Angela HartCheap $21 (Aussie dollar) 1.05 Metre 365 grams Lightweight Camera Tripod
Being mainly a solo cyclist, when I want a photo or third person video, I have to do the photography or filming myself. For that I need a good tripod, or rather a suitable tripod.
I’d been carrying a short plastic tripod with bendy legs for several years, it did the job of sorts but was always a compromise, a little heavy and tbh a bit of a pain to set up. It was good for hanging in a tree or off a fence but not much use if there were no objects to hang it off. Then I tried a selfie stick whose base opened up into a small tripod. To use this as a tripod, it had to be on level ground, it often fell over and didn’t last long at all, all the tripod legs eventually broke off. So, I was left looking for a cheap lightweight tripod.
And this is what I found
It was so cheap, $20.99 (Australian Dollars, that’s around £11 (GBP) including postage!! I was obviously skeptical about its quality but for that price I thought it was worth a punt.
I ordered it and it arrived in 7 Days! And what a lovely bundle of a bargain it turned out to be.
In the box was:
1 x Tripod
1 x Mobile phone clip
1 x GoPro camera clevis and screw
1 x Carry bag
1 x Bluetooth remote control (including CR2032 battery)
I have a GoPro mating clevis for my camera already, so that meant I could mount my Phone, GoPro and Camera on it.
The legs can be adjusted to different lengths when on uneven ground, and with a spirit level on the mounting head, you can level it up easily. The legs lock/unlock with some nice over-centre plastic clips, that are quick and easy to use.
Once mounted, it’s easy to move any of the devices from Landscape to Portrait, which is great.
It can be used at the smallest height of approximately 32cm and anything in between fully extended at just over 1 metre in height.
The included remote control Bluetooth remote control button paired easily to my Android phone and it works well but I wasn’t able to pair it to my GoPro or Olympus camera.
There are a couple of little niggles with it, but to be expected at that price, the screw on GoPro clevis doesn’t tighten down (on my one, anyway), this can be rectified with a washer under it, but I haven’t bothered, it doesn’t really pose a problem. The other thing to look out for is that two of the tightening thumb screws screw into a loose nut, so be careful not to lose them. I did lose a nut but found one from an old selfie stick that did the job, to avoid this, just don’t fully unscrew any of the thumbscrews.
The tripod packs into my Camelbak rucksack fine and is lightweight at 365 grams. I don’t expect it to last forever, but at that price you can’t complain. I’ve been riding with it for around 6 weeks now and have had no problems yet.
All in all, it’s a great little tripod and worth the dough.
If you purchase via this link, I may receive a small commission. Note that this link is a different seller that I bought from, the previous seller has run out of tripods
