articles/Lens/jp-page13

For the Journey - Packing the gear - part 13 of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

by Mike McNamee Published 01/10/2014

During testing we found the small leg-spread and low height to be a real bonus, even though it was a bit back-breaking. One thing about landscape and nature/macro photography is that you go equipped for kneeling or sitting on the ground, even in wet conditions. If you need to get even lower still, the Manfrotto 190 can splay its legs into four pre-set angles, the last of which brings you almost down to ground level.

The smallest of the legs are only 12mm in diameter and for this reason the leg clamping arrangement is external rather than the neater, twist lock found on some makes. The tension of the clamp action may be adjusted with the socket head provided, which is stored, clipped to a larger leg.

This lasted just one trip and is now resident somewhere on the fells above Eskdale!

Heads

The 190 comes without a head and there is only a rotating spirit level along with a 3/8-inch spigot. Any suitable head may be chosen within the recommended weight constraints (7kg including camera gear).

The 190 is a real limbo dancer when it comes to getting close to the ground!

For our field test we tried both the Manfrotto 410 geared head and an old Kennet ball head. The Manfrotto 410 is a beautiful head, a joy to use. It is, however, 1,250g, 75% of the weight of the tripod itself. The Kennet is just 360g.

We took the Kennet out on the field test and paid dearly; in the watery conditions around Stanley Force it would not hold the D700 24-70mm f2.8 combination in portrait format, the base mounting kept slipping round. This is a serious shortcoming although it should be recognised that the free articulation of a ball head can be a boon for nature work.

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