Thus, the search for a new tripod began. After many hours of research (forums and reviews), I finally made my mind on a Velbon VS-443D. A tripod designed to be multi-purposed in its usage. It is useful in normal use portrait and landscape shots as well as allows for capture of images at close range or macro shooting.
Below is a few photos and a youtube video review of the tripod. The review showed how flexible and dynamic the tripod is thus allowing for multitude of ways to capture images and videos.
The pros:
- The build quality is excellent. The whole tripod is made of aluminium except for the ball-head which is made of magnesium (which is also very good).
- The ball-head can be tilted and locked according to my needs. As a result, the camera can be freely positioned (for example: upside down, at awkward angle etc).
- The total height of the tripod (after all 4 leg sections are extended) is good enough for me. I do not have to bend over just to compose my shots through the viewfinder all the time.
- Multitude of positions it can accommodate to suit my photo shoot needs.
- It is not heavy to carry (about 1.85kg). A bag is provided out-of-the-box for easy carry.
- The price is within my budget. :)
- The ideal weight for this tripod is about 3kg. The maximum load it can support is about 5kg. Well, first of all, this is not a big problem for me as total weight of my camera (camera+semi-telefoto lens+flash) would not exceed 3kg. Thus it is more suited for use with camera (compact or DSLR) and light-weight video recorder.
Well, what do you think?
