Quote:
Originally Posted by postcardcv
I don't quite get the comparison, the Gitzo I own is in a different league to the Manfrottos and in my experience the Giottos are not quite as good as the Manfrottos. I wonder what level the Benros are at, I have heard a lot about them (good and bad) but have not tried one myself.
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Benro was actually contracted to Gitzo up to about 2 years ago to manufacture their carbon fibre tripods and others. Benro pulled out of the deal and started to make it's own range of very similar tripods and actually improved on the design, the carbon fibre and the leg lock fittings. Initially the quality control wasn't as tight as Gitzo's, but now the latest models are up there with the top and easily match the Gitzo carbon range for quality and inovation. A lot of the bad reports that were going the rounds a couple of years ago were mainly sour grapes from people who were uptight about what they saw as Gitzo plagarism, the way I see it it can hardly be plagarism when Benro are selling a different but quality product at a third of the price of rip off Gitzo. Incidentally, Gitzo are now owned by Manfrotto and are manufactured in Italy.
As I said, I have been using a Benro C-298M8 regularly in all sorts of conditions for over a year now, I have had absolutely no problems with it. It's a very versatile tripod with a centre column that can be adjusted to any angle making it perfect for macro work, it locks up solid and is very rigid even at full height, (great for landscape work). I've become so used to carrying it with me that I've hardly used my Uniloc 1600 Major since I bought it.
nirofo.