Golden brown beech leaves taken over the past few days as the mild autumn continues with the help of a new lightweight Zomei carbon fibre tripod (updated first impressions review below). If you click on the pic it becomes even more wonderful.
I dont very often do reviews, mainly because there are lots of very meticulous reviewers out there who do a much better job than I ever could. Recently however, I took a gamble and purchased a Zomei Z888C Carbon Fibre tripod, made in China the brand was new to me nevertheless the staggeringly low price was too attractive to overlook. This model retails for about £130 (October 2015) which is below half the price of similarly spec’d tripods from other brands and comes with a ball head rated to take a max load of 15kg. Other important stats are it’s weight; 1.5kg (3.3 lbs), maximum height 174.5 cm (5′ 8″) and folded length 46cm (18 inches), it comes with a good quality carry bag. My first impressions, after a couple of outings, are that although it is light, very light, compact and made from 8 layer carbon construction, the screw type adjustment of the legs is flimsy and a bit hit and miss. I don’t think I will be taking it down the beach with the 600mm f4, but then I have the bullet proof #074 legs (manfrotto) with a fluid head for that. If you are on a budget and careful, you may consider them.
Postscript. As always you get what you pay for and after three months the leg fell off and customer service from China has been abysmal. So Im left with a two legged tripod which is about as much use as lots of other useless things.
Click on the pix to enlarge
Canon 5D mk3, 7D mk2 & iphone 5 c/w 24-70mm f2.8 L ii & 50mm f1.8
esterspears 
Posted on November 8, 2015
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