MeFOTO daytripper tripod

Hi, I wanted to toss in my opinion. I bought a Silk Sprint Mini II and love the thing. I used to use a tiny tripod I found myself laying on the ground for a lot of shots, and after hiking all day the crawling around wasn't very comfortable. The Sprint is tall enough to get better perspective shots. I love it for sitting, the design seems to work very well as the legs adjust outside my legs and puts the camera right at eye level. I do have to stoop over a bit when standing, but it's not bad. I use it for my Sony NEX 6 for all kinds of steady shots like HDR and Milky Way shots. The price isn't too bad either. It's not the lightest but if your doing Milky Way shots the flimsy designs simply won't do at all. If money is no object, buy a super sturdy, light and expensive full size carbon fiber model. Have fun out there

I have really been looking at the Slik models – thanks for the recommendation.

I do wonder – how much of a problem is it to use the shorter models? I have an articulating screen on the Sony, and sitting down to compose the shot isn't at all disagreeable…but as I said I'd been using just one of those 1 oz joby things for a tripod so its not like I'm used to having something at eye or chest height.

It just seems like I can't at all have tall, lightweight, sturdy, inexpensive. I have to say, pick two.

You're onto something, Jennifer. An articulating screen makes it much easier to compose a scene with the shorter tripods. The maximum height of my tripod is around 40", and I have no problem composing a scene while standing up. Just flip down the screen and look down. Most likely, I wouldn't want to go much shorter than that, though.

Here…standing up with my NEX screen tilted up, me looking down at it.

Here is my first attempt at silky water sitting down, fully upright looking though the viewfinder

And a pic of the Milky Way (still learning how to post process these for sure). All taken on the Silk Mini II 19mm 2.8 Sigma

Well, today is my birthday and my wonderful brother saw me looking at the MeFOTO ones the other day…and surprised me with one.

First of all – seriously cool that he would be so attentive, even if I hadn't at all made up my mind ;)

I am now the proud owner of the short meFOTO daytripper – in bright orange. HA! But honestly, it's pretty sweet! It's 26.1 oz on my scale (not great, not as bad as I thought) and folds up ridiculously small. I do like that it takes NO time at all to set up, whereas some of the others I was playing with in the store took a long time with the 3-4 section legs.

I found myself sitting on the ground, scooting along, to shoot. And honestly, it wasn't bad!

I'm sure it won't be perfect, and he did give me the receipt so I may end up exchanging it for one of the Slik ones I saw. But for now I guess I'll play around with it, see what I think. It wasn't too bad with the articulating screen, and I can see how having such a small tripod would make it more likely that I would actually TAKE it (which is why I never actually bothered to get one before).

So I'll give it a whirl and let you guys know.

Bob is this similar to your tripod?

Slightly similar.

This one appears to have cylindrical legs which might twist. Mine has legs that are highly shaped, which keeps them sliding in one direction and not twisting.

–B.G.–