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Tripods -- Cheap and Compact
with heads that allow sideways tilts, using a mechanism that I have always thought
looks a bit weak, but I don't know what the model numbers are.
If the 38T4 is too large for you, I have seen even smaller ones by Slik of very
similar design and construction, but they are even shorter when fully extended. I
find the more-or-less waist height of the 38T4 to be perfectly usable for most
things, but I don't think I'd want one that was much shorter.
I also have a model 800G FL, which is larger, has flip-locks on its three-section
legs, has centre braces between the legs and the centre column, weighs about 29
ounces, has the camera platform 45 inches above the ground with no centre column
extension, and 57" with full centre column, which gets the camera eyepiece to just
about my eye level. It is about 22" long by 3" wide when folded, and has the same
sort of head as the 38T4. It is certainly a lot lighter to carry around than my
Manfrotto (which weighs about 6 pounds), but is only a bit smaller, and I find that
if I am going to carry something that large I usually go for the Manfrotto, which is
built like a tank.
If some of your photography, like mine, is done in the field when your primary
reason for travelling is not taking pictures, you often simply cannot manage to lug
along something like a Manfrotto. When that happens, a lightweight Slik in the
backpack is infinitely better than a rock-solid Manfrotto left at home.
Update: January 1998
It looks to me as though the current Slik tripod that is closest to the 38T4 is a new
(1/98) model called the Compact. From the description on the web (http://www.
tocad.com/nct) it appears nearly identical to the 38T4. The second closest model is
the 450G. It is perhaps a little bit smaller than the 38T4, but not much. It would
serve the same purposes nearly as well.
The next best currently available model is the 500G-FL. This is larger (about 18"
long when folded) but almost as light weight and extends to a somewhat greater
height (about 45 inches). I own one of these, too, and like it pretty well, though it
does not fit inside a small backpack as the 38T4 or 450G models will, so I don't use
it as often--if I am going to carry a tripod outside my day pack, I usually take my
Manfrotto 190 (Bogen 3001), which is about 5-1/2 pounds including ball head, 26"
folded including the head, extends to 4'10" tall, and is rock-solid with anything up
to a light 4 X 5 field camera on it.
http://www.photo.net/equipment/tripods/cheap (2 of 15)7/3/2005 2:21:27 AM