Since I started this hobby (photography) a couple of years ago, only now have I finally invested on a tripod. There are a bunch of reasons why I ended up waiting this long. But after all is said and done - I finally have one of my own; and ain’t she a beauty!

I’ve always had a soft-spot for objects, scenery, and low light situations in my photography. Given those weights, one would think that aside from the usual VR (vibration reduction) / IS (image stabilization, a tripod would be one of the tools I would find invaluable. I totally agree with that sentiment; having a tripod was certainly something I wanted ever since I started.

But again; why wait this long? It wasn’t really “waiting” per se, but the simple fact that nothing was really “doing it” for me whenever I would look. For my uses, there are only a few deciding factors:

1. Weight
   I’m really big on weight, I wanted something light. Not necessarily compact, but light. I knew that the times I would need to bring such a thing would be the times I’d be carrying it all the time (or connecting it to the camera bag). Whatever the case may be, lugging heavy stuff for extended periods sucks balls.

2. Set-up time
   How fast could you set and collapse it? After all these years, I found this to be less of a concern than I initially thought. It would be a perfect if there was a light Neotec tripod. Unfortunately, given the technology packed into the Neotec system this seems to be an impossible task to accomplish.

3. Low-level photography
   I have Nono to thank for this, we started about the same time and he had bought this cool Manfrotto tripod which allowed low-level photography.¹ I’m aware that the need to actually do such a thing is pretty rare, but I guess this is the type of feature that wouldn’t hurt to have should you find yourself needing to some low-level shots (macro?).

Given those weights, it goes without saying that since day 1 I was already considering the more expensive carbon fiber tripods. It’s that fact (that I wanted a carbon fiber tripod) that probably made me end up waiting this long. I knew those tripods to be pretty expensive (at least 3x the price of what you can usually get). Given that implication, I had to be sure that should I buy one, I’d have covered most of if not all the features I was looking for no matter how trivial it may be.

The 190CX Pro 3 to this day seems to be what I’ve been looking for. The only thing missing in this tripod is the Neotec adjustment system. Having a Neotec Monopod myself, I really swear by the speed of this system. Suffice to say though, my monopod is as heavy as the 190CX tripod! Just imagine how heavy a Neotec tripod would be.

I chose a 3-section² despite its longer collapsed dimensions to compensate for the fact that it isn’t a Neotec (plus, you’ll have less locks to manipulate for leg adjustments). The Q90 Quick Column System is very impressive though; and makes up for whatever speed penalty of setting up the legs incurs. Check out this video demonstration on how fast you can switch from normal to low-level photography.

Overall, I’m very happy that I waited it out and ended up getting a really awesome tripod. Can’t wait for our Boracay trip this April to do some HDR photography!

post updated on July 31, 2008 @ 12:39PM