I ended up buying an “open box” Leofoto LX255CT for my “travel tripod”. It arrived yesterday, here is a photo of it next to my regular tripod: https://photos.app.goo.gl/uZq9hfxAd8bb55x17
I was checking the rankings of tripods on https://thecentercolumn.com/ and a similar leofoto had exceptionally good price performance: https://thecentercolumn.com/rankings/travel-tripod-rankings/ I went for this one because it has a center column. Shortly after ordering it I saw his post on the pros and cons of a center column, but realized that I wanted this not to replace my bigger tripod, but for the times that I wouldn’t otherwise have a tripod because my bigger one is such a pain to lug around. I was strongly considering the Peak Designs, and that one does have a lot to recommend it. I did one last bit of research before ordering a PD aluminum (the carbon fiber is way too much money for me at the moment). I really appreciate the website, Barryreiser did some much needed work, something I’ve been wanting to see for a long time. On one hand it is awesome that he now seems to have a full time job (I wondered why updates seemed to stop a year or so ago and a little google-fu found his Linked in profile). I do wish that even if he doesn’t have time to continue his work he could deputize someone to continue it. This is really needed. I haven’t had a chance to actually use the tripod yet, but on first inspection it is wonderfully compact and light. It doesn’t extend as tall as my regular tripods, but it goes tall enough for most situations. It also has the stubby center column replacement for photographing from down near the ground. I may be inclined to put a somewhat beefier head on it, but he has an interesting article on how putting too large a head on a light tripod can actually reduce system performance, though I expect that also depends a bit on the weight of the camera and lens. It is also small enough that I expect I’ll be able to carry it on my bicycle, and should be totally fine with the u4/3 gear. If anyone else is looking for a good deal on a small light tripod, they seem to have one left for $269: https://www.ebay.com/itm/173969485974 Not cheap, but still $30 less than an open box PD aluminum, and $110 less than a new PD aluminum, and less than half the cost of a PD Carbon Fiber. -- %(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.
