Carbon tripod similar to Peak Design Travel Tripod but at half the price

I am less and less impressed or should I say not impressed with the Ulanzi tripod. I have used it more now and I have to say the legs are not as stiff as I would have expected. They are on par with my old MeFoto backpacker AL. Their proprietary F38 connections are pure junk. The levers for releasing the center column or ballhead are just odd and cumbersome in real practice. My center column is stiff and stable but still very odd to work with. The lever for the ballhead is constantly in the way of the release mechanism to rotate. Again the F38 is just dumb. I have managed to make it work but with some sacrifices. A lot a play between its interfaces to the point I don't trust it, certainly not a rock steady connection one would expect with a tripod. Which after all isn't stability the whole purpose of a tripod?

In the end its a cheap Chinese ripoff of the PD. The YouTube reviewers which have been posted and admittedly swayed my opinon must have been paid. They have zero credibility IMHO. To be clear I have never used the PD and I am comparing my experiences with the FLM CP30-L4 II, which is a great tripod. Its about 1lb and 6 inches longer. I should just take it but when traveling with other gear weight and volume start to matter. I should have followed my own normal advice. Buy once cry once. I can not recommend the Ulanzi Zero F38/Y

McWoodley said:

In the end its a cheap Chinese ripoff of the PD. The YouTube reviewers which have been posted and admittedly swayed my opinon must have been paid.

Click to expand...

So...if a reviewer has a better experience than you that reviewer must be a paid by the manufacturer? Conversely, if your experience with the F38 is poor, does that mean we should infer that you've been paid by a rival company like PD to trash Ulanzi?

Sorry you dislike your F38, but your opinion is no more valid than anyone else's. Maybe you should try returning the tripod or selling it?

Interpol said:

McWoodley said:

In the end its a cheap Chinese ripoff of the PD. The YouTube reviewers which have been posted and admittedly swayed my opinon must have been paid.

Click to expand...

So...if a reviewer has a better experience than you that reviewer must be a paid by the manufacturer? Conversely, if your experience with the F38 is poor, does that mean we should infer that you've been paid by a rival company like PD to trash Ulanzi?

Sorry you dislike your F38, but your opinion is no more valid than anyone else's. Maybe you should try returning the tripod or selling it?

Click to expand...

Some of the reviewers talk about how rock solid the legs are. That is simply not true. Yes you got me, I am being paid by all the manufacturers who use the Arca Swiss standard to trash Ulanzi’s concept of basically the same thing but several mm smaller so it doesn’t function with other systems. To be fair most if not all of the reviewers aren’t in the USA and received the model that is Arca Swiss and not their F38. The F38 is the source of most of my frustrations. Don’t get me wrong the PD is outrageously priced. Although at Ulanzi’s price point I still expect more. My FLM wasn’t that much more albeit with no ball head.

My opinion is purely my opinion based on the experiences I have had with this tripod, which I had very high hopes for. There are many things I like about it but the F38 ball head and legs that are not stiff detract from it. The compactness and light weight is very attractive of the Ulanzi, and I acknowledge there are always trade offs.

I don’t get paid for anything photography related, I don’t receive money generated from YouTube views. Just one persons real life experience using their tripod in the field. I typically find it unethical to buy something, actually use it, then return it just because I made a poor decision. However I am considering returning this product.

What have your experiences with the Ulanzi Zero Y F38 been? You already said the F38 could be more robust? I agree. Are there other tripods you are comparing the Ulanzi to?

I signed up for stock notice from B&H who had listed as a pre-order the arca version of the tripod. Well dot notice that it's since been discontinued... Seems a big push by Ulanzi to get rid of the arca version in their supply chain.

All of the plates from Peak Design, Ulanzi (F38) and PGYTech are very similar but also incompatible. I would argue (and maybe I already have in this thread) that the PGYTech plate is easily superior to the other two choices for two reasons. First, if it twists on your camera body, it will not loosen the screw holding it to the camera body. It is a really clever bit of engineering. Second, PGYTech has the best ecosystem of SnapLock accessories. Their Beetle camera clip is best-in-class, easily better than both the Peak Design and the F38 alternatives.

That is crazy. The Zero-Y (Arca-Swiss) version has been available on Ulanzi's site for US customers. Then it became available on B&H. Then Ulanzi quit shipping it to the US from Ulanzi's site. Then Ulanzi changed their mind and made it available to customers in the US again. Now B&H has quit selling it. It is still available and NOT discontinued on Ulanzi's site.

My advice to anyone interested is to order the Arca-Swiss Zero-Y while you can. I just got mine from B&H today and it is excellent. The Zero-Y is much more flexible than the F38 version which forces users to use their own quick release plate.

Karl Scharf said:

tlinn said:

Glad you solved your problem with the PD head, Karl. Of course, the solution is not without its own tradeoffs in terms of cost, size, and weight but it may be the best compromise overall.

The concerns you shared about the Ulanzi Zero-Y knock off were enough to get me to hold off on ordering one. I haven't found anyone else who voluntarily mentions the center column looseness but, when directly questioned, I've had a handful of users confirm the issue. Now that B&H has these for pre-order at $299, I'm going to try one. They're backordered from the factory so maybe the issue will be addressed on the newest copies. If not, I can return it to B&H much easier than to China.

Click to expand...

Yes, the unit I got directly from China is totally unusable. The center column is loose and can not be steadied at any height. Unfortunately it cannot be returned. Let me know how yours turns out if you get it through B&H.


Another add-on ball head on the Peak Design tripod.

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Hey, Karl.

I finally received my order from B&H. The first thing I did was check for center column movement. There is none. The whole tripod seems flawless other than the inherent lack of stability that comes with using a 2.5lb tripod. Since I posted my last message to you, I have come across a YouTube video where a person had an issue that sounded similar to yours. In her case, she had separated the two parts of the center column and hadn't gotten them fully tightened together again. Once she realized this and got everything tightened down the problem was resolved. Since you get movement at any height, this doesn't seem like it is your problem but maybe it is still something to check. Otherwise, I would contact Ulanzi. They have been pretty responsive to me when I've had questions about other things I've ordered.

Cheers.

McWoodley said:

My opinion is purely my opinion based on the experiences I have had with this tripod, which I had very high hopes for. There are many things I like about it but the F38 ball head and legs that are not stiff detract from it. The compactness and light weight is very attractive of the Ulanzi, and I acknowledge there are always trade offs.

I don’t get paid for anything photography related, I don’t receive money generated from YouTube views. Just one persons real life experience using their tripod in the field. I typically find it unethical to buy something, actually use it, then return it just because I made a poor decision. However I am considering returning this product.

What have your experiences with the Ulanzi Zero Y F38 been? You already said the F38 could be more robust? I agree. Are there other tripods you are comparing the Ulanzi to?

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Yes, I said the F38 plate/mounting system could be more robust, but I also fully understand that this is a COMPACT LIGHTWEIGHT TRAVEL TRIPOD that weighs 2.2lb. As you yourself mentioned, there are tradeoffs. And in this case, I think your expectations were set a bit too high for what this tripod was meant to do.

You claim to not get paid for anything photography related, but you seem awfully quick to accuse others of this kind of ethically questionable practice - simply because their experiences with a particular product don't gel with yours. I'm simply applying the standard you judge others against back on you.

Interpol said:

McWoodley said:

In the end its a cheap Chinese ripoff of the PD. The YouTube reviewers which have been posted and admittedly swayed my opinon must have been paid.

Click to expand...

So...if a reviewer has a better experience than you that reviewer must be a paid by the manufacturer? Conversely, if your experience with the F38 is poor, does that mean we should infer that you've been paid by a rival company like PD to trash Ulanzi?

Sorry you dislike your F38, but your opinion is no more valid than anyone else's. Maybe you should try returning the tripod or selling it?

Click to expand...

No one in their right mind should fully trust youtuber reviews.

They usually only have the product for a couple of weeks max which is in no way enough time to develop a proper opinion on how a tripod will handle day to day use and overall durability.

And a lot of them have affiliate links to profit from the sales of the products they "review". NEVER, EVER trust reviews from people that have affiliate links to the product in their videos.

I have ulanzi's version of the capture clip, and it is utter trash, the bracket never properly locks to the camera and gets loose just by turning the camera on a tripod, even in their marketing material there's a picture of a camera turning sideways due to the screw comming loose. And the base is so tight that the bracket keeps getting stuck in it.

I came across this tripod on a new youtube review, and as soon as I saw that it had the same F38 quick lock system and that the reviewer didn't said anything about how bad it is I looked into the video description and low and behold, affiliate links to buy this tripod.

I looked into other reviews and the only one that complained about the poor quality was also the only one without affiliate links.

vindellama said:

No one in their right mind should fully trust youtuber reviews.

Click to expand...

OK. How about web reviews?

Interpol said:

vindellama said:

No one in their right mind should fully trust youtuber reviews.

Click to expand...

OK. How about web reviews?

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/ulanzi-f38-quick-release-travel-tripod-review

https://shotkit.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod-review/

https://fotovolo.com/ulanzi-coman-zero-f38-travel-tripod-review

https://jimnix.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4681333#forum-post-66615608

https://shuttermuse.com/ulanzi-travel-tripod-tested-vs-peak-design/

Click to expand...

Interesting...

All positive ones also have affiliate links, what a surprise!

Interpol said:

vindellama said:

No one in their right mind should fully trust youtuber reviews.

Click to expand...

OK. How about web reviews?

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/ulanzi-f38-quick-release-travel-tripod-review

https://shotkit.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod-review/

https://fotovolo.com/ulanzi-coman-zero-f38-travel-tripod-review

https://jimnix.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4681333#forum-post-66615608

https://shuttermuse.com/ulanzi-travel-tripod-tested-vs-peak-design/

Click to expand...

From shotkit review: Cons: Some center-column wobbling when fully extended

Fotovolo: Center column clamp flex when extended

Karl Scharf here actually bought it: "The center column cannot be tightened enough at any height to prevent side to side movement. It is loose enough to drastically limit the steadiness of the tripod."

So, if you can treat this tripod as one without a center column, it is fine. But then, it looses the advantage of the trianglular center column: tripods from Sirui and Leofoto without a center column are even narrower than this one.

ZodiacPhoto said:

Interpol said:

vindellama said:

No one in their right mind should fully trust youtuber reviews.

Click to expand...

OK. How about web reviews?

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/ulanzi-f38-quick-release-travel-tripod-review

https://shotkit.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod-review/

https://fotovolo.com/ulanzi-coman-zero-f38-travel-tripod-review

https://jimnix.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4681333#forum-post-66615608

https://shuttermuse.com/ulanzi-travel-tripod-tested-vs-peak-design/

Click to expand...

From shotkit review: Cons: Some center-column wobbling when fully extended

Fotovolo: Center column clamp flex when extended

Karl Scharf here actually bought it: "The center column cannot be tightened enough at any height to prevent side to side movement. It is loose enough to drastically limit the steadiness of the tripod."

So, if you can treat this tripod as one without a center column, it is fine. But then, it looses the advantage of the trianglular center column: tripods from Sirui and Leofoto without a center column are even narrower than this one.

Click to expand...

Not sure if they got faulty units, but the center column on my F38 is rock solid when fully extended and the clamp lever is fully pressed down. No wobble or play whatsoever.

I've had this unit for several months now and I have no complaints aside from the fact that the F38 mounting plate needs a D-ring screw. I use it as it was intended - as a lightweight compact travel tripod that can fit easily in a backpack. I have other more sturdy, heavy-duty tripods for big heavy lenses or for studio work.

Interpol said:

ZodiacPhoto said:

Interpol said:

vindellama said:

No one in their right mind should fully trust youtuber reviews.

Click to expand...

OK. How about web reviews?

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/ulanzi-f38-quick-release-travel-tripod-review

https://shotkit.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod-review/

https://fotovolo.com/ulanzi-coman-zero-f38-travel-tripod-review

https://jimnix.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4681333#forum-post-66615608

https://shuttermuse.com/ulanzi-travel-tripod-tested-vs-peak-design/

Click to expand...

From shotkit review: Cons: Some center-column wobbling when fully extended

Fotovolo: Center column clamp flex when extended

Karl Scharf here actually bought it: "The center column cannot be tightened enough at any height to prevent side to side movement. It is loose enough to drastically limit the steadiness of the tripod."

So, if you can treat this tripod as one without a center column, it is fine. But then, it looses the advantage of the trianglular center column: tripods from Sirui and Leofoto without a center column are even narrower than this one.

Click to expand...

Not sure if they got faulty units, but the center column on my F38 is rock solid when fully extended and the clamp lever is fully pressed down. No wobble or play whatsoever.

Click to expand...

Consider yourself lucky, then!

You would think they should double-check at least the sample units they send to the reviewers...

Does Ulanzi perform well enough under light wind condition? Flimsy? Thank you?

al404 said:

I decide to keep standard Arca Swiss head and add this quick release plate

I can remove it if I want, and plates should be Arca Swiss compatible

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I did and I have been very happy with both the Ulanzi tripod and the PGYTech gear. I had never really paid attention to PGYTech gear before but have been really impressed with it. It is clear that the company is designing upscale products for customers who are willing to pay extra for well-made, well-engineered products.

The SnapLock plate is low profile and has an innovative design that makes it less likely to twist out of place—and easy to fix if it does. It's the first time I've used a plate that isn't customized to the camera body it is attached to but I have been nothing but pleased.

The Beetle camera clip is easily better than the three iterations offered by Peak Design. It is effortless to attach and remove, fits wider straps, and will not accidentally release if you've attached it to a strap that is sufficiently thick.

ZodiacPhoto said:

Interpol said:

ZodiacPhoto said:

Interpol said:

vindellama said:

No one in their right mind should fully trust youtuber reviews.

Click to expand...

OK. How about web reviews?

https://www.digitalcameraworld.com/reviews/ulanzi-f38-quick-release-travel-tripod-review

https://shotkit.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod-review/

https://fotovolo.com/ulanzi-coman-zero-f38-travel-tripod-review

https://jimnix.com/ulanzi-f38-travel-tripod

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/4681333#forum-post-66615608

https://shuttermuse.com/ulanzi-travel-tripod-tested-vs-peak-design/

Click to expand...

From shotkit review: Cons: Some center-column wobbling when fully extended

Fotovolo: Center column clamp flex when extended

Karl Scharf here actually bought it: "The center column cannot be tightened enough at any height to prevent side to side movement. It is loose enough to drastically limit the steadiness of the tripod."

So, if you can treat this tripod as one without a center column, it is fine. But then, it looses the advantage of the trianglular center column: tripods from Sirui and Leofoto without a center column are even narrower than this one.

Click to expand...

Not sure if they got faulty units, but the center column on my F38 is rock solid when fully extended and the clamp lever is fully pressed down. No wobble or play whatsoever.

Click to expand...

Consider yourself lucky, then!

You would think they should double-check at least the sample units they send to the reviewers...

Click to expand...

You would think. I have the Arca-Swiss version. Center column is rock solid. But I've had a conversation with an F38 owner who shared a video of his F38 tripod and the center column was completely unusable. Ulanzi informed him that his issue was the result of a design flaw that they were working to fix. Who knows what was lost in translation since there are F38 tripods without an issue—maybe it was a particular production run—but it does seem like it is a crap shoot with these things. We were both lucky.

Hi Jay. I would not describe the Zero-Y that I received as flimsy—mine (Arca-Swiss version) does not feel poorly built at all—but it is so lightweight that it would be easy to get that impression. I don't have enough experience with it in wind to confidently answer your question. What I'll say is this: When I'm shooting inside or near a vehicle I will use my full size Gitzo. But when I'm traveling or hiking, I have no problem bringing the Zero-Y.

That is not to say that I don't expect to make a trade off for the light weight. If I'm shooting my 100-500 at 500mm in the wind, it is easy to imagine that shake would be an issue. I'm hopeful that image stabilization will compensate for this. I don't know why it wouldn't. That said, I'm speculating. And the Zero Y isn't a do-everything tripod but it might still be my choice if I could only have one tripod.

As an aside, a number of users have reported issues with center-column looseness with their particular unit. If you decide to buy a Zero-Y, this should be the first thing you check. Mine is rock solid. Good luck.

tlinn said:

As an aside, a number of users have reported issues with center-column looseness with their particular unit. If you decide to buy a Zero-Y, this should be the first thing you check. Mine is rock solid. Good luck.

Click to expand...

I thought those were from non-Arca F38 model users - is that not true?

cnyphotoguy said:

tlinn said:

As an aside, a number of users have reported issues with center-column looseness with their particular unit. If you decide to buy a Zero-Y, this should be the first thing you check. Mine is rock solid. Good luck.

Click to expand...

I thought those were from non-Arca F38 model users - is that not true?

Click to expand...

That is a good question. My impression has always been that the problem does affect the Arca version but I guess I don't know that for sure. I first became aware of the issue by reading the comment Karl made in this thread six months ago. I've always assumed he is referring to the Arca version because the OP shared a video about the Arca version.

Before buying one, I spent quite a bit of time looking for others who had the same issue with the tripod. I didn't find many instances and I never specifically asked which version was being used. I recently had a conversation in a YouTube comments thread with someone who shared a link to a video of his Zero-Y . There was so much center column movement that the tripod was unusable. His was the F38 version.