Review: Giottos Compact Tripod with Ball head (QU305B-1004)

I like to pretend I am a photographer, the key word there is pretend. One of the few things I remember from my darkroom days is “if you want a good picture bring a tripod”.  But who wants to carry and set up a full size tripod? I used to try and do that with a full size lightweight tripod, but that did not work out very well… I always left it at home. The Giottos Compact Tripod with Ball head (QU305B-1004) is a great solution for a tripod you can carry with you riding and hiking.

I had been using an Ultrapod, but it was a bit limiting in that it was so low to the ground. I saw on Outdoor Photographer a list of Mini Tripods and well, that lead to me buying the Giottos Compact Tripod with Ball Head . Which is a much more substantial and significantly better tripod than the old Ultrapod.

It is a bit bigger collapsed than the ultrapod.

 The Giottos Compact Tripod is able to be raised much higher than the ultrapod as well.

The Giottos has three sections:

It can be used fully extended like here.

Or partially extended like here:

About 2/3 the height of an adorable chocolate lab.

And then You can unscrew both the ball head and the post, and mount it directly to the base.

The ballhead is an option which I believe makes it the QU305B-1004. It is fairly compact, definitely easy to pack, I carry it in my osprey pack mountain biking and all my other packs hiking.It includes a carry pouch as well.

The ballhead is sturdy and easy to adjust, even with gloves on. I have used it with my DSLR,  but mostly I carry a pocket camera and it is very steady.

Here this is a shot with the mini cam zoomed all the way and mounted on the giottos.

And here is a long exposure.

And a self timer shot.

So if you are looking for a super nice tripod that you will actually carry with you, get the Giottos  Compact Tripod with Ball head (QU305B-1004).

Check out what Giottos says here.