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Tripods -- Cheap and Compact
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In Praise of Cheap Compact Tripods
by Ross Alford
I have several tripods, from a 12-pound monster, through a Manfrotto (Bogen in
USA) 190, to three lightweight Sliks. The monster never moves from the lab, the
Manfrotto goes on short hikes, but the Sliks really travel well. I recently carried a
Slik 38T4 around for 2 weeks in Papua New Guinea, taking photos in rainforests.
The legs are 4 sections, with those damned annoying (but quite firm when locked)
twist collars to lock them open or closed or at any intermediate position. With legs
fully extended but no centre column extension, the camera platform is 31 inches
above the substrate, and the tripod really is *very* solid, at least with a camera of
moderate weight on it-- heavy enough to act as an anchor, but not so heavy that the
head has trouble coping. With the centre column extended, the camera platform is
38 and 3/4" above the substrate, but less steady.
Its head isn't nearly equal to a Manfrotto or Linhof, but it was cheap, and it's easy
to carry around. It collapses to 13-3/4" long and about 3" across when folded as
compactly as possible. It weighs about 19 ounces. It fits nicely into a daypack-type
backpack or photo backpack.
It held the camera steady for lots of 1/8 to 1 or more second exposures, including
being set up in the middle of streams. The camera was a Nikon FE2, BTW, with a
17mm F/3.5 Vivitar lens dated about 1980.
I have also used the Sliks with a 6 X 9 Crown Graphic, which is pretty lightweight
for a medium format camera, and they'll do in a pinch.
The 38T4 cost me $A45, and I have seen it advertised by New York camera places
for about $US 25. One thing worth noting--the head rotates and tilts back and forth,
but does not tilt from side to side; it is really set up more like a movie panhead. I
haven't found that this is a big problem; I just either loosen the tripod screw and
rotate the camera a bit for fine adjustments, or mount it 90 degrees from the normal
direction and tilt if I want to take a vertical shot. Slik does make similar tripods
http://www.photo.net/equipment/tripods/cheap (1 of 15)7/3/2005 2:21:27 AM