Wow! I replaced my old Canon SX40hs bridge camera with a Panasonic Lumix FZ2500. Along with a new camera, I've re-outfitted everything. I'm just an amateur. I photograph landscapes and I shoot super macros. I've been an astronomer for over 30 years and I want to shoot wide angle night skies. I started out with a 35mm Canon camera and many lenses, years and years ago, but I found that a bridge camera does the photography that I want to do. I don't want to carry a lot of lenses, but I shoot in manual mode. I have an old Manfrotto Bogen Tripod with ball head. It's a great tripod, but it weighs a ton. I need to be mobile to go to dark sky sites. I need a sturdy, but lightweight tripod. I also prefer a fluid pan/tilt head. I initially bought a Neewer carbon fiber tripod, which was a nice Tripod. I paired it with a Innorel F20 fluid pan tilt head. I bought this particular head because it tilts a full +/- 90° instead of being limited to 60 or 70°. This is a wonderfully smooth compact head. I liked it so much I bought a second one to use on my tabletop Tripod. When I took my tabletop Tripod out (recently bought), I found out that it's an Innorel. It's a wonderful, very sturdy Tripod. My old tabletop tripod wasn't sturdy enough for the Lumix fz2500, which weighs more than 2 pounds. The Innorel is more than sturdy enough. After buying the 2 Innorel pan heads and tabletop Tripod, I decided to send the Neewer tripod back and buy an Innorel. The Innorel tripod legs are more than 50% larger in diameter than the Neewer. I don't need the full height, nor do I need the 50 pound capacity. The Neewer had 1/2 of this capacity. I was concerned about tripping on the tripod at night so I have a camera weight bag with 2 kg of pea gravel, to hang on the bottom of center post to steady the tripod and dampen any vibration. The Innorel is substantially more stable than the Neewer tripod. When I leaned on the Neewer, the legs flexed; the Innorel does not. Although I will still use the counterweight on the Innorel tripod, it's not an absolute necessity. The tripod is as solid as a rock, with no vibration whatsoever. It's easy to setup in the dark. I bought the tripod with no head, paring it with the Innorel F20. The Innorel carbon fiber tripod, being 50% heftier than the carbon fiber Neewer tripod, weighs in at only 4 pounds; the Neewer weighed 3.5 pounds. The additional 8 ounces is negligible. When you compare it to my old Manfrotto, which weighed in at over 15 pounds, I've gladly shed that extra 11 pounds. The Innorel tripod is extremely sturdy with an exceptional weight capacity for its size. Equipped with a built-in counterweight hook on the center pole, it comes with an additional hook and 4 Allen wrenches and spikes. It's easy to set up in the dark. It has a lot of bang for the price. I'll take photos to post. Read more
I am not a professional photographer, but I have been taking photos with since 1978, starting out with my 35mm OM2 and moving forward into the digital age and now shoot a Nikon D850. I tell you this so you can take my experience into consideration when reading this review. I mainly shoot landscapes, stills and of late, some wildlife as we live in a home backed up to a wetland area. I bought the Innorel GT-324C because my lightweight, aluminum tripod wasn't giving me the results I wanted with my longer lens. There were obvious signs of vibration and unsteadiness, when releasing the shutter manually. So, after reading and watching many reviews on a lot of different tripods I decided to give this a try, even though there is very little information out there on this Innorel tripod. The few reviews I did find were very positive and I decided to give this guy a try. It didn't make sense to me to buy a tripod that cost more than this but had a far less weight capacity. Name brand tripods in this HD catagory, cost around 5 times more; for me, an amateur, that's hard to choke down. Hopefully I can get out and give this beast a try later this afternoon. What I like: 1. It is without a doubt, heavy duty and a real beast of a tripod! 2. The Nikon D850 with 70-300mm seems to be really steady on it; the scale of the tripod fits the scale of the camera. 3. The quality of this tripod seems to be excellent all the way around. Everything works smoothly and as it should. It is beautifully made and rock solid. I watched one video where a guy sets it up, fully extended, then hangs off of it with his full body weight. I was a bit shocked he would try such a thing, but it held him with no problem and I'm guessing this guy weighs 150 to 170 lbs. 4. The twist lock for the leg extensions don't require a lot of turning. About a 1/4 turn seems to do it. If you turn all three at once you can extend the legs pretty quickly. Once extended and snugged, there is no slipping, they stay put. 5. It comes with a heavy-duty case that weighs about as much as the tripod! LOL! 6. For its size and heft, I don't think the weight is bad at all. 7. Since I haven't shot any photos yet, I can't really say how well the ball head is going to perform, but I did check it out some with the 70-300 on the D850. As seems to be the case with ball heads, you have to anticipate where the exact point of focus needs to be, because as soon as you let go of the camera, it sags a wee bit and, in this case, it is a very little bit. It's not the fact that the head isn't holding the camera it's just the fact that the camera is not supported by my hand any longer. What I don't like: 1. There is only one negative. There is a nice case for the ball head. It is a well-made, padded case, made in the same quality as the tripod and tripod case. The ball head case has a belt-loop, but there is no strap to attach it to the tripod case, which I think needs to happen, so I don't lose it! Read more
Lightweight, easy to use, quick setup Read more
Very intuitive setup and use. Collapses to a reasonable size. Very sturdy, it's my primary shooting platform for my 12# rifle. Read more
This thing is awesome, use it almost every weekend hunting coyotes and pigs. Lightweight and sturdy. Read more
Great tripod for the money. I bought this for coyote hunting but this really doesn’t have the stability to be effective at long range. The legs are skinny and you will see this, in your scope after you mount your weapon. This is great for a crossbow in a blind for deer hunting or camera work. If you want a coyote rig , do yourself a favor and buy once , cry once. I went to a Fat Boy and my buddies use 2 vets and other quality tripods. Yes - they are 1,000 dollars but they are worth it. I have used cheap tripods and they just don’t cut it. Just my 2 cents. Read more
I can not review Functionality or durability since I just received it yesterday. I limped my old tripod thru its last session yesterday and then came home to my new Innorel and set it up. What a contrast! It is solid but simply designed, exquisitely machined. I revisited my old tripod review as it aged and I'm sure I will update this one also but, this has a huge head start! Very pleased. I read and understood one reviewers apprehension about getting a little known brand but that worry has completely disappeared! 3 months in now, and I still love it. Thought I had an issue, the lubricant on the N44 ball head pan didn't like the cold and a 2 week stint in my truck during a cold snap exposed it! Seized up, brought it in and cleaned friction surfaces, a little synthetic lube and it is perfect again. I gained a deeper appreciation for the simplistic design and quality build. Read more
