silkstone
Loves the place
Registered: January 2005
Location: Silkstone Common, Yorkshire, UK
Posts: 4103
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Review Date: Wed September 26, 2007
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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Price you paid?: £60.00
| Rating: 9
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Pros:
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Size, weight, convenience, surprisingly strong.
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Cons:
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One handle must be removed to fit in the bag.
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This is exactly the sort of tripod that dedicated pros with their heavy cameras and big white lenses tell you to avoid. It's light, compact, and with the centre column extended can behave like a giraffe on a beachball.... but I love it. 
Let's start off by saying what the Velbon Ultra Luxi F is not. It is definitely not suitable for a Canon EOS 1Ds MkIII and a 600mm lens. For that you will need something big and heavy, or made from high-tech composites and expensive. But that's not the point.
The Luxi F is designed for terminally lazy photographers like me. I have a Manfrotto 055PRO which lives at home unless the distance from the car to the shoot is less than five metres. I already have a camera bag which weighs as much as a small ox, and the last thing I want is a tripod to match.
With the pan-and-tilt head, the Luxi F weighs around 1.3 kg and folds down to about 16 inches in old money. Even I can manage that. The legs lock by means of a twist-lock mechanism which takes some getting used to, but it works fine and is quick to operate.
Despite the giraffe quip, the Luxi F is surprisingly strong and stable provided you don't ask too much of it. It is, for example, much stiffer and more robust than the Velbon CX444 which is a popular budget tripod, despite being taller when extended and weighing no more.
With the legs fully extended but the centre column down, the camera is near enough to eye level that you don't get backache. I prefer using an angle finder and leaving one of the leg sections retracted, which of course improves stability even more. The lower part of the column unscrews and the legs splay out for low-level shots.
The head is a decent quality metal casting with a quick-release plate, built-in spirit levels and two handles for panning and inclination, which brings me to really my only gripe...
In order to fit in the carry-bag (which is supplied with the tripod) you have to completely unscrew one of the handles which then slots into a hole in the bottom of the other handle so they both lie flat against the legs when folded up. That's a nuisance and they could have used a hinged shaft and locking collar on the handle, but never mind.
If you think of the Luxi F as an exceptionally stable monopod, that's a good start. It is excellent for landscapes and architectural shots where there are no huge lenses in sight, and especially good for interiors since you can move it from room to room without taking chunks out of the door frames. Even outdoors on a windy day it's not at all bad if you don't extend it too far - low perspectives are very fashionable.
In the same range is the Ultra Luxi SF which at first sight appears identical except that it has a ball head instead of pan-and-tilt, but actually the tripod itself does not extend as high. There is also the Maxi range which uses thinner tube for the legs.
So with the Velbon Ultra Luxi F we have a tripod that is very compact, lightweight, easy to carry, well made and more rigid than you would probably expect. It wouldn't be Bill Oddie's first choice, but it is mine.
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