Subscribe to PostsFor years I have been toting around an aging Manfrotto 190D with a 056 3D head. Now, this setup has taken damage of all sorts and has travelled around the world with me, but I was finding that I needed something more. The 190D was a great tripod but lacks many features that the new series have to offer. The 056 3D head was a compromise when I bought it although it has never really like me down, I have always wanted something easier to work with in the field.
That being said, I wanted something as heavy duty as the 190D but with a smooth sturdy head that allows for quick set up and release. Here is what I went with: Manfrotto 190 ProB (B for black!), a Manfrotto 488 RC2 ball head, and the current version of their carrying strap. It is a sexy setup! I am not sure what the guys a pix-dix normally do on a Monday but they definitely were huddled around my tripod that night.
Now, I know what you are thinking… “Jason, you just bought the same Tripod with a different head, why didn’t you just by a new ball-head?” Well here the thing, a lot of the features that annoyed me before with the old 190 have been greatly improved. First, are the “Leg Locks” The old 190 had these butterfly spinny adjustments and I found out when a friend of mine tried to help me collapse the tripod, they also come apart quite easily and you lose the washers. Also, spinning takes time. The new version, the legs drop out with the flick of a switch and lock just as easily.
The second improvement is the change in the design of the locking buttons to adjust the angle of the legs. The old one would bite and pinch my tender flesh when I would go near them. Now, they are smooth and all you have to do is push the button and adjust.
Third, is the horizontal centre column. Now with a few adjustments, you have your camera hanging side-ways to get around to more interesting angles. On the old 190, this was impossible. Not to mention the rubber stopper at the bottom of the old 190 was annoying and now has been replaced with a cool mechanical “push-button locking system” So you will never lose that important little black rubber-thing.
Two new features that they have added are a spirit level and a hook. The spirit level lets you adjust everything to help you make sure that you tripod at least will be level. Then it is up to you to make sure they are lined-up in the camera. The hook I think can have many uses, but the main one, so they said in the manual, is for weight. Yup, hang something heavy off of it to stabilize your tripod during windy days.
The 488 RC2 Ball Head is great! Compared to my old 056 this is like night and day. Adjusting the 056 took time and patience because of the conical locking knobs. If you are using big lenses then you really had to tighten these knobs hard because they would start to droop under the weight of a full camera set up (big lens, camera, battery pack). Not to mention the fact that simple moves mean three adjustments! Thats: move… crank, crank, crank, move, crank, crank, crank, move, crank, crank, crank! It gets a little annoying when you don’t have much time to set up.
The 488 RC2 does everything with ease! The panning adjustment lever is there if you need it, but the ball head moves around a full 360 degrees with out needing to use the panning adjustment. The adjustment knob is smooth and powerful. The ball head was not a smooth as I thought that it would be, but maybe it needs to be worked in a little.
Other than that they made some improvements to their carrying strap. I know that a strap seems minor, until you are humping your gear through the hot streets of Thailand with a strap that seems to be trying to cut you in half. The old strap was very thin and the way I carry my tripod, I had the thinnest part of the strap cutting into my shoulder. Why I carry my tripod with the head down, is I find that the weight distribution is much better and I can also stabilize the heaviest part of the tripod (the head) with my hand while jogging across a street, rather than have it bash into the back of my head.
The new style has a thick padded neoprene strap that is great! The only issue that I have with it is that they changed where the strap attaches to. The old style attached to the centre column with a sort of slip-knot that kept it out of the way and released easy enough when you wanted to use the centre column. The new system wraps around the legs keeping them altogether when collapsed but then dangles when open, something that I am not sure I really like at this point because it means clipping it back together once you finish and I just found that it can be a little tricky.
All in all, this is a great set up and I will be testing it all out this coming weekend for the Ji-bul-nori festival. If you are interested in coming along, please leave a comment below and we can all meet up and compare shots later.
