Tripod Reviews

I bought one of these quite some time ago to use with my SLRs (Canon T90s) and it turned out it was totally useless for them. It was way to wobbly so I ended up buying a Bogen tripod and ball head for around [$$$]. This tripod went into the closet until lately when we bought a DV JVC camcorder and for it this tripod works very well. The camcorder is light enough for the tripod to hold it steady enough. The fluid head is a bit of a joke (not really fluid), but it works for what we use it for. And the bubble level is a nice detail. You cannot put many pounds on this and don't expect to take razor sharp pictures on long exposures. But it's an inexpensive alternative for smaller digital cameras and camcorders. It's lightweight and easy to carry.

It's been a long time since I used a tripod but I managed to get it set up without reading the instructions. There are no instructions so save the box for helpful hints. Tripod is fit for my purpose: mostly indoor use planned. It is hard to get it truely static when pressing shutter release on Minolta Dimage X. I was also horizontally challenged - the base has a little level that is below (BELOW) the camera pad. I would not take this on a rugged outdoor adventure with many uneven surfaces (They will need to make a titaniium one to get it this light but durable; start saving now.) I would not use it around kids, old folks, crowds, or any combination of these because your expensive electonic gizmo is going to going to fly thru the air with the greatest of ease. A nylon or tyvek travel case would be a helpful item.

This is a pretty decent tripod, for the price. However, don't be misled by the "fluid effect head." That's why I happened to buy this particular tripod, and it turns out that I already owned one!

I had purchased a tripod made by Ambico which was almost identical about 14 months prior to this purchase. At the place where I bought it, it cost me around 20 bucks. I had decided to get a different tripod because the fluid effect head wasn't nearly fluid enough for me. When this one finally came, I compared the two, and my old one worked just as good as this one.

If you're looking for a cheap tripod that gives you great bang for your buck, then this tripod is for you. If, however, you're looking for a tripod that truly is fluid, look somewhere else. Oh. And if you're going to get this tripod, shop around a bit. You might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.

I went through two pair. The first pair that I recieved were broken. The left eye-piece was completely separated from the focuser. The replacement pair had a serious double imaging problem. At this point, I plan to try a different brand. I won't go back to Celestron. I will say that the order handling was excellent. The first pair arrived early and the replacement pair was delivered two days after I requested them. It's too bad that such great service was ruined by such poor quality merchandise.

Excellent performance considering the price (For astronomy), No collimation needed, the objectives looks with a dark bluish tint (Multi-coated optics), High quality BAK-4 prisms (The Better for astronomy applications).
Protective rubber caps + Soft carrying case + optics clean cloth + super-rigid photo tripod adapter + neck strap (ALL INCLUDED !!!)

RECEIVED ON ESTIMATED DATE (3 days to Miami), NO DAMAGED (package via FedEx Home Delivery) , This item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping (From Amazon.com)

Excellent packing, Celestron Binocular in excellent conditions, no collimation needed, excellent performance at the cost.
NO DAMAGES, RECEIVED ON THE ESTIMATED DATE

The Celestron Binocular`s objetives looks with a dark blue tint (Multi-coated optics), High quality BAK-4 prisms (The Better), considering the price, the performance is excellent.

Soft carrying case + tripod adapter + protective rubber caps + microfiber opti cloth, INCLUDED !!

Why I bought a new tripod: I already own an old garage-sale tripod of some unspecified brand that I've used with my video camera for several years. In retrospect, I took its stability for granted, but it lacked a few of the conviences typically found on current tripods. It folds up nicely, but is heavier to carry than current models, and the camera must be unscrewed from the base plate to remove it from the tripod. Having bought my first high quality digital still camera, I wanted a lighter-to-carry tripod and one that allowed quick removal and replacement of the camera.

Why I chose this one: This unit offered good height, light weight, a "fluid head" for smooth pans with the video camera, a snap-in base plate, and a carry bag - all at a great price.

Why I'm returning this one:

Least reason: The base plate attaches to the camera using a built in plastic tab attached to the screw. While this is a convenient idea, the tab must be folded down flat to get the base to lock onto the tripod. Not so bad until you want to remove the plate - you may need a screwdriver to pry up the tab or risk losing a fingernail. The screw itself does not have slots for a screwdriver.

Most reason: The stability I took for granted in my old tripod is lacking in the new one. Specifically:

1.The legs flex. On a vinyl floor, it was difficult to get a stable stance because the extended legs woud, one-by-one, flex and "dance" across the floor. On less-slick surfaces the feet stayed in place, but there was still movement in the unit.

2.The top pole (that raises with the crank) is shaky when extended. The idea of the "fluid head" for smooth pans seems lost when touching the camera causes considerable wobble in the bar itself. The top pole is better left down. (Yes, I tightend the connections.)

3.The bars of the center brace are attached by loose-fitting rivets. The brace may prevent the unit from collapsing should you need to set the legs at a narrower stance, but it does little to "solidify" the tripod.

Summary: At full height, it was difficult to take even still pictures without movement in the tripod. The setup may look stable, but then you have to touch the camera (unless you have a remote). It's worse with the video camera - I was unable to get a smooth pan in spite of the "fluid head". Stability is better at half-height.

Like the other reviews have stated, this is a great tripod. It is functionally stable in spite of its low price. You get more than you pay for with this item. I recommend it!!

PS - The 70" height is really nice!

Haven't tried it in windy conditions yet but I like that it's lightweight, easy to transport and extends to 70 inches. The extra height extension prevents you from stooping over when shooting videos. Good value, and free shipping (delivered in 5 days to Hawaii - not bad!) from Amazon only makes it better! Highly recommended.

A novice to astronomy i bought this unit with extra bells and whistles, thinking it would be a good intro to astronomy. I am completely disappointed and would never recommend it to anyone for any purpose other then a door stop. Unless you already have some knowledge of telescopes avoid it at all costs. Set up is difficult to impossible, and what eventually appears is not much better then what you can already see on a clear night. As far as i am concerned this purchase was a waste of money.

This is an awesome scope that is so much fun to use and makes it easy as can be to learn about astronomy. It comes with everything you need to see some of the most amazing outerspace objects, nebulas, other galaxies,and more. I can not say enough how easy and fun you will have with this scope. You can use it for terrestrial or space exploration. The only negative to the scope is do not expect to get many hours out of the AA batteries. Buy rechargeables, or build you a 12volt power supply like I did with a lead-acid battery and small battery box. It will last you for several weeks of viewing and plenty of power. The price is not cheap, but remember you get what you pay for these days. I started with a lesser scope and had to upgrade a month later to this one. Just do it right the first time and get the ETX-125 now instead of wasting your time and money with other smaller scopes. Again, this is an awesome scope you will be proud you purchased and impress your friends!

This is a great instrument for beginners and amateurs alike. Highly portable and easy to set up, which is important in light polluted areas such as Natick, MA. This allows me to get up and go to dark sky areas for fantastic viewing. Even in light polluted suburbia, the Moon, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Andromeda Galaxy, and the Orion Nebula are clearly visible as well as many other Messier objects. If you're a beginner, don't expect to see the flag on the Moon, Hubble Space Telescope can't even see that, or canals on Mars. Do expect to see amazing craters during crescent Moons and polar ice caps during Mars opposition. Jupiter is impressive to look at due to it's shear size. You can make out cloud belts and the famous eye of the 300 year storm. Jupiter's four largest moons show up as small points of light and they change location each night. It's as if you're looking at a miniature solar-system. Saturn and it's rings are among the most beautiful objects to observe. On very clear nights you can make out the Cassini division in Saturn's rings as well as it's largest moon, Titan. Andromeda Galaxy is viewed as a fuzzy cloud with more detail observable in darker skies. Use a CCD camera to overcome your eye's limitation by capturing the color and detail that are shown in pictures. The Autostar is an excellent educational tool with detailed information on each object. It allows you the hands-on experience of learning which makes it fun. Follow the instructions carefully for configuring the Autostar. The more accurate the motor calibration, the easier it will be to align to the stars. It helps to set your watch to the atomic clock which can be found at www.time.gov and use that for the time entered. This will give an accurate position of the stars according to the Earth's rotation. Make sure your telescope is pointed "True North" and follow the instructions for the fork arm location on the telescope. Learn the locations of a few stars during the different seasons in order to make the alignment procedure simpler. I found that if I placed the telescope slightly to the East of "True North" then each time the star it was aligning to was in my 26mm eyepiece. Don't be afraid to pick up the tripod and move it clockwise or counterclockwise until the star your aligning to is shown in the eyepiece. Then you can use the motor to center the star in the eyepiece. The less you use the motor for aligning the more accurate it seems to be and the faster it slews to the object.

This is my fourth tripod. The ones I have had previous to this one have all felt cheap and weak. One collapsed with my $400 camcorder on top of it. This tripod looks and feels sturdy. The legs have some weight to them and don't feel like they will collapse under the weight of my equipment. Honestly, I was going to get the 6601, but with this one I got the super saver shipping (Thanks to the recommendation of one of the other reviewers), but I am completely satisfied with this product. I like the bubble levels. I used them this past weekend to take a family reunion portrait in my back yard. I plan on taking it to the beach this summer for another family portrait (on my wife's side).

This is a great tripod for the price. It has numerous adjustments, holds steady, and folds up quite well for storage. Additionally it has spiked feet for outdoor use.

I bought the Sunpak 8001UT after a friend had bought the Sunpak 6601UT and was very satisfied. The only reason I went "up" to the 8001 was it qualified for free shipping (just over $25) whereas the 6601 didn't. For the price, the build quality is excellent and should serve the average consumer well. It is not what you would call bullet-proof by any means, but treated with a reasonable amount of care there doesn't seem to be any reason why this tripod won't outlast your next 2 or 3 digital cameras. The hinges on the stabilizing bars are rivets, that seems to be about the weakest point I could identify on the unit, but still seem sturdy enough. It's lightweight, folds fairly compact, and has been stable enough for me even on somewhat windy days. I couldn't be more pleased considering the price. It's amazing what $26.99 will get you, especially considering that these days the same amount of money will only get one of my two gas tanks on my truck half full!

This tripod was listed as an accessory for the Kodak DC3200 digital camera but there is no linkage available on that camera to interface with the tripod (ie. no little hole to screw that attachment screw into). OK, I'm certainly not a photographer myself so I took the whole she-bang into work for the real photographers to explain to me. Shaking their heads, they told me "hey, this tripod won't work with this camera". So, I guess I'm not as dumb as I look (weak grin). Anyway, make sure the camera you have has what it takes to hook up with a tripod cuz the recommendations page doesn't necessarily take this into consideration. I can use the tripod with a couple rubber bands around the camera but this certainly wan't my intention.

THe Hakuba FP-L1 is a nifty, small, mini tripod! The all metal construction seems very sturdy and well-put-together. It also has a key-turn nut for the camera screw which is very easy to use. Also, the adjustable camera platform "clicks" into several pre-set positions which is handy as well! It folds into a very small footprint which will fit into the smallest of camera bags. Note, however, that the tripod does not have a horizontal swivel head on it like I had hoped. It just has a vertical adjustment. This tripod would be great for macro work or simple travel setups.

This is just a fine piece of industrial design. It is solid, precise, compact. It's instantly familiar and usable, with no fiddliness. A key-turn mechanism makes it quick and easy to lock your camera on, unlike some low-end pods. Grippy feet and a vertically swiveling head let you set it securely on uneven or curved surfaces, not just tabletops. Own it!

This tripod does not have have any defects as such but unfortunately does not prove useful for most photography requirements. It can only be extended to around 43 inches or so. From, my experience one needs at least 60 inch tripods to take pictures of people or interesting sceneries. Moreover, it can pan only in two directions, so this tripod does not help while taking vertical photographs.

While purchasing a tripod look for these two main features
- 3-dimensional panning, you'll need to turn the camera around both in x, y and z axis.
- Also one that can be extended to atleast 60 inches.
Trust me, you really need these features, if you are looking forward to serious photography.

On the brighter side, this tripod is extremely light-weight and easy to carry around. But then the purpose of the tripod is to help in taking pictures, which this one is unable to.

For the price at Amazon it's a great buy! The build and design is extremely good considering it's under $20. This is a COMPACT tripod as another reviewer has noted, and is for light weight cameras/spotting scopes only. For most of us a 2-way pan head is fine - I wouldn't buy this as my one-and-only tripod, it's for when you want a tripod that's light weight and doesn't take up space yet is still reasonably steady if you don't overload it. I've bought a lot worse tripods for more than double the price!

I'm planning to put a bit of silicone grease on the two axes to make it pan a bit more smoothly. Other than that, this tripod is a great value for the price, I'm glad I bought it.

The Compact SXL is designed as exactly that- a COMPACT tripod. Sunpak has many larger models, but this one is intended to be compact & portable. The U212D Slik is a much heavier, less portable tripod & is not a comparable model.

I bought this spotting scope as a gift for my husband and one of his requirements was that it include a hard-side carrying case. Listed in the features section above it says "Hard-side and compact soft-side carrying cases included".
This is incorrect. This product does NOT include a Hard-side carrying case. I can't testify to the quality of the product as he has not yet tried it out, but just be aware that there is no hard side case with this product.

Proving that there's life in the old dog yet, Bushnell have come up with this, the successor to the out-dated, poor-performing Trophy Splashproof Spotting Scope, and I have to say, it's a fantastic improvement. As soon as I took it out of the box I was impressed with its styling, shape, colour, and of course, waterproofness. I set it up in my front room and spent a happy couple of hours watching my neighbours coming and going, and they were oblivious to my surveillance. It's not the most subtle 'scope out there but stick a blanket over your head and you're laughing. Any one who has been caught out in the rain will appreciate this little beauties moulded plastic housing, as water really does roll off it like, erm, water off a duck's back. Stunning.

I'm on line trying to find a replacement for our now-discontinued V-2800 tripod. The crank broke after limited use.

I just used it one time... But it's knob was broken...
I can't understand how can it be happend...

This is Great for the price.
Very well made for the price.
sturdy when camcorder is mounted.
Try it you will like it.

I purchased this tripod based on editorial reviews such as: http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/VEL/VEL.HTM, right before embarking on a 10 week x-country roadtrip.
2 weeks into the trip, the clamp that allows extension in one of the legs broke, making it impossible to extend and lock the leg.
It turns out the the inside pieces are cheap plastic!
Please note that I was a bit rough with it (undoing the clamps and flipping upside down to let the legs collapse), but given that this was designed for outdoor, 'roughing it' expeditions, it should really not have broken so easily.
I will say that the size and weight are fantastic.
The inner components should definately be stronger!!!

I purchased the Maxi 343E after reading Herb Keppler's article about it in Popular Photography. I really needed a tripod that I could travel with; my Bogen might be sturdy enough to mount a small car on top, but it comes with a price... WEIGHT!!

PLUSES:

It travels EXTREMELY well, and fits nicely in just about any piece of luggage, breaking down to about 18" and weighing barely a pound.

The ball head is easy to use, and even with a Nikon D100 SLR and a telephoto, the head keeps the camera locked in place. (Very little sag.) ALTHOUGH, for a REALLY long telephoto that weighs more, I suspect that this ball head wouldn't be up to the task.

The flap-locks are great. I like them much better than the screw-type locks seen on some tripods. Setup and breakdown is very fast.

PROBLEMS:

It's a light tripod. There's something to be said for MASS. In anything more than a little breeze, there just isn't enough mass to keep things from shaking.

The ball head works well, but you cannot smoothly pan from side to side as you can with a more expensive head.

BOTTOM LINE:

Certainly worth the price I paid... and considering the fact that the price has dropped $20.00 since I purchased it a few months ago, it's now a veritable bargain.

i had a 347GB which i think is quite similar the construction with the 343 except few structures. i am not giving the comments on the practicality in terms of photography because i am still new in it, i would like to commend on the construction of the trilpod. the near-all metal contruction is good in sense that it can stand the test of in case there is any failure, but it is unlikely because it is so strong.