lf-photo.org.uk

Evening all

I'm probably going to be able to scrape together some cash to get a lighter/taller tripod soon along with a better ballhead later this year. Anyone got any experience or words of wisdom on carbon fibre tripods in the distinctly sub-gitzo pricerange? The choice seems to be the established names like manfrotto/velbon/slik, and then the far east ones like giottos, feisol, induro, redsnapper etc etc.

To nail specs down a bit, looking for a tripod about the 140cm mark with the column down, 3 section, weighing less than 1.9kg. Will only be supporting a light 4x5 plus doing double duty with occaisional medium format or digital, so doesn't need to be able to support a bankvault or an anvil or anything ridiculously heavy or torque-generating. I would like to stick with lever locking legs rather than twist lock style though.

(If anyone wants a laugh, my current tripod is a manfrotto 190 with a 486RC2 head. Works surprisingly well though, just a bit too short and the manfrotto release can work loose).

Cheers

Hello from France.
I have a Berlebach Nr. 8013 wich does quite fit within your specifications for weight @2.2 kg instead of 1.9.
3-section, without centre colum, the Berlebach 8013 it is rated for 10 kg.
More comments here nearby in the forum
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2134
My ballhead is an Arca Swiss B1. Very compact, its successor Z1 is even more compact and lighter.

Hmmm thats an interesting suggestion, but its not really tall enough for me, and at 2.2kg a bit on the heavy side. At that weight I'd probably get any old manfrotto 055 and have more height and spend half a much money, as the extra load capacity of that Berlebach would be wasted on my gear. My heaviest camera+lens+6x17 at the moment doesn't even top 3kg.