What tripod do you use and aren't many identical?

Jorginho wrote:

Oke...wir sagen in Die Niederlande Vlees noch vis...Aber sagt mann auch manchmal wenn mann uber mFT redet...Jack of all trades master of none ist glaub ich aehnlich.

Oke...I read in that the tripod is quite heay at 2,4 Kg mit Kopf. That is about 1 Kg heavier. Otoh not bad and I can use it for when I just travel by car and not need to hike for longer distances. When it is windy it mightbe handy. Looks grat btw! do you happen to know how gamma is different from beta?

Thanks for the time you took and providing me with very useful information!

About the 2.4 kg mit Kopf (as mentioned In that test): This was not some standard ballhead, but Rollei's 'Dreiwege-Neiger M', something more for video.

The old version Beta 180 Carbon like mine without head is 1875 gr; (the older Beta as well as Gamma actually came without a head).

It is only the new Mark II versions of Beta and Gamma that come with a head now, the Beta with the Rollei T5S Mk II, the Gamma with the T3S Mk II. The newer ones also come with a bag now, what was not the case with the old versions. Rollei's price is still the same, so one could say they come with a free ballhead and a free bag now.

Here you can compare the specs of the new Mk II versions of Beta and Gamma:

https://d11lmoov32xbv3.cloudfront.net/documents/rollei-rock-solid-beta-mark-ii-carbon-stativ-0-1556866831de_EUR.pdf

https://d11lmoov32xbv3.cloudfront.net/documents/rollei-rock-solid-gamma-mark-ii-carbon-stativ-0-1556866807de_EUR.pdf

You can see that the main difference between Beta and Gamma is weight, max. height and the diameters of the different leg sections. And the difference between the two ballheads, T5S Mk II for the Beta and T3S Mk II for the Gamma.

Something like the new Beta looks good to me, with leg section diameters of 32, 28, 25 and 21!

About the ballheads: All I can say is "Do not buy a used one!" I spent € 60 on a used Manfrotto 498, Schrott. No matter how tight I might lock the ball, there is some kind of 'creep' during e.g. a 20 sec exposure. And the whole action is no longer smooth but rather 'hakelig'!

My solution was buying a second tripod, lol, that came with a nice ballhead! A never used demo model, about comparable to the Alu version of the Rollei Gamma. Watched it on ebay over several weeks, coming down in price from € 100 to 80 and then 60, but no takers, as nobody here knows the brand 'Baibian'. Looked it up, a Taiwan China based company, probably comparable to Fotopro. Looked good to me, so I offered € 25, got it for € 30, if I remember correctly!

The ebay pics of it:

The seller didn't even mention a ballhead at all, but that second pic looked like there is one, with the legs folded over the head. Baibian's website also mentioned a ballhead coming with this BD-284 tripod, an MD-28, so I bought it.

Here it is:

The Baibian website: http://www.baibian.tw/

The Baibian BD-284 tripod, pictured here the carbon version: http://www.baibian.tw/BD-Series.html

The BD-28 ballhead: http://www.baibian.tw/Ballhead-md28.html

Baibian's nicest looking ballhead, the 45A: http://www.baibian.tw/Ballhead-45A.html

I wish I knew who imports/sells Baibian products here in Europe, and under what brand name!

The Baibian tripod does not offer this horizontal position option for the center column, like my Rollei Beta does. The workaround I found again on ebay, something "Jusino VH-28", same seller as the Baibian tripod.

€ 9, new, including bag and shoulder strap!

Liewenberger