Bought a new tripod...

After much debated mishaps on my part, the old tripod which I bought a year or two ago was broken. Sad but true, the tripod was broken and in need of replacement. Taking photo without a tripod when it is needed is not an enjoyable situation at all. As many photographers (and videographers too) would have said, a tripod greatly helps in keeping the camera (video recorder) still or unshaken. It is also instrumental to capture still photos such portraits, landscape shots such as mountain ranges or even sea shores during sunset/sunrise.

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:

1. 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).
2. 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).
3. 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.
4. Multitude of positions it can accommodate to suit my photo shoot needs.
5. It is not heavy to carry (about 1.85kg). A bag is provided out-of-the-box for easy carry.
6. The price is within my budget. :)

The cons:

1. 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.

All-in-all, I think I have made a good decision on purchasing this tripod.

Well, what do you think?