Benro Angel Travel Tripod Review

Blog

About Me

Purchase Prints or Images

This posting will be about the Benro Angel Travel Tripod Review.

We were headed to Ireland. What a photo opportunity that would be. But with all of the airline restrictions on carry-on and luggage weight…. I had to spend many hours trying to figure out what Photo equipment I could take. What would fit in my luggage, what could I take as carry-on, which lenses, tripod, monopod, both, camera bags, chargers, flash…..

It all gets really complicated. Added to that is that part of the trip would be on Ryan Air (Europe’s really stingy version of SWA) they are very particular on what you can bring on board. They even spot check weigh stuff.

I knew I wanted a tripod with me. Its essential, I think for landscapes and macro’s. I am really happy with the tripod at home (Velbon El Carmagne 530 w/ Kirk BH-3 ball head)

but they have long fold lengths and are heavy compared to travel tripods. For a steady camera platform its great.

So I searched the internet for a good travel tripod. It had fold down to a small size, extend to nearly my eye level ( I am lazy and getting older), and it had to be light weight.

I found a Gitzo model, Gitzo GT1541T, that fit my needs but it was just a little outside of my budget. In several forums I read that a good Chinese equivalent to the Gitzo’s were the Benro tripods. And they tended to have good reviews.

I found that they had a nice set of travel tripods called “Travel Angels”. The one that fit my needs was the C069M8B0. It folds into a 13.14″ (334mm) length, extends to 54 in (1380mm) and only weighed 1.8 lbs (.84kg). Yet it had a capacity of 13.2 lbs (6kg). My heaviest set-up is a Canon 5DMk II (2lbs, .9Kg), 70-200 f2.8 lens (3.2 lbs, 1.5 Kg) and maybe a 2X tele-extender (.7 lbs, .3Kg). So that is around 6 lbs or 3Kg. half the capacity of the tripod. This should work out great….. Right??? It looked just like the Gitzo except it had one more leg section and it was within my budget!

Well, when it arrived, it met with all of my expectations. It was tiny compared to my other tripods and oh so light. It came with a rugged canvas bag with a handle and two small D rings. The rings match perfectly with my Crumpler’s 3 million dollar bag strap clips. So I could clip the bag and the tripod case together to the crumplers shoulder strap. You barely notice the added weight. The fully extended height was a little lower than I liked. I am lazy and would love a good steady camera platform at about 58″. So fully extended I have to spread my legs or lean over. But thats ok.

It has a weight hook to add stability to my camera. I put a big D ring on the handle of my bag so I can just hang it from that. The tripod can also be put in reverse so that you get the really low shots.

The leg sections lock by rotating locking grips. The legs have 3 angles that lock. So there is lots of flexibility on height.

When I got this tripod I had a Canon 50d and my largest lens was the kit zoom that came with the camera. This tripod was marginal with that. But worked ok.

The first problem was that the tripod is so light that its is very vulnerable to tipping, vibration, or movement in strong winds. I guess I should not blame this model for those problems as even an expensive light Gitzo would have the same issue. There is a spring loaded hook at the bottom of the center post. You can pull that down and hook a weight to it. I put my smaller camera bag with a walk around lens in the bag. It steadied the tripod quite a bit.

BUT….now….. I have the 5D MK II and I have loaded my bag with other heavy lenses. I have found that this tripod is not so good even though my weight load is only about 50% of its capacity.

The other night I was trying to take pictures of the large moon going on. We were traveling so I had this tripod. The first issue is that it was cold outside. Its a lot easier to flip a lever lock clam shell fitting, like on my Velbon, than it is to crank these twist locks down. That seemed especially true when it was cold and I have gloves on. I got it all set up but it took a while. I put some weight on it with my hand to make sure the legs were locked….and they were not. I had to hunt a bit (it was dark) to find the culprit. It felt tight but I tightened it more. Tested it again….still had a problem….tightened more… done. So I put on the 5DMkII, the 2X extender, and the 100-400mm. Its half the weight capacity.

I took several shots and in each one the moon was extremely smeared. I mean the moon was at least 1 diameter too wide. Something was still slipping. In addition, As I was sighting in the moon there were several times where one foot of the tripod was lifted off the ground (because I was tilting it)…..but I could not feel it or notice it. Just too light. Then I thought that I would anchor it to my bag which was heavy. With the bag, I probably got the weight up to about 80% of capacity. Then two of the legs started collapsing. It felt like I was in a “Charlie Chaplin” movie.

So what can I conclude about all of this.

Any small light tripod, fully extended, will not be anywhere near as good as a normal heavier tripod. I think I hear a “DUH”!. That was not intuitively obvious to me.

These light tripods are still lots of stops better than a monopod……as long as they are not overloaded,

Second… for me…. If its cold outside, the flip a lever lock clam shell connections are much easier.

Finally, for this model, getting up over 50% of the weight capacity and maybe adding some cold temperatures, does not work. I experimented with putting a load on the tripod at room temperature and each legs starts slipping with enough load but not as bad as on that cold night. I am wondering if the cold has an affect on the joints (the tripod…. that is)

So, in summary, you have to be careful with these light tripods, they are top heavy and susceptible to being disturbed. As long as you keep the loading low, with smaller lenses or point and shoots, they will do ok. And the low weight and small folded size makes it REALLY easy to carry. But I need another option. I will check out the Gitzo’s and probably get a little larger one. I’ll end up compromising on the weight and size so I can have a more reliable tripod for my needs. But still be able to travel with it.

I will review the next one that I buy!

Note that this model travel angel has been discontinued. But it does make me nervous about buying another. Since the Travel Angel line was a “cheap” version of the Gitzo’s maybe the saying “you get what you pay for” comes into play.

Is there a good travel tripod that can handle FF camera with Telephoto Zoom? March 29, 2011 [...] little post to my blog about my experience with a Benro Travel Angel. You can read it here: Benro Travel Angel Tripod Reviewed – Bobkeenan PhotographyBobkeenan Photography The short version is that it was great a couple years ago with a smaller dslr and kit lens but [...] Reply

[...] little post to my blog about my experience with a Benro Travel Angel. You can read it here: Benro Travel Angel Tripod Reviewed – Bobkeenan PhotographyBobkeenan Photography The short version is that it was great a couple years ago with a smaller dslr and kit lens but [...]

How I bought a new Travel Tripod - Bobkeenan PhotographyBobkeenan Photography March 30, 2011 [...] my last blog post here, I was reviewing the Benro tripod that was not working and was lamenting that I wanted to get [...] Reply

[...] my last blog post here, I was reviewing the Benro tripod that was not working and was lamenting that I wanted to get [...]

siloam springs photography April 6, 2011 Interesting Pictures! I’m a photographer (SG3 Photography, based in Siloam Springs, AR) so I enjoy seeing these kinds of photo’s. Keep up the good work! Reply

Interesting Pictures! I’m a photographer (SG3 Photography, based in Siloam Springs, AR) so I enjoy seeing these kinds of photo’s. Keep up the good work!

Hans July 4, 2011 Hi, I have used the the Gitzo version and must say I never had problems with locking te legs. I now use a Gitzo 254x travel tripod, for a bit more height and stability (longer lenses was a problem on the previous tripod). This tripod is still light, but a lot more sturdy (thicker sections). Reply

I have used the the Gitzo version and must say I never had problems with locking te legs. I now use a Gitzo 254x travel tripod, for a bit more height and stability (longer lenses was a problem on the previous tripod). This tripod is still light, but a lot more sturdy (thicker sections).

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Cancel Reply

Bags, Bags, Bags, My Journey to the best DSLR Camera Bag October 30, 2012

FocusTune by Michael Tapes Design- Review October 27, 2012

My Microstock Sales October 26, 2012

How to Buy DSLR stuff September 23, 2012

Sigma 70mm f2.8 Macro Lens and my journey to get there September 7, 2012

Blowing Dust away with the KOH Hepa Jet II Air Blower September 2, 2012

Zoom Lenses Make you Lazy July 14, 2012

Book Review: Michael Freemans Photographer’s Eye and Photographer’s Mind June 18, 2012

Autofocus Microadjustment Epihany June 6, 2012

Canon versus Tamron VC 24-70mm f2.8 lenses June 1, 2012

Bags, Bags, Bags, My Journey to the best DSLR Camera Bag

FocusTune by Michael Tapes Design- Review

My Microstock Sales

How to Buy DSLR stuff

Sigma 70mm f2.8 Macro Lens and my journey to get there

bobbyk on Autofocus Microadjustment Epihany

bobbyk on How to recover deleted files of my Aperture 3 library

Girault on How to recover deleted files of my Aperture 3 library

yh on Autofocus Microadjustment Epihany

Chris Smith on Bags, Bags, Bags, My Journey to the best DSLR Camera Bag

October 2012

September 2012

July 2012

June 2012

May 2012

March 2012

January 2012

April 2011

March 2011

February 2011

January 2011

December 2010