Budget Tripod

I could never buy that for two reasons:

1. It's a copy of a Manfrotto. Manfrotto are the worse pieces of junk on the market and this is a copy of the worst piece of junk. This tripod is the car equivalent of a Lada.
2. WTH is a Miliboo? The Chinese random English word salad name generator really got a good one with this name, kudos.

Those said, if all you need is an unmanned lockoff, this is probably fine. If you need to try to actual moves with it, I can't imagine that could be a pleasant experience?
 
Quality control can be pretty hit-or-miss or nonexistent on Chinese products; I'm glad that your Miliboo turned out to be a good copy.

Back in the spring I ordered an E-image tripod with a GH05 head and GA752 sticks. I went through two lemons that made a scraping sound when panning before I finally got a good copy. The two lemons both had a signed passed-inspection certificate, so E-Image either has really low quality standards or really lousy inspectors.
 
Here's the thing. I own a nice miller tripod that I use all of the time. It was over $1000 new and has lasted me over twenty years. It's solid. At work, we use a sachtler. It's even nicer and kicks major butt (lots of adjustments)! Is this $175 tripod as good as those other tripods? The answer is NO, but, it was built and operates way better than I thought it would.

I was doing steady moves with it and my camera felt stable on it. Will it hold up? I am not sure. Only time will tell, but the Chinese are making good stuff these days. It's worth considering if yo are starting out or just need a second affordable tripod.
 
+1 My second tripod is a 35 year old nondescript thing. With a plastic quick release. Does its job. I always carry it with the rest of the gear.
 
I have a Magnus VT-300 I bought 5 years ago for about $60 that is perfect as a B- or C-tripod. The panning isn't *totally* useless, but mostly it just needs to sit still and hold a camera (which it does perfectly). A quality tripod is a worthwhile (essential, even) investment, but a cheap and reliable tripod can be just as useful and valuable.
 
I bought a Magnus PV-7451M when it was on sale for $50, and it has several engineering flaws as well as quality control issues. I had to warranty exchange the head because the 3/8-16 threads were tapped at a diagonal angle. Sometimes cheap stuff is really good though, I was using a Davis & Sanford FM18 head on heavy Calumet sticks, it weighed 15lb, but worked quite well for what it was (until the head started leaking grease after a decade), but obviously wasn't as good as a Sachtler.
 
In the interest of full disclosure, I also had a Magnus VT-100 that broke after about 2 years. So yeah, as you note YMMV with cheaper brands :D
 
thefilmaddict said:
I was looking for a second tripod for my DSLR, but didn't want to spend much money. This ended up being pretty good:

https://youtu.be/57JyLhF-FS8
Click to expand...

Thanks, I watched your YT review.
You didn't mention how stable the tripod is, extended to full height, while handling, or touching the camera.
Also, it looks like there is no control for neither pan nor tilt drag, or friction amount.
Or am I wrong?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top