Benro Slim Carbon Fiber Lightweight Travel Tripod Kit Review

A carbon fibre tripod for £120?! Writing this in accelerate of the launch of the Benro Slim range, I'm certain this will be the headline plastered across the photographic press, including our own.

There are a number of carbon fibre tripod options at this price signal, even in the sub-£100 / $100 range, but they are either brands you've never heard of or Amazon's own brand. Certainly not a make with a reputation like Benro's.

For this minor sum you become a carbon fibre tripod that weighs just a hair over a kilo at 1.01kg and tin can balance a payload of 4kg. The Benro Slim is aimed at photographers using both DSLR and mirrorless cameras.

The Benro Slim stretches to a maximum height of 146cm, and 122cm without the centre column. Its minimum height is merely 40cm, and when folded up in its handbag – included in the kit – information technology measures just 51cm.

The Benro Slim kit includes a removable brawl head, with a ratchet-style locking knob and a panoramic scale.

The kit also includes an Arca-style quick release plate that features a 1/4in D-Ring photographic camera attachment screw.

The Slim'due south 3 leg sections feature anodised aluminium twist locking mechanisms, and its leg positions are adjustable allowing you to use it on uneven ground.

The Benro Slim carbon fibre tripod is aimed at travel photographers, in detail.

Benro Slim carbon fibre tripod review: Build & Handling

Every bit its name suggests, the Benro Slim is very meaty, still also very robust. Even with all 3 leg sections extended I tried my best to bend the legs, simply there's piddling give.

And as you'd look from a compact carbon fibre tripod, the Benro Slim is very light. So light I was able to lift it with a single finger wrapped around its leg.

The twist locks on the legs experience secure and have a textured surface, which makes them quite piece of cake to loosen or tighten. I found a few times, though, that I loosened them also far and the twist lock band comes off entirely. So that'due south something to scout out for.

In practise, you only need to requite the locks a single plow or two just to loosen them enough to extend the leg. This makes setting up the Benro Slim – and taking it down – quite quick and easy.

The Benro Slim's anxiety are not removable. Equally a representative of Benro has told united states of america, the bottom tube bore is actually too small to allow this. The feet are made of a thick rubber with a pointed finish that helps stabilise the Slim in soft footing.

The ball head and quick release plate are too both lightweight, yet robust. The brawl head tin be adjusted with a simple twist of a locking mechanism around the eye cavalcade.

Likewise, loosening a bolt on the top releases the grip and allows you to slide information technology out to fit information technology to your photographic camera.

Adjusting the leg angles is very easy. At the superlative joints where the three legs coalesce, merely pull forward the tabs with the Benro logo at the elevation of each leg. When this is extended, you are free to conform the bending of that leg upwardly to the betoken where information technology is perpendicular to the ground. This allows yous to set upward the Benro Slim on very uneven ground.

Next to these tabs – rather, on pinnacle of ane of them – you will find a handy spirit level to help you know when the Benro Slim is ready directly. There'due south another spirit level housed in the tripod caput underneath the quick release plate.

Finally, the hook at the base of the centre column isn't the largest, but it'south solid and taut and could quite capably support the weight of the Benro Incognito bag I've as well been testing, which was total of two mirrorless cameras, a GoPro with Karma Grip and an assortment of 360 cameras.

Benro Slim review: Functioning

The Benro Slim is remarkably piece of cake to use. I was able to have it gear up with all three legs extended and my camera on the quick release plate in nether thirty seconds.

And my photographic camera felt stable and secure, even setting upwardly the Benro Slim in a creek bed. As light as information technology is, the joints at the top of the three legs are solid and built to terminal.

I was able to go the Benro Slim into whatsoever angle I wanted and never felt like there wasn't a shot I couldn't take. In fact, it's quite the opposite feeling for me using the Benro Slim. It'southward opened up images I wouldn't normally be able to take.

I hate carrying tripods with me. I will quite happily increment my ISO setting or back up my photographic camera against copse or rocks or benches if information technology means non having to lug a tripod on my dorsum.

But the Benro Slim is light enough and compact plenty to carry with my everywhere. If you have a haversack or a camera bag deep enough, you can even fit information technology inside. I take a big parka that I wear in winter. I braved putting it on during the recent heatwave and I tin can quite easily stash the Benro Slim in one of the glaze's deep front pockets if need be.

The Benro's size and weight really create its versatility.

Benro Slim review: Verdict

If you lot're averse to using tripods because y'all don't like being weighed down, the Benro Slim carbon fibre tripod is for you. Priced at just £120, information technology's not much more money than the cheapest models on the marketplace just it offers impeccable build quality from a trusted make.

I took the Benro Slim to a neighbourhood barbecue the other calendar week to photograph my neighbor's architectural models for his website. I concluded up shooting some group portraits of everyone every bit the light fell. I was able to plop the Slim into a grocery carrier sack that I slung around my wrist as I carried a plate of burgers on the walk over.

You merely always have room for it. At that place'southward e'er a way. And information technology's got me taking a tripod with me when I unremarkably eschewed 1. Every bit a issue, I'chiliad taking more photos I normally wouldn't accept attempted.

I reckon the Benro Slim carbon fibre tripod is going to prove very pop, and for proficient reason. It'due south small and lightweight with a build quality that'southward designed to last.

MeFoto RoadTrip Air review

Benro Slim aluminium version: is this the better tripod option?

It'due south worth noting that Benro has launched an aluminium version of the Slim at the same fourth dimension as the carbon fibre model (both were announced today). I tested both, just I've written the longer write-upwards hither about the carbon fibre version considering a Benro carbon fibre tripod at £120 is what anybody is going to be interested in.

But also, the carbon fibre and aluminium versions of the Benro Slim are very nearly identical in spec. All specifications betwixt the two are identical, save for the weight. As you lot'd look, the aluminium version weighs slightly more at 1.2kg, versus 1.01kg for the carbon fibre Slim.

However, the aluminium Benro Slim is also priced at £lxxx, compared to £120 for the carbon fibre.

I gave the aluminium version a thorough use like I did the carbon fibre Benro Slim, and it'south build quality is as solid. So what you're paying for hither is actually the weight. And the question nosotros're all wondering: is 0.19kg really worth £40 more.

I think the respond to this actually comes downwardly to your own personal use of tripods. If yous're the sort of person who e'er takes a tripod with you, then the divergence in weight betwixt the carbon fibre and aluminium isn't probable one yous will find all that much. If you're used to carrying tripods around you'll probably find, in fact, that the Benro Slim aluminium is a nice reprieve from your electric current option, every bit it too folds downwardly compactly.

But if y'all don't apply tripods all that often and like the freedom of slipping a camera into a pocket or a small pocketbook and going off to explore, I would say you should definitely spend the extra coin on the carbon fibre Benro Slim. Information technology's not that much more money in the yard scheme of things, and information technology'southward a tripod you'll have for quite some time, if not forever. And it merely opens up so many more options for images you wouldn't normally be able to shoot handheld. It's expanded my photography, and I hardly find it's there.

three Legged Thing Punks Travis tripod review

Save

Save

Save

Salvage

Save

Save

• Accompaniment Reviews
• Camera Accessories
• Reviews

johnsonuppose.blogspot.com

Source: https://camerajabber.com/benro-slim-carbon-fibre-tripod-review/

Share this post