Hi there, im in the situation of buying new tripod, at the moment i used chepo slik U9000 which quite steady (weight 1.6kg). Previously i bought light cheapo velbon for fun (weight 1.2kg) which ended up given to my friend because its not steady when there is a wind.

Right now im looking for another light tripod for travelling. I'll be using this tripod to take long exposure cityscape at night, currently i used 40D with no grip with primes and my biggest lens is my only zoom lens EFS 10-22, im not gonna buy any long lens in the future (as i had 70-200 2.8 IS before but sold it, because too heavy for travelling)

When i did some research I came up with SLIK 614 & velbon El Carmagne 530A which both at the same price range. Given the situation which tripod would you recommended (i know there are weight difference, load capasity & macro capability difference between 2 lenses but any of it wont be big issued for me). My my concern is that the tripod would be steady enough for long exposure which i wont experience same problem with my chepo velbon? Currently i have Velbon Ballhead QLD 51Q which i used for gorillapod & will likely to mount it to my purchase.

PS: i cant really try any of it because i stay in the small city, and any of the shop i believe would not stock it and If you think any of those will give me issue prob ill pick its sister which weight same as my current tripod. Thanks and sorry for long post

I have the Velbon 630. A friend of mine has the 530, and I've used it a bit so I'm slightly familiar with it and the velbon CF tripods in general. I also know of a photographer who has the Slik 614 and is happy with it, but have never seen one of these in person.

The velbon 530 would be fine for your uses. My friend has an acratech head on his 530, same as I have on my 630. I think you'd definitely be fine with a lens like the 70-200 f4 or 70-300 IS. Its a good sturdy little tripod, but too short for me to use comfortably. I'm 6'2" for reference.

If you want a shorter folded length in this price range but still want a stronger tripod, look at the Velbon 640. Folded, this is shorter than the 530, but nearly the same strength as the 630, which would be plenty strong for lenses like the 70-200 f2.8, 300 f4, 400 f5.6L, 100-400L IS, and probably fine for the 400 f4 DO.

I had the slik 614, which I used when travelling with my 5d and prime lenses up to 85mm. It was fine. After a year or so I sold it and bought the Gitzo 1100 series -- one of the newer ones. The new Gitzos are a dream; the slik is nice, relatively inexpensive and very light, however, and I've been thinking about getting one again to go with my G10 and an RRS BH-25 head, but will probably get a Gitzo monopod instead for my G10. . . . I only used the slik (and all my tripods), without a centerpost. I used the slik with an acratech head, which was about as heavy a head a you'd want to use on it. The BH-40 would be too top heavy to go wtih the slik 614.

Hi thanks all for your recommendations, I also read the review in B&H and some said for both of tripod i mentioned the lowest leg abit small and not really sturdy at highest level, so i decided to take SLIK 713 for a great price (US175 incl shipping, the seller said its old stock & the only one and they quoted me old price also). Should be here in 1-2 days