Manfrotto 290 Xtra Aluminium Tripod

I have worked as a professional videographer and camera man, but just wanted a cheaper entry level tripod for use at home with my DLSR. I pick this up on sale for under £100. I have been really impressed with the quality and performance of the tripod and head, which lives up to the quality you would expect for Manfrotto and matches and compairs well to much more exspensive tripod and heads in their product range. Build quality is standard Manfrotto, so I should give make years of service. It only has basic features like only one mounting for a control arm and no additional mounting point for extra equipment, but does include a spirt level bubble for levelling the tripod, which is useful and nice. The mounting plate on the head is a standard Manfrotto plate and interchangeable and compatible with there other video heads (I have tested this). It also includes the extra safety realease button to stop the plate sliding out of the mount if you have forgotten to do it up correctly. The head has no adjustments on it, but the locking screw knobs are smooth and progressive, so can use them to give you some control and resistance of movement when using the tripod for shooting video. I was impressed with smoothness of motion for such a cheap fluid head and found the head easy to setup and balance, which made it a joy to use. I also like the flip left/right leg angle adjustment on the top of each leg, which lets you spread the tripod legs out farther for a more stable and lower postioning of the camera. I found these easier to use than the standard ones found on more exspensive Manfrotto equipment. I found the tripod to be light weight and compact in size. This is a realitive thing and compairs to what you are used to. I have seen other reviews complaining that the tripod and head are heavy and Manfrotto themselves make a lighter tripod, but compaired to a professional camera/head/tripod setup that you would use for pro production quality footage, this tripod and head weighs in at a very low weight. I have used monopods which weigh more than this setup. As a final test I used this tripod on a professional job to see how it would compair, filming a music gig. The tripod and head were used with a professional quality Sony camera to capture the action on the stage from a riser halfway down the right-hand side of the venue. Once setup and balanced correctly the setup was a joy to use. All the video filmed was stable with smooth motion and the editor made a point of commenting how good all the footage was for that camera. All I can say is well done Manfrotto for putting together such a good quality package for such a low price.

Great tripod. Nice and light to carry, easy to use and smooth movement with the three directional head.

He ain't heavy, he's my brother; so the song goes. Well this tripod ain't my brother and is very heavy. If you ever get bored of photography, keep it cos it would make an ideal defensive weapon. If you want to take pictures at the top of Scare Fell Pike please please order the optional pack horse. So the weights a huge disadvantage? Not really; to get smooth panning video the weight actually helps it stay rigid without the need to weigh it down with your camera bag or a small child. It's built better quality is top notch and holds my Canon 80D and standard kit lens whilst yelling "is that all you've got, bring it on you lemon" So apart from the tripods attitude problem a top top purchase.

The legs are great really sturdy and stable. The locking system works well and there is no movement when locked. You could spend £170 on Amazon just for the legs only, so you can't complain too much about the head. But it isn't the best quality and the arms feel a little spongy. I use a Benro geared head or a Manfrotto video head with these legs and it works perfectly. I would recommend buying this tripod but upgrade to a better head as soon as possible. That said, I'm using this professionally, so this might suit a hobbyist fine.

Fantastic tripod. Robust and lightweight

Tired of the £20-£30 wobbly chinese offerings, I was determined to gift my partner with a 'proper' tripod to compliment her camera kit and 25-125x zoom monocular. I did my research and was very gratified to see that I'd made the right choice. The fluid head is very smooth, and a particular feature I like is the ability to splay and lock each leg independently, from the usual 30-ish degrees, all the way out to full horizontal, suiting a range of instances where it's difficult to site the feet for stability (rocky terrain, etc). This is afforded by depressing a catch at the top of each leg to release lock, moving the leg out, then progressively moving the leg back down against a ratchet for positioning. Incidentally, I mentioned to a work colleague that I was purchasing a 'proper' tripod as a gift, and without further clues he asked... "Is it a Manfrotto?". It just so happened that his friend was really into photography with some serious Canon kit, and used Manfrotto tripods himself - hence his asking. If you're serious about a decent tripod, I can heartily recommend the Manfrotto brand as it's hard to see how anyone could be disappointed.

Très bon compromis entre prix et rigidité de l'ensemble pour un usage de longue-vue. Avec un peu d'habitude, les boutons de serrage sont disposés de telle manière à pouvoir les manipuler à l'aveugle.

En combinación con el cabezal MVH 500 AH, es un conjunto imbatible; dentro de la categoría de menos de 6kg de caaga soportable. Sólido, fiable y versátil. Sin duda, un trípode de nivel excelente para su precio. El servicio de amazon, como siempre, perfecto... Del todo recomendable.

As a photographer of over fifty years, I have, on several occasions, purchased items from the Orient. These items are first quality goods, the only drawback is that their warranty is only honored by the company you purchased from…so if something breaks or malfunctions, you’re stuck with paying freight to send it back across the Pacific, and without the item for sometimes very long periods. But, if you are careful to buy things that you know to be solid and durable, the risk is sometimes worth the incredible savings. If you can get a lens or tripod for less than 50% of US pricing, and you know that Manfrotto tripods are virtually bullet-proof, then it’s not much of a gamble.

カメラを始めたばかりで、三脚についても初購入ですが、とてもしっかりしたもので使い勝手もよく満足しています。

Great