Feisol and Markins travelers

[stever]

with an upcoming trip to Brazil, i finally decided to buy a new tripod and head

the Feisol traveler appeared to be the only light and compact choice that's reasonably rigid (i consider the Gitzo Traveler to something of an expensive joke) and i've been using a Velbon carbon tripod that is reasonably light and compact but has a center column lock from hell.

have never been entirely satisfied with the stick-slip of my BH-40 so decided to try the Markins - their new traveler is slightly more compact so i ordered it

i'm impressed with the quality, fit and rigidity of the Feisol and the Markins is at least as smooth as my old Linhof (the ball on the little Markins is actually a bit bigger than the Linhof) with no movement when the lock is tightened - my only niggle is the drag adjustment is a little fiddly although i expect to get used to it.  with the head on, the tripod will fold up and fit in the Feisol case -just

although i expect to use it more for panoramas and low light, it's happy with the 100-400 (which will get used for pans) with added weight.  should be okay with a 400DO which i'm renting but something like a 300 2.8 might be marginal.

all in all, seems like a good combination at a semi-reasonable price.  we'll see how it holds up in the field

[usathyan]

I have the 3441S + Q3. I used this extensively in recent trip to India. It worked great..the combination is light weight and good enough for most DSLR setups (except for the heavy lenses).

A good buy i would think - i had considered the 1540T and opted against it due to financial reasons. I think it was a wise move.

[Jann Lipka]

Another happy owner of 3441, I love this thing because it is with me most of the time
I have some other Gitzos and they tend to stay at home ...

 Very smooth function too - sometimes I look at other brands at my reseller,
less stiff then that little friend and most of them sound like a rattle even before beeing used ...