For several years now, I have been wondering about the fate of the Manfrotto tripod that I purchased back near the very beginning of my photographic hobby. I remember the aluminum tripod and ball head costing more than my first SLR and lens: a Pentax MX Super with a manual 50mm lens. I left the tripod in a closet when I went to Oxford and haven’t seen it since, despite a fair bit of concerted searching during a couple of the periods when I was in Vancouver.
Due to a holiday promotion, I have bitten the bullet and picked up a new Manfrotto tripod. This one – a 725B Digi – is a bit smaller and lighter than my old one, through the overall design and construction is very similar. The two biggest things it lacks, in comparison to the one I hopefully still have in some obscure Vancouver corner, are (a) the ability to position the legs at any of three stable angles (due to push-in aluminum blocks) and (b) the option to invert the centre column for use very close to the ground. The biggest advantages are the somewhat smaller overall dimensions and lesser weight. Other differences include (a) a lever rather than a screw for tightening the centre column, (b) a different design for the lever that secures the ball head, and (c) four-segment legs rather than three-segment ones. The two models are different enough that I will not be annoyed if the old unit does turn up in the course of future rummaging.
Given the reality that I will be at work during most of the daylight hours between now and the spring, having a tripod on hand makes a lot of sense. It is also nice that this model is compatible with the tripod plates from the previous stabilizer, including those affixed to the bottom of my Elan 7N and Rebel G.
The old tripod is visible in this photo.
What sort of tripod-dependent projects do you have planned?
Billed as the “World’s Smallest Tripod,” the Manfrotto ModoPocket is actually a quadrapod, but definitely just plain tiny: 1.5 x 2.5 x 1.25 inches and 2 oz. Mostly I have been using it to take indoor group photos with the self-timer, using face recognition to trigger the shutter when I jump into the group. Shoot it again? Much easier to repeat the composition than if the camera is propped on a book and/or tilted with a coin (either way, that method often results in a photo that includes the table in the shot). The ModoPocket simplifies these tasks, makes them more easily repeatable, and provides good stability. The photos posted on Amazon show how easily it tilts up or down, or turn it 90 degrees and it tilts side-to-side. It also folds very thin (0.25 inches), so it can be left permanently attached to the camera. In addition to shooting, I use mine as a work stand while I edit photos in the camera, and use it for easier viewing and huddling-around-the-camera (aka “chimping”).