my take on tripod bags for travel and other assorted fun things.
i have seen many bags posted her ranging from overgrown socks to what looks to be weapons cases. i just ordered up and received a Kinesis small tripod case.
the case is unpadded to begin with reducing the bulk of a complete tripod to begin with. now i, over the years have leg pads on my tripods (a Magfiber 055MF3 currently). when the legs are collapsed up they provide all the padding the case needs to protect them. so the case itself really need not be padded hence no bulky bag lying around while i'm actually using the legs. my precious head, a BH-55 in this case, is on top and covered in its own bag. finding the original RRS bag to be fairly useless for this i also invested in the kinesis ballhead bag size small too. it is a beautiful setup. for those who must have extra padding it is available from kinesis or supply your own
the carry handle is in the right place for balanced carry with the head on
there are attach points that are a little different on it. you can get, your option, a harness that allows you to carry it like a daypack vertically on your back. then of course ther are the standard shoulder strap loops and some propriatery mount points for their backpack
there are 2 compression straps high and low to keep it snug as a bug in a rug
to me, at the moment, the most usable tripod bag around.
...thanks for the review and continuation of the thread
...btw, I am considering a 055MF3 as well. Do you know what the tripod rating is when using the column horizontally? ...I could not find it at bogen's site... and lastly(?), any thoughts about the 3502 leveling base in lieu of the 550B column?
...I trust I have not hijacked my original thread! if so, I do apologize to all.
damjr1 wrote:
...thanks for the review and continuation of the thread
...btw, I am considering a 055MF3 as well. Do you know what the tripod rating is when using the column horizontally? ...I could not find it at bogen's site... and lastly(?), any thoughts about the 3502 leveling base in lieu of the 550B column?
...I trust I have not hijacked my original thread! if so, I do apologize to all.
Doug
it will handle the same weight with of course an appropriate counterweight to balance. the center post is aluminum
i decided that adding to the centerpost vs just plain replacing it was sort of counter productive. all i do for centralized low mode is carry the short portion of the original post for that which is rare. it will probably work well either way. but adding this to the existing post adds additional weight where replacement adds less. the difference between the original post and the 555B is about 6oz so your just adding almost 10oz using that method
sjms, I agree completely. I bought one of the Kinesis bags for my G1325 and B-1. It was actually a prototype that they had on hand. It has a full length zipper as well as the features that you mentioned. The balance is great. I use the small pouch for the head as well. They make a larger pouch for the head that is great for allowing you to carry the tripod upside down when mounted on a large lens case. It makes the load less top heavy. Good stuff!
Kinesis also has a padded chest harness that works very well with their tripod bags.
I used one recently while hiking in the Smokies. I agree that padded tripod bags are
too cumbersome.
