I had a question about Benro Travel Angel tripods I was hoping someone could help me with. Can the legs be splayed flat in order to shoot at nearly ground level? If so, it looks that the center column would have to be cut down to get the camera down lower. Would this be correct? Any problems if the center column is cut down (with the tripod folding up)? Thanks for any help.
Benro makes short center columns for certain models; below are pix of the model CSC2 that fits several of their tripods including the C-268 M8, C-269 M8, C-2681 M8, C-2691 M8, C-2681 EX, C-2691 EX, C2680T, C2690T, C2681T, C2691T, C2681F, C2691F, C-257 M8, C-258 M8, C-257 EX, C-258 EX, C2570T, C2580T, C2570F, C2580F, C-297 M8, C-298 M8, C-297 EX, C-298 EX, C2970T, C2980T, C2970F, and C2980F. The lower picture shows the short center column on a Benro C2680T.
The short center column means the legs do not fold back parallel with the short center column as they do with the regular center column.
One thing I forgot to mention is that in addition to the ballhead being much closer to the main casting when you fold back, the base on the top of the short column has a larger diameter than the base on the regular column - it's clear in the lower half of the top picture above.
So even if all other things were equal the legs would never fold back parallel. I assume Benro fitted a base on the short column that best accommodates the wide range of tripods that can be used with it.
