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Customer Reviews: Average Rating:  Rating :  - Good Pro-sumer Value
The Sony VCT-870 is the tripod I bought. I think the LANC will also work with Cannon cameras.
I like the fluid-ness of the head as there appears to be very little static friction. The pan and tilt are both smooth. The tripod legs are heavier and sturdier than the most expensive tripod I have seen in the electronic box stores or pro photo stores. I have been looking to buy a tripod for 2-3 years now and have not seen a pro-sumer version that I thought would be good enough for video. The legs are double extension with a flip-over friction clamps for quick setup and leveling. There is a built in bubble level at the apex of the legs. The center column extends up like most tripods out there. With everything extended I still get good enough stability. I am 6' 6" tall and it extends tall enough for me. The removable mounting plate has no slop in it. The mounting plate lever clamp is spring loaded closed but has an automatic trigger pin that keeps it open until the plate is inserted.
With that said, I noticed several review saying the PAN function was too stiff. I agree that it is too stiff. If the tripod is just sitting on the ground, panning will cause the tripod to flex and wants to tip a little. There is no static friction, just high drag friction (this is of course with the drag control backed out). The TILT can have close to no drag at all which makes for difficult pan/tilt movements since the forces are different for each direction. I did notice that when the tripod warmed up in the sun for a while, the pan drag eased up a bit.
The "work around" for this dissimilarity of drag is to add enough tilt drag to equal the pan drag. The drag control adjustment is very accurate and does not stick, bind or jump like the cheaper ones sold at electronic box stores. When I shoot a football game, if I securely strap the tripod to a handrail, the pan drag is not an issue at all since the drag will add stability to the shot. If the tripod is free standing, I grab the neck of the tripod with my left hand and the handle with my right hand. My left hand will add the needed stability to counter act the flexing or drag of the tripod while my right hand aims the shot. This provides more than acceptable results for shooting football plays since the action is fast and last for only 20-30 seconds at a time. If I were to shoot a theatrical event or a long slow shot, I think the panning might be more of an issue if you could not securely strap the camera down. It would be harder to steady the free standing tripod without adding a little occasional hand movement.
The main reason I purchased this model was because of the LANC controller built into the handle. This controller is a TRUE variable speed zoom controller. A lot of the after market "clamp on" controllers have a zoom in/out toggle switch with a separate variable speed knob. This would be almost impossible to shoot a variable speed zoom in, stop, then zoom out as it would take juggling two controls with one hand. I have only used four of the functions - Power ON, Record Start/Stop, Zoom IN, and Zoom Out. The Zoom function is reversed from what you would intuitively think. To "push in" or zoom in you pull back on the controller. To "pull back" or zoom out you push the controller forward. After a short time of working with the controller you start to sub-consciously zoom correctly without having to think about it. The complete handle is easily removable and can mount on the left or right side of the tripod head. The controller/handle could be used to zoom or start/stop a remotely mounted camera such as a steady-cam or boom type operation with only a LANC extension cable.
It was my intention to reverse the zoom pot to make it function the intuitive way. The pot is custom made with a flexible plastic multi-conductor cable. The pot can not be mounted backwards as it is built with a one-way snap in design. The three conductor plastic cable terminates with a four conductor end that plugs into an edge connector. You can not simply flip the cable over as the active three conductors will be offset and the conductive side would be opposite the contacts. The last possibility is cutting the circuit board and swapping the two outer leads. I have no problem with doing this as I used to modify circuit boards all the time in a previous job. The problem is that one of the outer conductors continues to other parts of the board and can not easily be bypassed. I gave up and decided to learn how to use it backwards. It did not take as long to get used to it as I thought it would.
I would buy this tripod again if I ever needed another one. I would be willing to pay up to $200 for it as I see it as being a good $100 tripod with a good $100 LANC controller.
The ONLY reason I did not rate it 5 stars is because the legs could still be a little stronger to counter act the pan drag. I would only rate something 5 stars if there were no room for improvement. I think it is a good compromise and good value. I give the value aspect 5 stars. + See Full Customer Review |  |
