Brunton aluminum & carbon closeout (1 Viewer)

Tempting, but I'm spoiled. I picked up two of the Manfrotto 55XPROB aluminum tripods when Amazon closed them out for about a hundred bucks. They're 5 pounds without heads, though.

I like the CF unit here - it'd shave about 2 pounds from the carry weight of the 391RC / 55 combo, but the four section legs...

The 55 uses 3 section legs, and I really like not faffing around with the additional leg. I've carried the 55 and a pair of Pentax 20x60s and found it pretty doable for a few miles. I also have a Vanguard Alta 264, which is not as good as the 55 but is lighter, and has 4 section legs - and it's got me looking for a tall tripod with 3 section legs and no included head.

(thinks more)

the 20x60s and tripod were not joined when I was lugging them around. Given that I'm thinking of this with a small astro scope that I'm using primarily as a spotter and tend to tote around assembled more than I would with binoculars, meaning, resting on a shoulder - the weight savings would definitely be noticeable.

There may be a NIB 55BX coming for sale - I haven't opened up the second of the two, as I'd thought the second might have been a gift but the person in question didn't particularly want it.

FrankD said:

I did find one negative to the Brunton carbon fiber tripod (but I am sure it is not unique to just this tripod). I had it out yesterday morning to do some phonescoping for sparrows. At 5 degrees Fahrenheit with a bit of a wind chill to boot the head was almost unusable. Extremely stiff to move though it was possible. Here is one of the pics.....

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Wonderful shot there, Frank!

I will note that, it seems, your complaint is about the head and not the tripod as such. I've kept the Brunton head on my aluminium version, at least for now, but replaced the head on my CF with a good quality yet light weight ball head. Not because of any temperature problem (if anything, I'd need to worry about heat not cold) but because I find a ball head more useful for my (primarily photographic) purposes. Your uses are probably different, but you might want to consider replacing the head with something that better matches your needs. The tripod would still be a bargain, even with the additional expense for a replacement head.

...Mike

Botach shows Carbon Fiber Tripod backorder. Might mean the end of the carbon fiber ones.

Nice picture Frank, I have found one thing about the head on mine that is not typical either.

The handle to control the head is straight on, no offset to the side like my other tripods. It would be good
for a spotter, but I found out when using it for mounted binoculars it hit me, so I could not use it
for that. I suppose it may be a little difficult with a DSLR also.

Jerry

When I checked Botach yesterday there were only 8 left.

Botach does not show the carbon fiber tripod now at all, sold out I would say.

I got one of the cf tripods in today. boy that head is a hot mess. despite it having pan capacity in theory, in practice the set screws for the head push the armature off the bolt very easily before they're able to offer useful resistance to unscrewing.

I have a manfrotto 392 rc head that works far better on it, and weighs the same or less than the supplied head. wound up picking up trash by the roadside (some jackass had covered about 100x2 feet of fence in sheets of blowing paper) at lunch instead of stopping at the marsh but it felt like sturdy legs as I initially looked it over.

in case anyone hadn't noticed, the rectangular stops at the "hips" can be lifted out to let the legs splay wider. I occasionally want two legs at one angle and the third more horizontal, and the cf tripod does let you do that.

mooreorless said:

Botach does not show the carbon fiber tripod now at all, sold out I would say.

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As usual I am a bit late to party. :-C

Placed an add in the "wanted" section for one of these Tripods in Carbon Fiber.
If you have one your looking to get rid of, shoot me a PM. Thanks