Taking my one dollar tripod to Europe

[rpcrowe]

Passing by a garage sale this Saturday, I saw a small tripod for sale. The price was one dollar I thought that I would get it for my wife so she can use it with her tiny Canon P&S camera. I figured that I would pay a dollar to see a monkey play with a football (to paraphrase an old Navy saying), so why not take a chance on the tripod. BTW: I shot this image at dusk using ISO 640. The 7D did a pretty decent job on noise. I didn't use any noise reduction...



The little tripod is, I believe a Cullman which I also believe was made years ago in Germany. It is really tiny and weighs just over one pound, head and all. The little tripod seemed a lot more sturdy that I expected and I put a spare Arca Compatible clamp on the tiny ball head and played with my 7D and 70-200mm f/4L IS lens.



It unbelieveably supported the camera/lens pretty well, even with the center column extended. I would mostly use the little pod as a table-top tripod without the center column extended and with the 17-55mm f/2.8 IS lens mounted on the 7D. This tripod is so small that I can put it in my camera bag and at a little over a pound I will hardly know that it is there...

I have a very decent travel tripod which I am bringing mostly to shoot night shots but, I am tossing this little guy in my suitcase to see if I want to use it on the trip. One neat thing, I can extend the three legs partially and put two of the legs just inside my trouser belt in front. Holding on to the third leg makes quite a stable mount. I am going to play with the toy on the cruise ship.

I will return to the forum when I return from our trip. Hopefully I will have a lot of neat images to share... Maybe even a couple shot with this toy tripod...

[Inkanyezi]

I have one very much like that, but with pan/tilt head, and I rather often use it. I wouldn't raise the column, but for quick product shots it is often better than any of my "real" tripods, as it is much more convenient. When I need the camera at about 1' height but still from a certain height and pointing down, for closeup shots, it is more convenient to use that tripod on the floor or on the tabletop, than rigging the thing to shoot on the table with a larger tripod. Just a couple of days ago, I shot this image from that tiny tripod, with the OM-D, delay 2 seconds, tilted Fujinon 50/1.8 lens on the floor with window light.

Indoors, where there's no wind, it will hold a compact or a small mirrorless steady enough. The column of mine (Slik 450G) has two segments. I think I paid a bit more than a dollar for it, maybe three or four, at a flea market.

[Mike Buckley]

The photo of the camera mounted on the tripod is really humorous.

[rpcrowe]

The photo of the camera mounted on the tripod is really humorous.

Actually Mike, it seems to be the other way around... with the tripod is mounted on the camera.

I, might, like Urban, find a use for this little guy. Luckily, I am not even close to my 50-pound weight allowance. I have packed very sparingly for this trip and my checked-on suitcase weighs only 35 pounds with my clothes, personal items. monopod, real travel tripod and this little toy in it. Amazingly, my wife has cut down to one small checked-on suitcase which weighs less than 40 pounds and her briefcase with her I-Pad.

She carried two suitcases packed to the max with everything but the kitchen sink on our trip to China and I think that she learned from that experience. Especially since we did eight cities in 13-days with six internal Chinese flights and one trip by hydrofoil from Hong Kong to the Mainland.

[Bobobird]

There are quite a few similarly made toypods around but for a buck, this has to be the best. A Cullman at that.

Good instinct to pick it up.

[Shadowman]

Lucky you!