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Velbon 830 carbon fibre tripod (1 Viewer)

Horukuru

I have not used it with a heavy camera and don't digiscope, but I have had an 830 together with a Gitzo 2380 head for my ED 82 A Fieldscope for a couple of years now. My previous tripod was a Manfrotto 028 (modified for added stability) and the Velbon 830 is much more stable and damps vibrations really fast, in about a second. So for 75x magnifications, which I use often, it is a big improvement. I have no reason to doubt its performance with heavy camera gear either. My only complaint is that for my purposes it is too tall. The same tripod with shorter legs would suit me better and be easier to carry.

Kimmo
 
kabsetz said:
Horukuru

I have not used it with a heavy camera and don't digiscope, but I have had an 830 together with a Gitzo 2380 head for my ED 82 A Fieldscope for a couple of years now. My previous tripod was a Manfrotto 028 (modified for added stability) and the Velbon 830 is much more stable and damps vibrations really fast, in about a second. So for 75x magnifications, which I use often, it is a big improvement. I have no reason to doubt its performance with heavy camera gear either. My only complaint is that for my purposes it is too tall. The same tripod with shorter legs would suit me better and be easier to carry.

Kimmo
Click to expand...

Thanks Kimmo and have you seen the differences in vibration while extending the centre column ?
 
kabsetz said:
My previous tripod was a Manfrotto 028 (modified for added stability) and the Velbon 830 is much more stable and damps vibrations really fast, in about a second.
Click to expand...

Kimmo and Horukuru,

I was initially a little surprised by this as the Manfrotto 028 was among the best in the TVWG test. However, I then noted that the Velbon 830 has 36 mm top leg sections, so you could probably fabricate a stiff bicycle frame out of this stuff! Even the bottom leg sections are 28 mm and with an angled scope you would likely not need to extend these much, if at all.

There are similar carbon fibre configurations from Gitzo, Benro and Feisol.
Improvements in stability over and above these could only be obtained with very substantial and heavy wooden tripods.

The Velbon 830 achieves 179 cm without extending the centre column so you would have to be using a straight scope and be over 2 m tall before you need to extend it. Nevertheless, I think that the loss of stability associated with extending the centre column is often exaggerated. The lower sections of many 4 or 5 section tripods are so thin that extending the centre column may well be the lesser of two evils!

As a matter of interest, Kimmo, how did you modify the 028?

John
 
Got the tripod now and tested it with my Nikon Fieldscope EDG85 and managed to get sharp image than my aluminium Manfrotto which is impossible last time at 1750mm, the maximum zoom for my DSLR Photo Adapter FSA-L2 :king:

1750mm f21 1/100s D300s ISO 400

Adjusted EV +0.3 sharpen 10%

JAY_3462 Scaly-breasted Munia.jpg
 
Kimmo,

I have a questions.

Did you cut the centre column so it is easy to carry by putting the legs on your shoulder from below or you carry it with all the legs on your shoulder ?
 
Horukuru,

I have not cut the centre column, I carry it on my back with a CleySpy backpack-gizmo. The 028 I was carrying on my back in a similar fashion with home-made straps already fifteen years ago. I never need to extend the centre column very much and it therefore seems stable enough. I did remove the crank assembly from the column in order to make it faster to raise and lower in situations where there is suddenly something flying high overhead.

John,

I (rather crudely) modified the 028 by fashioning some kind of anti-resonators into the V-shaped upper leg sections. These were made of thick plastic hose, some heavy-duty cable ties and Plastic Padding epoxy "chemical metal" to fill all the gaps. The idea was to dampen the vibrations of the rather thin aluminum tubing in these legs. It helped, but of course did not turn the 028 into a carbon fibre tripod. But it was stable and low-resonance enough when thus outfitted that I resisted getting a Berlebach 3042 which most of my birding friends have.

Kimmo
 
Gulp - cheapest I can find for the legs only is £457 and then there's the head to add.

I don't suppose there's anything nearly as good but cheaper.
 
Dipped, you might consider the Feisol CT-3371 or CT-3372- both should be cheaper than the Velbon, and both have a top leg diameter of 37mm. I have not tried either of these tripods, but am pretty pleased with a different Feisol tripod I have.
 
dipped said:
Gulp - cheapest I can find for the legs only is £457 and then there's the head to add.

I don't suppose there's anything nearly as good but cheaper.
Click to expand...

Well, here in Germany it's available from several dealers for around €380.

As Kimmo suggested an alternative would be one of the 2-section Berlebach Report wooden tripods. Their damping and stability is probably better than any of the carbon fibre tripods with 28 mm top leg sections and they are quite reasonably priced. There is a vast variety of models in various heights with or without centre columns or levelling heads. The only disadvantage is that weights are around 3 kg.

The 3032 mentioned by Kimmo has a maximum height of 142 cm and a built-in 55 mm ball levelling head, so you would not necessarily require a separate head. However it only allows 30° of tilt, so would be less suited to birds in flight or amateur astronomy.

John
 
John Russell said:
Well, here in Germany it's available from several dealers for around €380.

As Kimmo suggested an alternative would be one of the 2-section Berlebach Report wooden tripods. Their damping and stability is probably better than any of the carbon fibre tripods with 28 mm top leg sections and they are quite reasonably priced. There is a vast variety of models in various heights with or without centre columns or levelling heads. The only disadvantage is that weights are around 3 kg.

The 3032 mentioned by Kimmo has a maximum height of 142 cm and a built-in 55 mm ball levelling head, so you would not necessarily require a separate head. However it only allows 30° of tilt, so would be less suited to birds in flight or amateur astronomy.

John
Click to expand...

SEOW said:
Dipped, you might consider the Feisol CT-3371 or CT-3372- both should be cheaper than the Velbon, and both have a top leg diameter of 37mm. I have not tried either of these tripods, but am pretty pleased with a different Feisol tripod I have.
Click to expand...

Thanks SEOW and John for your replies.

The Feisol with a centre column is £323 so it is cheaper than the Velbon. The tripod weighs 2.2kg, I can't find the weight for the centre column.

And a suitable head would be the Gitzo 2380 at 1.2kg. Is there a lighter alternative hopefully cheaper?

Is it all getting too heavy? Is it overkill? How badly do I need stable images at high mags? Would a lighter tripod do the job - not as well from what I've read.

Oh dear what to do...
 
Dipped, you're sure you want a center column, then? If you omitted the center column, that would save a little stability, money of course, and weight (the center column for the CT-3371 is listed at 450 g at the Feisol USA site).

And without its center column, the CT-3372 here

http://www.feisoluk.com/Tripods-Tou...t-Class-Carbon-Fibre-Tripod/product_info.html

is listed at 1.72 kg and goes for 398 pounds, 452 with (can't get my computer to do the symbol for pounds).

What sort of scope are you planning to put on this tripod (guess I should've asked that earlier)? If it's an angled scope, you likely wouldn't need a center column for extra height.

As for a head, there's this one, unfortunately not at all cheap, but apparently as stable as the 2380 and about half the weight:

http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=175425

Hope that's some help-
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure what I want/need.

At present I have a Manfrotto Junior tripod which I picked up for £10 a few years ago and I recently acquired a Nikon 82 fieldscope with the 38x eyepiece.

I want a better tripod and head, so I can use high powers when I get the zoom and also if I start digiscoping.

Most birders use a standard 28mm top leg carbon fibre tripod with say a Manfrotto 701HDV head.

Until looking at this thread that is what I would (still may), have gone with.

On seeing Kimmo's kit it made me wonder if it would be worthwhile getting the velbon 830 or equivalent. Anyway SEOW thanks for your help.
 
dipped said:
Most birders use a standard 28mm top leg carbon fibre tripod with say a Manfrotto 701HDV head.
Click to expand...

Dipped,

If it's purely for visual use and you carry your gear around a lot, then that would be a good compromise. There will be occasions when strong winds make things difficult but then collapsing the tripod legs and sitting on the ground may be an option.

Keep the leg extensions to a minimum - 2 is better than 3 is better than 4.

Tripod height for a straight scope should be approximately own height minus 25 cm, and own height minus 55 cm for an angled scope.

John
 
Dipped,

I would say that the 830 is a bit of overkill actually, but for me it is useful overkill. For the money, it is very difficult if not impossible to get equal stability elsewhere, but for visual scoping in the field the tripod is unnecessarily tall and thereby also heavier than it would need to be. The legs could easily be some 3 inches/section shorter and there would still be ample height for all occasions except perhaps very steeply sloping terrain. As it is, I usually have the bottom extension of the legs out by only about 10cm and centre column all the way down. Then if something flies overhead, I quickly extend the column.

Gitzo has some carbon models that have somewhat more reasonable dimensions and excellent stability, but for a much steeper price, especially once you figure in the extendable centre column option. Velbon 730 might be a very good option, but I have not had a chance to try out one in vivo.

But the general truth remains that the more stable your tripod, the better you see.

Kimmo
 
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