A tripod is, and always was, an essential part of my kit. Capturing high resolution images for large prints demand stable support. Not to mention its importance as a compositional tool. While I’m absolutely satisfied with my “standard” tripod (a Gitzo GT3532LS with an Arca-Swiss d4 Classic geared head), there are occasions when either its size or its weight becomes prohibitive. So I was searching for the ideal lightweight support for a couple of years now.
My requirements were very strict, and no dedicated (means weak and short) travel or lightweight tripod satisfied it. My “travel” tripod has to be sturdy enough to support the Canon EOS 5DS R with a short tele, like the Zeiss Apo-Sonnar 2/135, in extreme conditions (strong wind, icy surfaces, etc). It must fit into cabin baggage (practically 53cm or shorter closed length). It has to be 130cm or higher when fully extended. The head must be geared (one doesn’t want to go back to imprecise and frustrating ballheads after years of shooting with an Arca d4 or Cube). And it should be around 2kg, head included.
Sounds pretty impossible? Well, you can’t buy such a thing off the shelf. You have to build it. And like any good tripod, it will be expensive. But like any good tripod, it will last a few decades.
Let me show the finished product first.
Gitzo GT2542 + Markins TH-230 + Arca-Swiss p0 Hybrid
Specs: 51cm closed (without head), 131cm fully extended (without head), weighs 1420g (tripod) + 615g (head) = 2035g, sturdier and dampens vibrations faster than my previous lightweight solution (a Gitzo GT2532S with the Arca p0 Hybrid head).
Actually, vibration dampening performance is halfway between the Gitzo GT3532LS and GT2532S Systematic tripods. To measure it, mounted my 500mm directly on the tripods (with no head), knocked one of the legs, and timed in 16x magnified live view how fast did all vibrations die. For the GT3532LS I got around 1.3-1.4 seconds. For the GT2532S, it was around 2 seconds. My “travel” tripod produced 1.6-1.7 seconds. Pretty impressive.
The operation
The Gitzo Mountaineer GT2542 does have pretty good legs, with specs close to my requirements. I’m looking at Gitzo, RRS and Novoflex offerings when it comes to tripods, and there isn’t another one that’s tall enough fully extended while short enough when closed.
But unfortunately Mountaineer tripods have a center column. Center columns are a work of the devil in my book. So it had to go. There were a couple of options here. You can just remove the center column and leave the head platform. Or better, you can remove the column and the platform, and install a Markins tripod base. Or even better, you can throw out the entire top spider and replace it with Markins’ new TH-230 tripod hub.
I chose the third option, because Markins markets this solutions as a way to reduce vibrations by 30%, and because of the potential ~200g weight reduction. While I hadn’t measured the original tripod’s performance, a quick test showed noticeably improved vibration reduction with the TH-230. And the actual weight saving is 300g.
It took about five minutes to remove the legs and attach them to the Markins spider. Markins even have a video showing the process.
By default the head mounting bolt tends to come loose as you change heads, so I had to apply a little bit of removable threadlocker to make it stick in the TH-230 (I had Vibra-Tite Blue 121 at hand, but Loctite Blue 242 will also do).
Unexpected things
I’m surprised how well machined the TH-230 is. It’s superior to even Gitzo’s craftsmanship. The military green (officially called natural green) color of the hub is a bit out of place, but not too disturbing. And finally, the legs spread a little wider with the TH-230.
The latter has a consequence that the fully extended tripod is 6.5cm shorter than it was with the Gitzo spider, despite the 4cm difference in the Markins and Gitzo spider heights (measures from leg tops to head mounting platform). So you lose 2.5cm here, but gain a tiny bit of stability in exchange.
Since I haven’t used a 4 section tripod for more than a decade, I was a bit shocked to experience how slow it is to extend and collapse the tripod. Exactly 50% more than a 3 section one (9 locks vs 6). This is the price you pay for compactness.
The head
It is my good old Arca-Swiss p0 Hybrid with classic (screw) clamp. It had been modified to remove those annoying top panorama unit detents, and is serving me for about two years now. I’m going to share my thoughts on and experience with the head soon.
I ended up using the p0 Hybrid not only because I already had it, but also because the other option (an Arca L60 plus an additional leveling base, such as a Novoflex MagicBalance) would a) increase total system weight, b) limit the movement range and c) reduce the maximum load capacity of the system.
Bottom line
Bought the Gitzo Mountaineer GT2542 for 540 EUR net (not including VAT), and the TH-230 for 190 EUR net. The p0 Hybrid sells for about 740 EUR net these days. Not inexpensive, but I would call it a fair price for the performance you get.
I’m pretty excited to put the “travel” tripod through its paces. It’s small and light enough to bring it with me not just when I hike with the 5DS R, but also to lug along the EOS R when just traveling casually.
☕ ☕ ☕
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