Zomei Aluminum Tripod with Ball Head (1 Viewer)

I've had my Zomei tripod for about a week now, and although weather and social requirements have kept me from doing much field testing, it has gotten a workout looking out my balcony. This is a Q666 head on a four section tripod with reversible center post and legs that fold backward over the head for storage. I think it is about 18" folded and extends to 55" with center post collapsed and 64" with center post fully extended. It also has a monopod conversion feature. The legs have retractible rubber legs that screw in to expose spikes. It also came with a nice carrying bag and Allen wrench to adjust leg connection to the hub. Both leg locks and center post lock are 1/4-turn-1/2 turn screw locks.

I am using a 2 lb Opticron MM3 60mm spotting scope on this tripod. The scope has a magnification range from 15x to 45x. The head uses quick release plate that took a little getting used to, as I was only familiar with the Manfrotto quick release that press in and lever lock. This place slides in and then is caught in a sort of vise grip. It seems to hold well enough. The head has an independent pan motion below the ball, and there is a lock for the pan motion. The pan tension isn't adjustable, but there is mild resistance that I find very workable. The ball has two tension knobs. I believe that one is intended as a minimum tension setting an the other is a lock knob. The unfortunately, the tension interaction is a bit more subtle than that. However, I have found an appropriate tension setting and as long as I do not unscrew the locking knob more than about half a turn, I go from a locked ball to a smooth but tensioned movement.

At this tension setting of the ball and with the pan lock released, the entire head pans a bit more easily than the ball moves. So the ball provides tilt while the base of the head provides pan, and there is very little twisting of the ball and the scope stays nicely positioned as I smoothly move it. I tried using a simple lightweight Benro video head (S2), and the ball head with the above adjustments is far easier to use. I also prefer it to the three way head on my ancient Celestron photographic tripod and the pistol grip ball head on my Manfrotto 055XProB aluminum tripod.

The legs of the Zomei range from 25mm to 16mm in outer diameter. For comparison the Manfrotto 055XProB legs are 30mm to 20mm, and it has three leg sections rather than four in the Zomei. The Zomei also has a slightly narrower footprint at the same leg extension. Both of these as well as weight perhaps other factors make the Manfrotto more stable with quicker dampening of vibrations. But in actual use, I have not found the vibration in the Zomei irritating or distracting even at higher magnifications. Once again I have yet to test in a good wind. The issue there would be continuing motion rather than a quickly damped vibration after moving the telescope or adjusting focus.

I have quickly found the head controls to be very intuitive, and the tripod is easy to deploy, adjust, and pack up. Of course if there were fewer sections it would be even quicker, but then again it would be less compact. The ease of moving around with this tripod/scope combination is dramatic compared to my earlier astronomical refractor on its sturdy mount at ~20 lb. But the difference between the 9 lb on the Manfrotto mount/head and 5.75 lb on the Zomei mount/head is very noticeable as well.

So far, I am very pleasantly surprised by the performance of the Zomei tripod. For me it is an interesting experiment to better understand my requirements, see how I like using a ball head, determine how light and how expensive I want to go.

More later,
Alan

The Opticron MM3 60 is so far performing admirably on the Zomei tripod, both at home and in the field. I had my first meeting with birders at the Ballona Wetlands here in Southern California yesterday morning. Although the weather threatened and skies were gray, we had nothing more than a few drops. I brought my Sightron 8x32 binoculars and the spotting scope and tripod.

I had the binocular (with RYO ultralight harness) and scope (in padded homemade bag), notebook, and field guide in my backpack with collapsed Zomei tripod/head riding horizontally tied to the bottom of the backpack. This would be a reasonable setup for a trek, but since the wetlands tour was going to be just short walks between viewing sites, I decided to put the tripod/scope together at the car and just carry it over my shoulder. I've figured out the minimum extension of the smallest leg segment to get the minimum height I want, and any other small adjustments can be made with center post. The assembled scope and tripod is small, light, and easy to maneuver that way.

I like the fact that the 45 degree scope is a bit below my sight line, so I can use my binoculars above it and switch back and forth quickly. Though it was not particularly windy, the tripod/scope combination seemed fine in the wind. I was never on ground that was very uneven where I needed to adjust the legs. The tension adjustment I had been using at home was also just fine in the field, so I had to do very little fiddling with the head, except occasionally locking the pan. The range of altitude I used was a little greater than I normally use at home, because I was viewing birds in nearby trees rather my more typical shore viewing mode. Yet the ball head did it's job well, and I had no trouble with wandering scope at higher altitudes. OTH, I was not trying to track overhead flights with the scope either. There seems to be no reason to lock the ball, unless I was going to carrying the scope/tripod to a new spot. The ball tension is enough to keep it on target as I study a subject. The pan motion has no tension adjustment and I do tend to lock it if I am on one bird for a while. This makes the head essentially a one control head while in use.

The 8x binocular and 15x scope is a nice combination. I would find something in the binocular and then switch to the scope at 8x. If it was flitting around but staying in the same area (a gnat catcher), I was able to track it pretty well in the scope at 15x and then increase magnification if it stayed put for a moment. If I lost it in the scope I could quickly catch it again in the binoculars. Also, even without any higher magnification, and even at fairly close quarters, the difference in detail between 8x hand held and 15x tripod mounted is phenomenal.

Of course this is a new toy and I need to see how it holds up to a variety of field conditions, but so far, this tripod and head seems just fine for a compact 2lb scope.

Alan