Possibly the 'Ideal Holiday Tripod'.

Naboo32

Naboo32

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Andy
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Tripods! Can't live with (carrying :() them, can't have any blur-free, low ISO night-time shots without them :D!

For a fairly long time now, I've been wondering why some enterprising manufacturer doesn't make something cheap (£50), sturdy(ish) and ultra-compact (13"), to allow the travelling 'togger/holiday maker to be able to slip one in his/her shoulder bag and still be able to mount on it a full-size DSLR (with a big lens) at a sensible height off the ground :shrug:!?

Well, I finally found something that fits all of those criteria - the SLIK Sprint Mini II GM :naughty:.

Sure, it's no Gitzo and sure, the ball head is no Arca Swiss masterpiece. It is what it is; a cheap tripod/ballhead, made in Thailand. But, as long as you're sensible about how you use it, I really can't see anyone, who just needs a stable platform from between 10cm to 109cm in height, having any complaints about it.

But I'm not here to 'sell' this thing to anyone. Hell, I only got mine today! No, the point is to make people aware of its existence, so that they can decide for themselves. When I went looking for something like this recently, I found no mention of this model :shrug:. It was only by scouring each tripod manufacturers website that I even found it all.

So, here are a few 'real life' pictures of it to illustrate how it compares to other equipment and of course, just how portable it is :naughty:.

Thanks for looking :)!

Compared, for size, to the GP SLR:
AJH_1984.jpg


Compared, for size, to a Giottos 'Travel' tripod:
AJH_1980.jpg


Fitting itself into the laptop pocket of my camera bag:
AJH_1985.jpg


Looking right at home with a D700 and Bigma 50mm f/1.4 lens attached:
DSC_6114.jpg
 
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Was considering this tripod for traveling, but got the benro travel angel in the end. Its only 3cm longer when folded, and is rated to hold 4 times more. Unfotuntately it also costs 4x more.
For 50 quid budget however, the slik is probably one of the best compact tripod. Cheap enough to take for travels and not be worried about abusing/losing it.

Let us know how it holds up to long exposures :)
 
Zsev said:
Was considering this tripod for traveling, but got the benro travel angel in the end. Its only 3cm longer when folded, and is rated to hold 4 times more. Unfotuntately it also costs 4x more.
For 50 quid budget however, the slik is probably one of the best compact tripod. Cheap enough to take for travels and not be worried about abusing/losing it.

Let us know how it holds up to long exposures :)
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Yeah, the Benro was well outside my budget (and possibly a tad too long to go into the laptop slot of my bag :thinking:). I'm sure it's a lot more heavy duty though.

This Slik tripod is a lot sturdier than the 15GBP Hama jobs (and folds smaller) and any Gorillapods (which act like springs when you stand them on the ground :(), but I make no claims that it will outperform a full size tripod.

It's light too - 780g with the ball head on. That's only 120g more than my Red Snapper ball head on its own and about the same as a D90 body with the battery in! I've found that it's safer to move it around my picking up the camera by the grip (when attached to the tripod), instead of grabbing the tripod, as the camera makes the whole thing rather top-heavy and I can imagine it flipping over if grabbed too low down.

Hopefully, it will come in useful on my forthcoming trip to Venice :naughty:. Let's see ...
 
Naboo32 said:
Hopefully, it will come in useful on my forthcoming trip to Venice :naughty:. Let's see ...
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Just for info - if you're travelling to Italy with hand luggage only, the Italian authorities regard a tripod as a dangerous item and insist that it goes in the hold.

I was stopped at x-ray in Bergamo and told that it could be used as a weapon by poking one of the legs in someone's eye. When I took a biro from my pocket and pretended to poke the guy in the eye with it, he failed to see my logic.

Result I had to pay something like £20 to have it checked in as hold baggage.
 
tirc83 said:
Just for info - if you're travelling to Italy with hand luggage only, the Italian authorities regard a tripod as a dangerous item and insist that it goes in the hold.

I was stopped at x-ray in Bergamo and told that it could be used as a weapon by poking one of the legs in someone's eye. When I took a biro from my pocket and pretended to poke the guy in the eye with it, he failed to see my logic.

Result I had to pay something like £20 to have it checked in as hold baggage.
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Gary, thanks a lot for the warning, I really appreciate it :thumbs:.

As luck would have it, I've already worked out that a couple of things from the camera bag are going to have to go in my suitcase anyway, due to bulk and weight :shrug:. The tripod, being bulky and cheap, is one of those things and my (not so cheap) 17-35 f/2.8 lens will be the other one.

I might now consider taking the ballpoint pen out of the camera bag as well, in case I'm tempted to poke any officious Italian airport staff in the eye with it :D.

Again, thanks :).
 
Ok, here's a laugh for you all! I recently got a G12 as a (comparatively) light and portable grab and go type camera. Only thing was that when out a night I still felt the need for a support of some type. My Redsnapper seemed to defeat the object, so I paid £23 for a Tamrac Zipshot, thinking that if it was no use I'd get most of it back on fleabay. However, used carefully with the legs splayed and timer release it is very effective. Mind you I wouldn't put anything heavier, or indeed lighter on it. At 11oz/312g I dont even know it's in my pocket!
 
magirus said:
Ok, here's a laugh for you all! I recently got a G12 as a (comparatively) light and portable grab and go type camera. Only thing was that when out a night I still felt the need for a support of some type. My Redsnapper seemed to defeat the object, so I paid £23 for a Tamrac Zipshot, thinking that if it was no use I'd get most of it back on fleabay. However, used carefully with the legs splayed and timer release it is very effective. Mind you I wouldn't put anything heavier, or indeed lighter on it. At 11oz/312g I dont even know it's in my pocket!
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I hadn't seen that one before, magirus :). It got under the radar because I didn't know that Tamrac made tripods.

Anyway, that does look pretty darned useful I have to say. The height looks good and at 23GBP, it makes my Slik look positively pricey :D.

Definitely a strong contender for the 'Ideal Holiday Tripod' award :naughty:.
 
Naboo32 said:
It's light too - 780g with the ball head on. That's only 120g more than my Red Snapper ball head on its own and about the same as a D90 body with the battery in! I've found that it's safer to move it around my picking up the camera by the grip (when attached to the tripod), instead of grabbing the tripod, as the camera makes the whole thing rather top-heavy and I can imagine it flipping over if grabbed too low down.

Hopefully, it will come in useful on my forthcoming trip to Venice :naughty:. Let's see ...
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LOL ! I can imagine most setups will be heavier than the slik tripod. Good idea carrying it using the camera itself.


tirc83 said:
Just for info - if you're travelling to Italy with hand luggage only, the Italian authorities regard a tripod as a dangerous item and insist that it goes in the hold.

I was stopped at x-ray in Bergamo and told that it could be used as a weapon by poking one of the legs in someone's eye. When I took a biro from my pocket and pretended to poke the guy in the eye with it, he failed to see my logic.
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Hmm now this worries me. My check in luggage tends to get mashed up so having a tripod in there seems like a sure way to irreversibly break it to 3 monopods. Might need to get one of them solid plastic luggage bags.
 
Naboo32 said:
I hadn't seen that one before, magirus :). It got under the radar because I didn't know that Tamrac made tripods.

Anyway, that does look pretty darned useful I have to say. The height looks good and at 23GBP, it makes my Slik look positively pricey :D.

Definitely a strong contender for the 'Ideal Holiday Tripod' award :naughty:.
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Like I say though, I wouldn't put anything much heavier than my G12 on it, but as that is my holiday camera it works fine for me!:)
 
magirus said:
Like I say though, I wouldn't put anything much heavier than my G12 on it, but as that is my holiday camera it works fine for me!:)
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... and for other holidaying 'togs too, which is why I'm glad that you brought it to our attention ;).
 
I bought the Slik Sprint Pro as my lightweight tripod and so far very pleased with it. Same spec tripod but full height. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the ball head as although it worked OK there was no dual safety catch on it and I found this a bit worrying in case I inadverdently knocked the catch across so I bought a Kood Pro BH02 ball head and fitted this instead.
 
hillwalkinggirl said:
I bought the Slik Sprint Pro as my lightweight tripod and so far very pleased with it. Same spec tripod but full height. The only thing I wasn't happy with was the ball head as although it worked OK there was no dual safety catch on it and I found this a bit worrying in case I inadverdently knocked the catch across so I bought a Kood Pro BH02 ball head and fitted this instead.
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Yeah, the ball head is a little fiddly, I must admit.

Anyway, I took the tripod out last weekend and put it through it's paces. It's a joy to carry around (fits nicely onto the parcel rack of my bike too :naughty:), although I really missed the height that would have come from having a 'normal' tripod :(. At one point, I was trying to shoot a pavilion by the side of a lake, using a 17mm focal length. Because I needed to be close to the pavilion, to make it fill the foreground, I ended up with the camera pointing upward a sharp angle and the obvious result was a very tapering pavilion :suspect:. Still, even another 2 feet on the height wouldn't have completely cured that problem.

In use, the tripod feels fairly stable - more-so than my medium size Giottos one, I would say. One minor worry is that the plastic clamps sometimes close with a bit of a 'snapping' sound, rather than a smoother 'clunk'. Out in the freezing dawn temperatures of last Sunday, I was having visions of one of the clamps snapping off in my hand, leaving one of the leg sections unusable. It didn't happen, of course, but there is a bit of a 'cheap quality' feel to those clamps.

Regarding the ball head; I did try swapping it over for a more standard size one (Giottos MH-1301), but it all felt a little top heavy then, so I took it off. I also managed to get the QR plate off of the SLIK ball head and tried to replace it with an Arca-Swiss style clamp plate. Unfortunately, the SLIK clamp was held on by a threaded stud, which is neither 1/4" nor 3/8" UNC :(. So, I couldn't make my Arca plate (with a 3/8" threaded hole) fit to it, even with the 1/4" reducer. Even though all of my other tripods/monopod use the Arca QR system, this SLIK will have to be the exception.

All round though, I still think that it was a great buy :thumbs:.
 
NikonSimon said:
you got your 50-135 yet Andy?
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:naughty: You may well ask, Simon. It's a hot topic right now.

I'm sorry to say that, so far, PurelyGadgets are living up to their (frankly, crrap) reputation for respectable delivery times :thumbsdown:.

I've been chasing them every day since I placed the order (on Monday morning) and as yet, they have only got as far as picking and packing the lens (today). It hasn't even left with the courier yet :(.

I asked numerous times if they actually had in the stock in the UK (as the sales guy claimed), or whether they were secretly importing them from the Far East (hence the delays). Interestingly, I haven't had a flat denial on the second option :suspect: - they just keep repeating an excuse about "delays at their UK warehouses due to weather" :shrug:.

If I get the lens, and if it's a good one, I'll be happy. The price was excellent. As for whether I'll ever at shop with PG again, well :lol: ... I think I've already made my mind up about that!
 
I took an ergorest on a recent trip to Paris which was ok although I found myself lying in the dirt eventually
 
Seems like the Benro Travel Angel I just picked up in Penang for £78 was bit of a bargain then :D
 
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