is still locked on tight. Mine was just over a £100, but as I said, mine has got a different main head and a spare small head for the monopod. If you factor in buying a different ball head it would probably bump the price up to around the £100 mark, but if you haven't got any heavy gear you'd probably get away with the head that comes with it.