Buyers’ guide
Vanguard › vanguardworld.co.uk
Novo › ukdigital.co.uk While Novo’s Explora T10 carbon-fibre tripod has been around a few years now, it remains an excellent product, and its price has dropped to an even more attractive £199 from its previous guide price of £249. That includes an Arca- Swiss-compatible
Vanguard has been very active updating its tripod offerings in recent months, and the VEO 3+ 263 is one of the leading lights. It’s available in aluminium (263 AB) and carbon (263 CB), priced at £249.99 and £339.99, respectively. These come with the VEO 2 BH-160S dual-axis ball head. The two tripods have a very similar set of great features, including a 15kg load capacity, twist-grip locks and three easy-set leg angles. Both also have MACC, or Multi-Angle Central Column. Simple and fast to bring into play, the MACC means the centre column can be retracted from the tripod shoulder, to manipulate the camera into almost any position.
ball head and both rubber and spiked feet. Plus, one leg detaches to act as a monopod. from eight-layer carbon fibre and full extension gets you a shooting height of 1.72m – impressive for a unit that folds down to 49.5cm. The legs are made
Leofoto › leofoto.eu
Leofoto has ten collections to consider, including the Poseidon, which features an innovative pair of waterproof tripods. One of our favourites is the LS-324C from the Ranger series – and it comes with the LH-40 ball head at a price of £359. The LS-324C is a four-section, carbon-fibre travel tripod that weighs just 1.88kg, yet can deal with loads up to 15kg. With no centre column, the pod’s profile is slim and you can get as low as 16.5cm off the ground, with a maximum height of 1.39m. A supplied carbon-fibre extension gets you up to 1.7m.
Joby › joby.com/uk-en
Joby came to prominence thanks to the GorillaPod, a mini tripod featuring legs with flexible aluminium joints. It meant you could use it as a table tripod for one shot and wrap the legs around a railing or fence for the next, then just have it as a grip. Very practical and compact, too. There’s a huge collection of GorillaPods in Joby’s range now, for phones, compacts, mirrorless cameras and DSLRs. Shown here is the 3K Pro designed for mirrorless cameras. It can accept a 3kg load and is priced at £99.
3LT › 3leggedthing.com
interchangeable feet and multi-section telescopic centre columns with parallel leg locking. On many tripods, one of the legs can be detached to be used as a monopod. In the Pro Series 2.0 tripods, all three legs are detachable and employable as monopods or boom arms, and adding different legs transforms full-size supports to table-top tripods. The Leo 2.0 is £319.99, the Albert £379.99, with the Winston £399.99 – all prices are with an AirHed.
3 Legged Thing has brought plenty of innovation to the market. That starts with the marketing of its products that are given names (Ray, Mike and Patti, for example) rather than quickly forgettable product codes. It doesn’t stop there, and 3LT employs colour and innovative design to set its products apart from rivals. 3LT’s Pro Series 2.0 comprises three models: Albert 2.0, Leo 2.0 and Winston 2.0. Key features include the use of eight-layer carbon fibre,
Kenro › kenro.co.uk
Slik › holdan.co.uk
K&F Concept › swains.co.uk When you want to travel light, but still need a three-legged support, the K&F TC2535 could be the tripod for you. It’s a five-section carbon model that folds down to 35cm, but can open up to a height of 1.42m. It’s sturdy enough to have a load capacity
Kenro doesn’t offer a huge tripod range, but what’s there is worth a look. The Karoo Ultimate Travel Tripod (carbon fibre) sells for £209.99, which is a great price for a quality carbon pod. It weighs in at 1.93kg and extends up to 1.76m, but can get as low as 22cm. With twist-grip locks, a leg that detaches for a monopod and three leg angles, this offers fantastic value.
grip locks that have a special Slik anti-rotation system. It weighs 1.35kg and stretches up to 1.65m, but can get as low as 18cm. Price is competitive at £348.
With over 60 years of tripod manufacture, Slik knows what makes a great camera support. The Pro CF-734 is a set of four- section carbon legs, with twist-
of 10kg. Expect to pay around £120.
22 Photography News | Issue 98
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