Hi folks,
Those of you who followed my thread
Tripod/Ballhead for Hiking will know that I finally settled on a
Gitzo GT1541T tripod and an
Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 DP "Flip-lock" ballhead. The brief was for a lightweight and compact tripod and ballhead which was still stiff enough to be useful. The manufacturer's specifications are listed at the end of this review so, without further ado, here are some product shots.
The Gitzo GT1541T Tripod
The first image shows the tripod with the legs fully compressed and the ballhead attached and this gives a combined height of 60cm and weight of 1.75kg (24" and 3lb 14oz). It
is possible to fold the legs right over and, with the centre column fully raised, the length with the ballhead attached is then just 47cm (< 19") but the size of the ballhead prevents the legs from paralleling the centre column resulting in a width of about 12cm (4.75"), which is 3cm (1.2") wider than the folded configuration shown in the photo. The image on the right shows my recommended configuration in use - more on that later. As shown the bottom of the camera is 125cm (about 50") above the ground and clearance from the hook holding the backpack to the ground is 77cm (30.5").
Here is the tripod with the centre column fully extended. This adds another 25cm (10") to the height of the camera but, as will be seen, this is at the cost of some stability.
On the right we have the test setup with the centre column down. A 40D is attached to the ballhead via a Kirk Photo
PZ-120 Arca-Swiss compatible plate designed to fit the camera. The lens is an
EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM. The ballhead is more than capable of holding the weight of this lens, though I think just for one's peace of mind a tripod ring and lens plate would be a good idea for heavier lenses.
The Arca-Swiss Monoball Z1 DP "Flip-lock" ballhead
As that last photograph shows, the Z1 DP ballhead is a clean and uncluttered design. Here's the head in a bit more detail.
At the bottom of the ballhead is the panning base and, immediately facing the camera, is the small lever used to lock the base and prevent undesired rotation. The large friction control knob for the ball is to the right of this lever and there is a small tension adjuster at 2 o'clock on the face of this knob. The tension adjuster isn't used in normal operation. As this is the "DP" version of the Z1 we can see a second panning unit above the ball. This is seen more clearly in the right hand photograph and the lever to lock and unlock it is on the left. The "Flip-lock" release mechanism for Arca-Swiss compatible plates is on the right and its operation is shown in more detail in the next section.
Provision of the top panning unit is optional with the Z1 ballhead but it costs little in terms of overall size and weight and can be really useful. Here's a close up which also shows the snug fit of the Kirk plate around the base of the camera.
The right hand photograph above shows the tripod with the centre column reversed and, as one would expect, the ballhead continues to do a fine job holding the camera securely. The tripod legs can be locked in a much more splayed position which may be useful depending on what you have attached to the tripod's centre column.
The ballhead attaches to the tripod's standard 1/4" bolt. If you plan on using the tripod with anything that needs a 3/8" bolt then that is no problem as the tripod's bolt can be reversed to expose a 3/8" thread. There is no provision, other than friction, to prevent the head from coming loose again once it has been screwed onto the tripod. There are a number of home-brew solutions suggested on the Web, of varying degrees of permanence, but it's a shame that there isn't an industry wide standard to prevent a head from unscrewing from a tripod once it's been attached.
The second panning mechanism is, as already mentioned, an option on the Z1 head and that is also true of the "Flip-lock" release for the camera plate. Releasing a camera is a two stage affair. At the end of the lever is a small chrome knob and this is pulled away from the lever's axis to allow the lever to be opened to the 90° position. This releases some tension from the camera plate but if the adjustment is correct the camera is still held in place. The lever is released to the 180° position by pulling on the ribbed chrome rod revealed when the lever is at the 90° position. This sounds awkward but in practice it is quickly mastered and, unlike my previous experience with levers which fully open in one continuous motion, gives great confidence that the camera can be released safely with little danger of an expensive loss of control. A picture is worth a thousand words so here's the "Flip-lock" in action.
Also visible in that animated sequence is the notch which allows a camera to be used in a vertical orientation without use of an L-plate. The Z1 ballhead has an aspherical ball which means that as the camera's centre of gravity gets further out to the side the ball motion automatically stiffens providing an extra margin of safety against accidents.
The middle photograph shows how the G-locks on the legs are released. Like the GT1540T tripod before it the GT1541T legs each have four sections but this time they have the G-lock system. This allows all three locks to be grasped as one and, with the fingers more firmly tightened around the locks than I have illustrated, they can all be released simultaneously with roughly a quarter turn and as a result setting up the tripod is a relatively quick affair.
The light weight and compact dimensions of the GT1541T tripod when folded mean that, even though it uses the latest carbon fibre technology, it can certainly benefit from any extra stability on offer when in use. As the last photograph above shows, the centre column has the usual hook which can be pulled down and from which a backpack can be hung.
Whether stability is overly compromised we will see shortly but the next two photographs clearly show the benefit of it's compact size. The backpack is a LowePro
DryZone Rover. Please note that the bag over the ballhead is not supplied by Arca-Swiss and is just a cheap lens pouch to provide some minimal protection from the elements when hiking.
I'm not aware of a standard testing methodology for tripods or ballheads. In order to test stability I mounted the longest lens at hand, an
EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM zoomed to 200mm, onto a Canon 40D to give an equivalent full-frame focal length of 320mm after the 1.6x crop factor is applied. Image stabilisation was turned off. I chose one of nature's test patterns and waited until after sunset so that I could use an exposure time of one half of a second at ISO 100 and f/8. Both the focal length and exposure time were chosen to give the tripod a tough test.
Preliminary examination had shown that with the centre column extended the oscillation induced by tapping the camera took about a second to die down so a half second exposure stood the best chance of showing the tripod in it's worst light. The tripod is much stiffer with the centre column down, with a higher frequency of oscillation which is much reduced in amplitude and which dies away in well under half a second following the "tap test".
Each test was repeated three times and although it was a fairly windless evening it needed some patience to get the shots while the branches were still. Here is the whole frame with an indication of where the 100% crops reproduced below came from.
I have split the tests into two groups, the first with the centre column down and the second with it fully extended. All three shots taken for each test are shown.
Mirror lockup and cable release
Mirror lockup and cable release but about half a second after a tap on camera body
No mirror lockup but with cable release
Mirror lockup but with normal manual shutter button release
Mirror lockup and cable release
Mirror lockup and cable release but about half a second after a tap on camera body
No mirror lockup but with cable release
Mirror lockup but with normal manual shutter button release
With the centre column down the tripod provided enough stability to produce decent results on all tests except the "tap test" shots. The tap was to the side of the camera body and with about the force one might apply if one tapped one's nose in a "knowing manner". This is probably not a likely real-world scenario (tapping the camera, I mean!) but it shows that even a high end lightweight tripod has limitations. I think it's encouraging that there is enough stability there to allow the shutter to be released without the use of a cable but clearly, if you examine the shots very closely, using both mirror lockup and a cable release produces the crispest result.
The results are not nearly so nice with the centre column up with only the combination of mirror lockup and a cable release producing good results. Cable release but with no mirror lockup was poor showing that shooting with the centre column up is really only going to be useful in ideal circumstances or if there is no other option.
Operation of the ballhead is exceptionally smooth with a beautifully progressive feel to the main friction control. Using this unit after a pan and tilt head is certainly a revelation and it is the work of moments to get the shot framed the way you want it and then lock the ball. And, of course, using the freedom of motion provided by the ball to level the camera allows that top panning unit to come into its own, should you want to stitch a sequence of shots together.
While the ballhead would grace any tripod I imagine that the GT1541T would not find favour in situations where long telephotos are the order of the day and the photographer has to be hands on with the camera. For the landscape photographer who wants a tripod which won't break the back when hiking the GT1541T is a real contender, if budget permits. Most landscape shots are likely to be taken with wide-angle lenses and so any blurring observed in the test shots above will be much reduced. With a 20mm lens it may even be an acceptable risk to shoot with that centre column raised!
Finally, as a little gratuitous light relief after all those contrasty test shots, here is a 100% crop of the test area shot a few days earlier with the same setup but with much much kinder camera settings.
Gitzo GT1541T ................... (U.S.A. Price check)
Maximum height .................. 134cm/52.8"
Leg sections ........................ 4
Weight ................................ 1.0kg/2.1lbs
Minimum height ................... 17.5cm/6.9"
Closed length ....................... 41cm/16.1"
Max height (column down) .... 113cm/44.5"
Load capacity ....................... 8kg/17.6lbs
Website ............................... http://www.gitzo.com/
Arca-Swiss Z1 DP Ballhead . (U.S.A. Price check)
Weight .................................. 750g/1.65lb
Off axis load .......................... 55kg/120lbs
Website ................................ None
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It's quite extraordinary how much heavier it feels despite being less than twice the weight. It's also sufficiently long when folded that it would make a rather unwelcome headrest if I carried it on the backpack in the way I illustrated above. It's good and solid though. I'd provide some Wibbly Wobbly Web links but memory tells me that when I bought it we thought that bulletin boards and modems capable of just a few "k" were pretty neat so neither seems to be shown on either the Bogen or Manfrotto sites. I don't think that carbon fibre tripods had been thought of then either.
