Reviews
Excellent travel tripod at a very reasonable price
I just received this tripod two days ago and through my initial tests, it appears to be a very well made tripod for the money.
Pros:
- From the initial unboxing, the tripod carry case felt very well made. I likely won't use this case because I have my own camera bag but for those who need the carry case, it's nice to see K&F include a good quality carry case with the tripod.
- The tripod includes some useful accessories such as protective cover for the ball head and a smaller center column for low shots. As a landscape photographer, the smaller center column is a nice inclusion as I often like to take shots from a lower perspective and most tripods don't go very low which makes it hard to get the perfect shot. I compared many other tripods and it was nice to see K&F be one of the few tripods to have the lowest minimum height.
- Fairly lightweight tripod for travel as the carbon fiber helps keep the weight down.
- Tried a couple of long exposure shots with the tripod and the tripod was very sturdy.
- Big ball head and thicker legs help with the stability and sturdiness of the tripod. I tried a couple of other tripods in the local camera stores however this tripod definitely felt more sturdy in comparison despite being cheaper in price. This is likely due to the thicker legs and heavy ball head which makes this tripod a bit heavier in comparison to the carbon fiber tripods from other companies. But the weight is very manageable and the additional weight makes me feel more comfortable about this tripod in windy situations.
- The leg twist locks and the legs work very smoothly. I prefer the twist locks to the lever locks as you can wrap your hand around the locks and give them a quarter twist to unlock all sections of the leg. This made it very easy to set up the tripod.
- The ball head and the pan feature works very smoothly.
- The screw on the mounting plate has a little hook on the bottom which makes it easy to screw the plate into the camera without needing to carry a coin or some sort of tool to tighten the plate to the camera. This is such a simple feature but it's surprising that some of the tripod companies still don't include this. The plate also locks in place on the tripod as the safety locks prevent the plate from sliding through the front or back of the tripod. This is a good feature because it will prevent your precious camera gear from falling if you forget to properly lock the plate to the tripod.
- This tripod reaches a great height despite being reasonably small in size. I'm 5'9 and I can slightly lower my head to see through the viewfinder on my camera when the center column is not extended to its full height. This is a bonus as I prefer not to extend the center columns of my tripod to make it extra sturdy. Even with the center column extended this tripod is very sturdy and it can reach a comfortable working height for someone much taller than me.
Cons:
- There's not much to dislike about the tripod. However, I wish that the tripod also included a level on the legs in addition to the level on the ball head. I noticed that once I set up the camera on the tripod, the level would get covered by the camera. This is not a deal breaker by any means as you can set up the tripod and see whether it is leveled properly before putting the camera on the tripod. However, having another level on the legs would have easily solved this problem. This may also not be a problem for people with cameras that have built-in levels.
Overall, based on my initial tests I am very satisfied with the tripod. It has all of the features of the more expensive carbon fiber tripods at a very reasonable price. I would recommend this tripod to anybody looking to buy a carbon fiber travel tripod.
Pros:
- From the initial unboxing, the tripod carry case felt very well made. I likely won't use this case because I have my own camera bag but for those who need the carry case, it's nice to see K&F include a good quality carry case with the tripod.
- The tripod includes some useful accessories such as protective cover for the ball head and a smaller center column for low shots. As a landscape photographer, the smaller center column is a nice inclusion as I often like to take shots from a lower perspective and most tripods don't go very low which makes it hard to get the perfect shot. I compared many other tripods and it was nice to see K&F be one of the few tripods to have the lowest minimum height.
- Fairly lightweight tripod for travel as the carbon fiber helps keep the weight down.
- Tried a couple of long exposure shots with the tripod and the tripod was very sturdy.
- Big ball head and thicker legs help with the stability and sturdiness of the tripod. I tried a couple of other tripods in the local camera stores however this tripod definitely felt more sturdy in comparison despite being cheaper in price. This is likely due to the thicker legs and heavy ball head which makes this tripod a bit heavier in comparison to the carbon fiber tripods from other companies. But the weight is very manageable and the additional weight makes me feel more comfortable about this tripod in windy situations.
- The leg twist locks and the legs work very smoothly. I prefer the twist locks to the lever locks as you can wrap your hand around the locks and give them a quarter twist to unlock all sections of the leg. This made it very easy to set up the tripod.
- The ball head and the pan feature works very smoothly.
- The screw on the mounting plate has a little hook on the bottom which makes it easy to screw the plate into the camera without needing to carry a coin or some sort of tool to tighten the plate to the camera. This is such a simple feature but it's surprising that some of the tripod companies still don't include this. The plate also locks in place on the tripod as the safety locks prevent the plate from sliding through the front or back of the tripod. This is a good feature because it will prevent your precious camera gear from falling if you forget to properly lock the plate to the tripod.
- This tripod reaches a great height despite being reasonably small in size. I'm 5'9 and I can slightly lower my head to see through the viewfinder on my camera when the center column is not extended to its full height. This is a bonus as I prefer not to extend the center columns of my tripod to make it extra sturdy. Even with the center column extended this tripod is very sturdy and it can reach a comfortable working height for someone much taller than me.
Cons:
- There's not much to dislike about the tripod. However, I wish that the tripod also included a level on the legs in addition to the level on the ball head. I noticed that once I set up the camera on the tripod, the level would get covered by the camera. This is not a deal breaker by any means as you can set up the tripod and see whether it is leveled properly before putting the camera on the tripod. However, having another level on the legs would have easily solved this problem. This may also not be a problem for people with cameras that have built-in levels.
Overall, based on my initial tests I am very satisfied with the tripod. It has all of the features of the more expensive carbon fiber tripods at a very reasonable price. I would recommend this tripod to anybody looking to buy a carbon fiber travel tripod.
03/11/2023