Amazon called me yesterday, or rather, UPS called me yesterday saying that one of my Amazon.com orders will be arriving tomorrow and please have someone home. They usually do that for the expensive stuff.. and this thing is EXPENSIVE.
So today, when the UPS man rang the doorbell.. I was elated. My tripod came and it was big, but surprisingly light. Even with just 3 legs extended, on the ball head and my camera, it was taller than my eye level, I would need to either lower the legs or go tippy toes to see out the viewfinder. But that's ok, it's quite easy to lower a tripod, not so easy to extend one.
This is one of Gitzo's universal systems, and so there's no center column. I found that the center column is SOOO unstable, at that point, your tripod has become a monopod, and so you overpaid for 2 legs you aren't using. Now with a RRS BH-55 on top of this thing, it's not exactly light. BUT.. it's not heavy either. And the platform is SOLID. And isn't that the goal here, to provide a super solid platform in which to shoot from? I had an old Aluminum tripod from Manfratto before, and it was WAY heavier than this tripod.
Weight:
BH-55LR ~ 1.90 lbs (861g)
Gitzo GT3541XLS ~ 4.34 lbs (1.97 kg)
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Total 6.24 lbs (2731g)
So slightly under 3kg for the works.. I believe that as of this writing, this is THE best combination of tripod and ballhead available. I have tried a friend's Arca Swiss ballhead, and it's not as good as this is. The lack of a center column just adds to the stability and confidence.
Suck it up, eat ramen for 3 months, and buy yourself a RRS BH-55 and a Gitzo GT3541XLS. You know you want to..
