Review 4 of 12
Price Paid:
$630.00
from FotoRiesel, Sydney Summary: I bought the Carmagne 530 after a lot of lusting after a carbon fibre tripod. The price I paid included a Benbo trekker ball head.
My main needs were something light weight for trekking and travel, which could go low to the ground for macro, but (with the right head) could also go to eye-level with the column extended. It also needed to be sturdy. This tripod matches my criteria perfectly, at not much over half the price of the bogen/gitzo carbon fibre competition (which are also significantly heavier). Strengths: Light, strong, versatile. Did I mention it's light? Good value. Weaknesses: The telescoping legs have little shims (on the section inside the other leg) which stop them rattling. These are attached by a lug through a hole in the CF tube. On my tripod, one of these lugs snapped off within weeks (they come under stress if you extend the leg hard up against the screw collar), causing the legs to become a little tight when telescoping. This didn't stop me using it at all, but was a little disconcerting and annoying.
The newer model uses a better plastic for the shims which shouldn't crack as easily. This also shouldn't be a problem if you know from the start to be a little careful. Similar Products Used: Manfrotto/Bogen 190 is similar in size, but doesn't extend as high, go down as low (except the 190 pro) and weighs twice as much (OK, it costs about 1/3 as much too). Customer Service: I took the tripod back to the shop to see if the shims could be replaced, and within a week back from the distributors came a brand new tripod, of the newer model which uses a different plastic for the shims. It also included the stone bag, which my original hadn't.
Seems a bit wasteful when I would have been happy if they had just replaced the shims with the new plastic, but who can argue with a brand new tripod? I sincerely hope the old one didn'd end up in the rubbish as there was very little wrong with it!
Helpful, knowledgeable service from both shop and distributor.
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