Hi everyone,

I’ve been posting a fair bit about mini tripods lately because I’ve been trying to find the best mini tripod and ball head combination suitable for my requirements that’s light, it weighs less that 1lb, compact, it’s about 8 inches long with legs retracted and the ball head adjusted to the portrait orientation and it’s strong enough to support a 2.7lb load, else experience well and truly tells me that it’ll only just end up staying at home. I’m trying out a hybrid concoction the base from a SLIK Mini Pro DQ mini tripod that I’ve had for many years and I put my Ulanzi H-28 mini ball head and Ulanzi Claw release plate on it. Very light and fits snugly into a neoprene pencil case! for protection and keeping moisture and dirt out etc.. Whole thing fits comfortably in my jacket pocket 🙂 👍 . I’ve also previously tried this tripod base with the ball head supplied with it and, when suitably adjusted, it makes for a very nice chest pod. As far as I recall this is the only mini tripod that I’ve seen that actually markets this as a feature although I only found this out after I had already tried it as such.

Off to Worthing next week to get some nice night time landscape/seascape shots and taking this with me along with my new Kenko Black Mist 0.5 filter to try out.

Kind regards

Leigh

Hi everyone,

I’ve recently taken delivery of the Ulanzi U-100 ball head. It has the Claw quick release system with the newer type 2 camera release plate which has the addition of an ARCA Swiss compatible fitting on the camera plate for the best of both worlds. It comes with a tripod thread adaptor bush, handy small tool for attaching and detaching the plate, now residing on my keyring for when I haven’t got a coin handy. The plate has both Allen Key (not supplied but I have loads) and “coin” slot, as well as coming with a smaller Allen Key to adjust and lock the rotating cold shoe mount position. The head has both pan and ball head lock knobs and is very well made. I’ve attached it to my Manfrotto lightweight carbon fibre compact monopod. Some pics below the last two showing the ARCA Swiss addition to the type 2 camera plate and attached to my small solidly-built NEEWER M225+CK30 tripod and ball head with ARCA Swiss fitting which I’ve had for some years and I believe is now discontinued. I’ve also got one of their smaller H-28 ball heads on order which I intend to attach to one of my Pixi or Pixi EVO 2 Manfrotto table top tripods along with the Claw release system that I bought recently which will make everything fully interchangeable.

As an experiment I replaced the Neewer CK30 ball head with the Ulanzi U-100 ball head, as it’s more compact. lighter and has the Claw fitting and fitted it to the Neewer M225 tripod base and it makes for a really nice versatile, sturdy, little tripod with a maximum height with the legs and center column fully extended of approx. 18 1/2 inches or thereabouts. I think that this combination makes for an excellent small tripod which when collapsed is only approx. 8 1/2 inches long, less if you adjust the position of head to its portrait position and will even fit in the top compartment of my favourite Manfrotto camera bag!. The tripod is made of metal and plastic, the centre column unscrews in the middle making it reversible for low level shots and the legs can be adjusted to virtually lay flat for increased stability. Not that it’s anything other than cosmetic but the Ulanzi ball head’s red and black colours match very well with the Neewer tripod base and don’t look out of place.

All the best,

Leigh

Hi everyone,

I’ve been looking for something like this for a while as I don’t use filters larger than 58mm very often. I found this small filter pouch on ebay going for £6.60 UK inc. postage from China (of course) 🙂 . This is much more convenient for me as it’s considerably smaller, manufacturer’s spec: Size: 90 x 80 mm / 3.5 x 3.1 inch (L*W) and less bulky than my other ones which are somewhat larger and designed to hold larger filter sizes and it can usefully hold up to four filters. The colour is closer to the first picture below, I didn’t colour match, it’s orange and not yellow which is nice as, with the possible exception of a sandy beach, it’s easy to spot if one should drop it and it’s extremely light which is always good for me. The only thing that one has to be careful of is to make sure to open it the right way up so as to avoid one’s filters falling out!.

Kind regards

Leigh

Hi everyone,

I decided to get one of these Ulanzi Claw quick release plates. Wow!!!, these are so quick and easy to attach and detach the camera. Unlike the Arca Swiss type plates there’s no locking screw to have to tighten/untighten. I used to like the Manfrotto ones for their sturdiness, quality and security but these Ulanzi ones are really great. To quickly try it out I put it on my new Manfrotto Pixi Evo 2 tripod, as you can see below it adds very little bulk to it. To attach the camera you just position it in any of four positions (0,90,180 or 270 degrees) press it down and it clicks into place, the claimed weight handling of 50Kg!, reassuring as it is, is far in excess of my tripod and anything that I might ever want to attach to it. With my leg and neck pain problems and other aliments I certainly wouldn’t be carrying anything weighing 50Kg very far!, I’m too old and unfit to be a Royal Marines Commando. 🙂 . To release it one simply simultaneously presses on the two side red and black coloured “buttons” and that’s it. The red button has a lock position and the whole thing feels really secure and weighs only 59g or approx. 2 ounces. Be aware that they also do a mark II version which, along with the tripod bush is also Arca Swiss compatible so one has the best of both worlds. If I’d have realised I’d have bought that version for its extra versatility but it’s not in any way a show-stopper.

At circa £26 UK the Ulanzi Claw isn’t the cheapest release plate around but I think that one gets what one pays for, would you trust your expensive camera and lens to a cheap and cheerful plate?, I know I wouldn’t and it’s really nicely designed and made of aluminium. I don’t go overboard on packaging but it is attractive and screams quality. I’m so impressed that I ordered one of their U-100 ball heads with claw fitting which also has the added bonus of a cold shoe mount from their website whilst they have their Black Friday deals principally to go on my Manfrotto lightweight monopod or possibly my original Pixi mini tripod. I’ll also have an extra camera plate to attach to another of my cameras. Over time I can see myself standardising on this system as and when funds permit, it’s just so quick and simple. Apart from the extremely serious personal consideration of weight, part of my dislike of camera supports is the time they take to constantly setup and collapse which doesn’t live happily with my shooting style so anything that simplifies and speeds up this process has my vote. So, like them or not, until some ingenious designer designs the ultra-lightweight, ultra-compact, automatic-assembly/disassembly “Transformers Hover Pod”, I’m stuck with conventional camera supports but this does make life one little bit easier which is most appreciated. 🙂

Some pics:

Kind regards

Leigh