Thinking of buying a new travel tripod? Here's a review that might help.
Today, we’re going to be looking at a new tripod and I’ve just recently bought this MeFOTO GlobeTrotter tripod, this is the one designed for DSLR’s and I bought it because it’s a tripod that packs down nice and tightly. This is the GlobeTrotter version with the Q2 head and as you can see it’s really neatly designed. The legs fold down, it has clips that lock the legs in. It has a real solid feel and it’s got a good amount of tension between them, they’re not floppy.
On the column neck and legs there’s little turn and twist locks. The legs will extent out a long way, maybe to about the same height as the Manfrotto ProB 55. The Q2 head is very nice to use, it’s very fluid with several locking features.
One of the cool features of this tripod, apart from the fact that it folds down so beautifully and you can travel with it really easily, is that one of the legs can be un-screwed and if you detach the bottom of the tripod column, you can remove column completely allowing you to screw the separated leg onto the end of the column. Turning a tripod in a big monopod. Very cool.
So there are some real benefits to this tripod, I was very surprise by the build quality, its extremely good. It’s priced at about £170, so it’s not an expensive tripod. But it’s very adaptable. I also use the Manfrotto ProB and I think they’re very comparible in terms of build quality. The Manfrotto is very good and I would say that this is as good. The thing I like about it, is that it just feels solid, it feels durable, it doesn’t feel flimsy, it doesn’t feel plasticky. It’s made of aluminum and just everything about it, feels solid and right. So MeFOTO have done really well to get the manufacturing specs right.
The leg shoulders have got little pinch and pull levers so you can maneuver the legs into much lower and shallower positions, so if you want you can get really low to the floor. You can switch the heads out to put different heads on this, so if did want a ball grip you could attach one of those.
I’ve been very pleased with it. I took it out to Finland a couple of weeks back and it performed very nicely in some very extreme weathers, coping with -15 to -20 Celsius. I went out in the evening to shoot the Northern lights and everything performed as you’d expect it too.
It comes with in its own nice little bag, which is very nice for porting around with its own little strap. Inside the bag is a zip lock, where you’ll find an Allen key for tightening the quick release plate on and the tripod even comes with little tripod leg spikes, so if you aren’t on a particularly even surface or outside and you want to dig the tripod into the ground for extra stability you can. They’ve really thought about what the pro user would like from a tripod and I think they’ve really nailed it.
So the MeFOTO GlobeTrotter tripod with the Q2 head - retailing at about £170 pounds, you may be able to get it a little bit cheaper.
A very good buy if you are looking for a tripod that will pack down nicely, easily, quickly. When I took it down to Finland, I was surprised that I could actually fit this inside my ThinkTank International camera bag. Beforehand, to take a tripod I’d have to send it out separately to my other camera gear, but now it actually fits inside.
To packed it down, you take the column up to its highest point and you push the legs up against the sides, with a little turn of the tripod head it fits into the bag nicely, so packed down its really very neat and no longer than 30cm and just slides into the bag.
O.k, so that’s the review of the MeFoto Globetrotter, I think it’s a fantastic tripod. More reviews about photography equipment coming up, so come back and join us on the blog soon.
Thanks very much
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