Page 59 - NyghtVision Magazine Volume 2 #2

JD MILAZZO 52

The complete kit: The tripod with head attached.. The bag for the head in the lower left
corner. In the middle, in its own bag, an extension. An ample collection of tools is in-
cluded

alcon has never been a fan of tripods. Never. couldn’t seem to find the part we needed………
hen I think about tripods, words like awk- B
FWith good reason too. ut that has changed.

Wward, heavy, expensive, badly designed, e were introduced to Sirui nearly two
uncomfortable all come to mind. Now that air- Wyears ago. At first, we were sceptical. We
lines charge extra for every “bag”, I have added had every reason to be given our long history of
“costly to transport”. We have had some bad problems. But the closer we looked at the Sirui
tripod experiences too. On our way to Copen- line, the more impressed we were with the de-
hagen, we had to check our tripods. In Amster- sign, the construction, and even the innovation
dam, we became separated from the tripods and built into each and every one.
our luggage. By the time our tripods reached us,
they were a mess. Despite being very expensive ut, we have learned the hard way that just
and billed as “rugged”, they weren’t. To make Bbecause something looks good and appears
matters worse, one was unusable for the rest of to be well designed, appearances can be and are
the trip. deceiving. Carrying our old tripods across Eu-
rope taught us that. So, when Jeff Karp, Sirui’s
nd it is still. Despite being told that the tri- representative in the US, offered to let us use
Apod damaged on our way to Copenhagen two at WPPI this year, Falcon and I took him up
was repairable, it remains in a closet. Unused on it.
and still damaged. Not because we didn’t try to
have it repaired, but because the manufacturer

nyghtvision magazine volume 2, number 2, summer 2012