Macro guy
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As some of you may know, I had been on the look out for an extra tall, reasonably priced tripod and a geared head. I picked up the Benro geared head on e-bay a few months ago as well as the Benro TMA47AXL tripod.
Now that I've had some time to play with both of them, I can share a few impressions:
Let's start with the tripod. The thing is a monster. The outer legs are 36 or 37mm in diameter, so they're huge. It's also a 3 section tripod, so even the thinnest section is the same thickness as the outer section of my old Slik 300DX. I'm 6'3 (190cm for those outside the US). The tripod is about 6 feet tall when all of the sections are extended (not including the center column). With the head and the camera attached, the camera is taller than I am. If you extend the center column, the tripod alone extends to 85" (216cm), so with the head and camera attached, we're talking serious height here! Tripods that extend this high usually push the $1,000 range. The Benro runs around $200-$220, which makes it an unprecedented bargain. However, there is a price to pay and that it's a heavy mother.
All of the movements are smooth. The tripod seems well built. The twist locks are a pleasure to use. They don't require a lot of unscrewing and the legs move smoothly with precision. The angle of the legs can be independently adjusted with notches for 3 different angles. However, you can't use the widest spread of the legs with the standard center column retracted. It winds up hitting the floor before the legs reach the widest position. The Benro comes with a short center column just for such occasions, however, it's a major pain to switch center columns, heads and whatever other accessories you may have attached. So, you have to decide at the outset which center column you're going to use before heading out into the field. It's not the best scenario, but these are the small inconveniences one has to live with.
Other than the weight and the inability to use the widest leg angle with the standard center column attached, I don't have anything negative to say about the tripod. It's well built, smooth and STABLE! Man, I thought my Slik was stable, but this is a whole different level of stability. So, overall, I'm very pleased with it. I got 20+ years of use from my Slik and it still functions as new (I needed something taller and more stable when fully extended, which was the reason for my purchase). I hope to get as many years out the Benro as I had gotten with the Slik.
Now, the head.
I do a lot of macro photography, so my compositions have to be very precise. I used the standard 3-way head with my old tripod and it drove me up the wall that every time I'd set my composition and tighten the axis, the camera would sink just a touch. It's no big deal under ordinary circumstances, but at high magnifications, even a bit of a sink ruins the entire composition that I had worked hard to set. So, I would have to overcompensate and try to set it 3 or 4 times before I'd get it right. That was a PITA beyond imagination.
I wanted to get a geared head for a long time. Most of the geared heads are expensive. The Manfrotto 410 is reasonably priced, but it got mixed reviews. A lot of people have mentioned mechanical troubles with the 410 and the need to take it apart, lube it, clean it, etc. I'm not mechanically inclined, so that would be a deal breaker for me. The Manfrotto 405 seemed really nice and I was gonna bite the bullet and get that, but then the Benro GD3WH came on the scene at $200 and I was able to pick it up for about $135 new on Ebay. Nobody had said anything bad about this head, so I picked it up.
The head is quite nice, It's geared 3 ways: laterally, up/down and vertical/horizontal movements. So, all of the movements you'd expect from a regular geared head (as opposed to a cube) are all there.
I encountered a problem right away. The knob that holds in place the Arca Swiss quick release plate fell off. I contacted the seller about it and they told me it was just a screw loose and they sent me a video on how to fix it. It's an easy fix. The screw sits inside the knob in a spring. If it becomes loose, it can unscrew from the QR plate holder and the knob falls off. I put the screw back in and tightened it. If you tighten it too much, the knob won't turn. If you don't tighten it enough, the screw gets loose and the knob falls off. So, I set the screw back and apparently, I didn't tighten it enough, so the knob fell off again a few days later. I reset the whole thing and so far, it's been holding. I think that if it falls off again, I'll get a slightly longer screw and that should fix the problem.
Other than this minor annoyance, the head is a pleasure to work with. The movements are precise, the geared controls require some positive force to move when a heavy camera is attached to the head, so the gears don't move with the camera attached at any angle. The gears are precise enough for macro photography at high magnifications and my work flow has become so much faster without having to reposition the camera over and over and over again. A turn of the knob and we're perfect! No tightening, no loosening, just twist the appropriate knob and the camera goes where you need it to go.
I use bellows with a reverse mounted lens. The bellows comes with its own geared focusing rail. I also use the Manfrotto 454 slide rail for linear lateral movements. With the Benro geared head, I have 5 way geared movements. My life is so much easier now and it makes my work flow so much easier, faster and pain free. I love it!
Overall, I'm very happy with my set up. The few negatives I've mentioned are offset by the price of the gear and how well it functions. Both the tripod and the head just do what they were designed to do. As I've said before, I hope to be able to get over 20 years of use out of this set up. I'll let you guys know how it goes. So far, so good.
Now that I've had some time to play with both of them, I can share a few impressions:
Let's start with the tripod. The thing is a monster. The outer legs are 36 or 37mm in diameter, so they're huge. It's also a 3 section tripod, so even the thinnest section is the same thickness as the outer section of my old Slik 300DX. I'm 6'3 (190cm for those outside the US). The tripod is about 6 feet tall when all of the sections are extended (not including the center column). With the head and the camera attached, the camera is taller than I am. If you extend the center column, the tripod alone extends to 85" (216cm), so with the head and camera attached, we're talking serious height here! Tripods that extend this high usually push the $1,000 range. The Benro runs around $200-$220, which makes it an unprecedented bargain. However, there is a price to pay and that it's a heavy mother.
All of the movements are smooth. The tripod seems well built. The twist locks are a pleasure to use. They don't require a lot of unscrewing and the legs move smoothly with precision. The angle of the legs can be independently adjusted with notches for 3 different angles. However, you can't use the widest spread of the legs with the standard center column retracted. It winds up hitting the floor before the legs reach the widest position. The Benro comes with a short center column just for such occasions, however, it's a major pain to switch center columns, heads and whatever other accessories you may have attached. So, you have to decide at the outset which center column you're going to use before heading out into the field. It's not the best scenario, but these are the small inconveniences one has to live with.
Other than the weight and the inability to use the widest leg angle with the standard center column attached, I don't have anything negative to say about the tripod. It's well built, smooth and STABLE! Man, I thought my Slik was stable, but this is a whole different level of stability. So, overall, I'm very pleased with it. I got 20+ years of use from my Slik and it still functions as new (I needed something taller and more stable when fully extended, which was the reason for my purchase). I hope to get as many years out the Benro as I had gotten with the Slik.
Now, the head.
I do a lot of macro photography, so my compositions have to be very precise. I used the standard 3-way head with my old tripod and it drove me up the wall that every time I'd set my composition and tighten the axis, the camera would sink just a touch. It's no big deal under ordinary circumstances, but at high magnifications, even a bit of a sink ruins the entire composition that I had worked hard to set. So, I would have to overcompensate and try to set it 3 or 4 times before I'd get it right. That was a PITA beyond imagination.
I wanted to get a geared head for a long time. Most of the geared heads are expensive. The Manfrotto 410 is reasonably priced, but it got mixed reviews. A lot of people have mentioned mechanical troubles with the 410 and the need to take it apart, lube it, clean it, etc. I'm not mechanically inclined, so that would be a deal breaker for me. The Manfrotto 405 seemed really nice and I was gonna bite the bullet and get that, but then the Benro GD3WH came on the scene at $200 and I was able to pick it up for about $135 new on Ebay. Nobody had said anything bad about this head, so I picked it up.
The head is quite nice, It's geared 3 ways: laterally, up/down and vertical/horizontal movements. So, all of the movements you'd expect from a regular geared head (as opposed to a cube) are all there.
I encountered a problem right away. The knob that holds in place the Arca Swiss quick release plate fell off. I contacted the seller about it and they told me it was just a screw loose and they sent me a video on how to fix it. It's an easy fix. The screw sits inside the knob in a spring. If it becomes loose, it can unscrew from the QR plate holder and the knob falls off. I put the screw back in and tightened it. If you tighten it too much, the knob won't turn. If you don't tighten it enough, the screw gets loose and the knob falls off. So, I set the screw back and apparently, I didn't tighten it enough, so the knob fell off again a few days later. I reset the whole thing and so far, it's been holding. I think that if it falls off again, I'll get a slightly longer screw and that should fix the problem.
Other than this minor annoyance, the head is a pleasure to work with. The movements are precise, the geared controls require some positive force to move when a heavy camera is attached to the head, so the gears don't move with the camera attached at any angle. The gears are precise enough for macro photography at high magnifications and my work flow has become so much faster without having to reposition the camera over and over and over again. A turn of the knob and we're perfect! No tightening, no loosening, just twist the appropriate knob and the camera goes where you need it to go.
I use bellows with a reverse mounted lens. The bellows comes with its own geared focusing rail. I also use the Manfrotto 454 slide rail for linear lateral movements. With the Benro geared head, I have 5 way geared movements. My life is so much easier now and it makes my work flow so much easier, faster and pain free. I love it!
Overall, I'm very happy with my set up. The few negatives I've mentioned are offset by the price of the gear and how well it functions. Both the tripod and the head just do what they were designed to do. As I've said before, I hope to be able to get over 20 years of use out of this set up. I'll let you guys know how it goes. So far, so good.
