I think it was back in November that on impulse I ordered one of the new Heipi travel tripods off of kickstarter, it was supposed to show up in January. It showed up last week.
https://heipivision.com/products/heipi-3-in-1-travel-tripod A few months earlier I had bought a Lefoto LX-255CT, which I quite like, but the Heipi seemed a bit sturdier and the kickstarter price was quite good. https://leofotousa.com/products/leofoto-lx-255ct-xb-32-ranger-lightweight-carbon-fiber-tripod-with-ball-head I haven't had a lot of time to compare them in depth but first impressions are: They weigh about the same. Since the Lefoto folds back, it's collapsed length with head is about the same as the Heipi legs but the Heipi makes a smaller diameter cylinder. The nice feature about the Lefoto is that one of the legs will unscrew to be used as a monopod. The nice feature about the Heipi is that the center support can be removed to use as a very small tripod. The Heipi also has a phone mount built into the head. The Heipi will extend to taller than the Lefoto, it also seems a lot sturdier. I quite like the three legged center column, it seems a lot sturdier extended than the standard cylindrical center column. The head has a pretty large ball, probably twice the diameter of the Lefoto. It also has detents every 10 degrees which would make panning for panoramas much easier to get the same amount each time, particularly in the dark The downside of the head is that there are some arca swiss plates that are too wide to fit in it. Both tripods are carbon fiber, both are nice, I like the Heipi a bit better, if it had been available when I bought the Lefoto, I wouldn't have felt a need to get the Lefoto. If size and weight aren't a concern, then it is fairly straightforward to build a solid tripod, but tripods for travel/hiking are always going to be a question of which optimization for light, small, sturdy, and cost is right for you on whichever day. There are also questions of personal taste, and a tripod that some people will love, others will dislike. I'm not saying that the Heipi is better than other ones, but of the tripods in this category, it's the one I like the best so far. I do really miss my Benro travel flat, which I have no idea where it went. In many ways it isn't nearly as nice as either the Lefoto or the Heipi, but rather than collapsing into a cylinder, it collapsed into a rather flat rectangle that was easy to pack into a suitcase, or a camera bag. -- Larry Colen l...@red4est.com. sent from Mirkwood -- %(real_name)s Pentax-Discuss Mail List To unsubscribe send an email to pdml-le...@pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
