What do you think of this Benro tripod?

[Serge]

Benro Theta: the Intelligent Modular Travel Tripod. A smart, modular travel tripod with auto-leveling, an auto-lock QR ring, and more.
BTW... What impressed me the most is that a lot of the design - ball head, roll axes etc. they have "borrowed" from the Peak Design Travel Tripod - https://www.peakdesign.com/products/travel-tripod?variant=29420893274156 . I have had the carbon Peak Design Travel Tripod for 2 years and am very pleased with it.

 

[Lance B]

Looks impressive. However, more things to go wrong. I assume it is weather resistant? Can you put the feet into water?

 

[Serge]

Looks impressive. However, more things to go wrong. I assume it is weather resistant? Can you put the feet into water?

I agree. There's more advertising than real information about how it performs.

\ The gyroscope that levels the tripod horizontally has to be powered by something - what if there is no power?
\ The speed of set up the tripod is compared to the Peak Design Travel Tripod. It can be set up 3 times faster
link to gif - https://static.insales-cdn.com/file...inal/tripod3_pd_original_bagandwallet-min.gif
(For some reason, the gifs I've linked to don't appear in the forum)

\ The durability of the mechanism is a big question. Is it pneumatic?
\ The tripod sections with tripod clips are always preferable to the ring-shaped ones, because when you are working intensively with the tripod you can always see whether the section is locked with the clip or not. They are also much easier to break.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

Don't know but I had a look because I have a Benbow tripod which is quite simple but uses the bent-bolt system to place the legs which has the legs gyrating in every direction ones the lock lever is released. It is a learned art to control the flopping legs but when mastered they can be adjusted to just about any conceivable terrain.

 

[nzmacro]

Very clever stuff for smaller setups, but not for large tele lenses in areas where a lot of us would shoot. Still very clever though no doubt.

Danny.

 

[Tom Caldwell]

The Benro and Benbow are different beasts - not sure if they still make the Benbow any more.

I will have to get it out and take some images of it - it is such a crazy piece of work I had to buy one. I like crazy things - used to drive a Citroen, have a Valpadana tractor and keep a houseful of GM5 kittens ....