They're here!
Haven't had a huge amount to of time to play with them both but I'll give you my initial impressions of them both.
First things first, I'm keeping the Velbon, the Cullmann is going back...heres what I thought of it.
Cullmann, initial impressions:
· Its thin from being flat packable
· It’s well made, feels nice in the hand
· Due to the design you could throw it in the bag and forget about it, not realise it’s there
So I unfolded it. I didn’t read the manual…I never do. I like to see how intuitive these things are, and it took a few seconds to figure it out but I soon had the legs in place, when they spin around they click in place with a satisfying noise.
The legs when clicked in place are fiddly to extend, they don’t feel very made on the joints itself. Also when the legs fold out from horizontal to angled they don’t click in place, so I found I had to adjust one of the legs again to make sure it was at the correct angle (the weight of the leg almost makes it start going back to where it came from, not a big issue, but annoying)
At its full height it comes up to just under out chin, around about chest height. I'm 5ft 7.
Packing away I found fiddly but then again I think its just a case of getting used to it. It felt sturdy enough but I didn’t attach a camera, and you would need to buy a head for it. To pack it down to its most compact you’d need to remove the head each time too.
The idea behind the Cullmann is good and you can see where they have sacrificed basic features in the effort to save weight. I like it. If I didn’t have the experience of other more versatile tripods, I’d love it. You could easily make it so the legs went 180 degrees. But I’m sure they had their reasons.
Basically in a nut shell, it's a good tripod. But it's not suitable for me and my trip. I'd recommend to those who wanted a basic lightweight tripod. So unfortunately it goes back.
Annnnywaaay, enter the Velbon UT43D II.
OK, initial impressions...its a very nice well made product, it feels good in the hands, its ridiculously small! I've only got small hands and I could easily get my hands wrapped around it and handle it.
Here it is next to my Manfrotto 170.
And here it is next to a TRAINER to give you an idea...
Fully extended it is taller than my 170, apparently I had quite the face of shock when I undid the leg and pulled then suddenly six pieces of leg followed it, it just kept going!
To fix the legs at an angle it has a handy metal switch on the collar.
Also, to retract the legs 180 degrees to compact the tripod, along with putting them in any position, the whole collar twists around.
Overall, I'm chuffed. For £80 it's a steal!
