Benro's Strongest Traveler Tripods: Travel Angel + V Ball Heads!

Benro recently released their latest series of Travel Angel tripods, the main modification is the BALL HEAD: it's upgraded from the mid-level B series heads to the professional-level elliptical V series heads, which greatly enhance the locking power and friction controlling of the tripod kits. (For more detailed introduction of V ball heads, please refer to our previous article.)

Besides ball head, other changes include:

• More flexible tube angle adjustment: from 2 levels to 3 levels, which provides better low-angle shooting performance.
• More advanced locking mechanism of tube locks.
• Bigger leg pads, which enlarge the touching area of tripod legs, hence higher tripod stability.

For other main features in the ancestor version, such as monopod conversion, walking stick conversion and invertable center column, the new tripods are all inherited.

The tripods are available in both Carbon Fiber (prefix "C") and Aluminium (prefix "A"):

• Carbon Fiber: C1682TV1, C1692TV0, C2682TV2, C2692TV1, C2692TV2
• Aluminium: A1682TV1, A1692TV0, A2682TV2, A2692TV1, A2692TV2

The first 6 digits specify the tripod body, and the last 2 digits stand for ball head. e.g C2682TV2, means C2682T carbon fiber tripod body, with V2 ball head.

Perfect Match - Benro C3780T Tripod & G3 Ball Head

The Benro Combination Series Tripod and G Series Ball Head are the toppest grade photo gears among the brand, with the highest stabilities and loading capacities. In size-wise, they are also perfect fit, it seems that they are mutually born for each other. They are especially suitable for heavy equipments, such as tele-lenses, medium and large format cameras.

In this article, we will spend larger proportion to introduce the Combination Series Tripod (we use C3780T for the demonstration), and how it works together with the G3 ball head.

Demonstration - Benro Versatile Tripod C2970T & V2 Ball Head

In this article, we will share a simple review for the Versatile series Tripod of Benro, and we will use the new Benro V2 ball head on the tripod, to demonstrate the great flexible feature of the tripod.

The Versatile series Tripod is the most flexible tripod from Benro, it allows photographers to adjust their shooting angles easily, even the angles are very strange which cannot be acheived by normal tripods. It's one of the most useful tripods from Benro. That's why it's called Versatile series.

New Product - Benro V series Elliptical Ball Head

V series is the second top line photo ball head from Benro (next to G series), with elliptical ball and drag friction fine tunning ability.

V series is actually aimming to replace the older J series ball heads. Comparing to J series, the most advanced modification of the V series is the Fine Tunning Disc on the Main Drag Knob (for setting lowest drag friction) as shown in the following photo. It's larger, more handy and comfortable than that of J series.

  

New Product - Benro LBA1 Levelling Base

Another new product of Benro - LBA1 levelling base.

Levelling base is not uncommon in recently years, it's for quick level adjustment of tripod head, especially in uneven surfaces. It's a very good partner for video heads or panoramic heads.

New Product - Benro Low C.G. Ball Head G3

Benro ultimately released their top line ball head - G series, in August 2012.

G3 is the only memeber of the G series ball head so far. It's a Low C.G. Ball Head (or called "Low-Profile Ball Head" by Benro), with the following main features:

• 40kg maximum loading capacity.
• Low gravity and extra large ball designs, which provide great stability.
• Strengthened locking ability.
• Double groove design, for more flexible angle adjustment.
• ArcaSwiss style QR system, and with double security lock.

New Product - Benro Video Tripod with Leveling Column

In May 2012, Benro released a new video tripod A1573FS2 for small DV.

The designing of the video tripod is totally new: on top of the basic front-rear tilting and 360˚ panning abilities, the tripod has a LEVELING CENTER COLUMN which allows user to level the tripod head effortlessly, even in uneven terrains, like the following photo (you could see that the tripod and center column are heavily inclined, but the video head and the DV are still in level position):

Benro 2012 New Prodcuts Preview

Benro recently released their 2012 product catalog (in Chinese), we can find many new products, such as macro heads, newly designed ball heads and leveling platforms. Although they are not yet manufactured at the moment, let's get a preview of the items first.

Benro 2nd Generation Traveler Tripods

The Benro 2nd generation tripod is the first tripod series with the ability of MONOPOD CONVERSION. It's released in late 2010, and is one of the best selling models of Benro tripods in the past two years, thanks its portable size and its monopod conversion ability.

Tripod & Monopod 2 in 1

Reverse Folding design makes it more portable

New Product - Benro PJ series Panorama Heads

In May 2012, Benro released the new PJ series panorama heads, PJ1 and PJ2, which further enhancing their product line of panoramic gears.

PJ2 (left) and PJ1 (right)

Actually, the new products are the combinations of J series ball heads and PC series panorama heads. To be specific:

• PJ1 = J1 + PC0
• PJ2 = J2 + PC0

PJ1 is smaller in size with 20kg (44 lbs) loading capacity; whereas PJ2 is larger in size with 30kg (66 lbs) loading capacity. (The figures are the official spec. of J1 and J2 ball heads, grabbed from Benro official website.)

J ball head is the top series ball head of Benro, with highest locking capacities and most convenient controlling mechanism. With the PC0 panorama head attaching on the top, it can both act as a simple ball head, as well as a precise panoramic device.

Let's go more in-depth, we have shared the specifications and product shots in the following sections.