sjms wrote:
what can i say, i hope your "interest" in it lasts.
as to your sociopolitical views i totally respect that and i hope you show as much care and carry through with each company/entity you choose to deal with.
Thanks for the well wishes. I’ve found so many uses for the PD outside of travel that I am confident it’ll stay at the top of the rotation.
As to the voting with the money thing - it’s obviously hard to know everyone’s positions so I try to be consistent but clearly get it wrong at times unknowingly.
Personally I think folks clearly should be free to believe what they like as long as they aren’t hurting other people.
But literally trying to impose your religious beliefs on others and and literally making it illegal for people to marry the one they love?
You would think that in the times we live in we should celebrate the fact that a couple wants to make a commitment like marriage.
Enough of that. I love the PD tripod. Not enough to be tripod monogamous though.
liggy wrote:
I’ll leave this with a quote from someone that I look to for tripod experience that we are fortunate enough to have here on the FM Forums, Dave at The Center Column.
“ While the PD tripod is by no means the stiffest tripod we have seen, this isn’t the point. The bulk and weight is often what prevents people from carrying a tripod on a shoot. If the PD tripod changes that for you, a small difference in stiffness doesn’t matter compared to the massive difference in photographic opportunities created by having a tripod versus nothing at all”
This philosophy has pretty much summed up my use of the Leofoto LS-324 carbon tripod. I had a Manfrotto 3021B aluminum tripod that was big and heavy and thus never got much use outside the house.
Since getting the lighter smaller Leofoto tripod, I carry it everywhere without reservation. Subsequently, its added to my enjoyment of photography since I do much more tripod shooting than I ever did before.
Point is, if a piece of equipment makes you want to use it all the time... that's its success.
As I've argued with sjms before, if people enjoy using the PD and it works for them what's the issue?
Got mine today and I am impressed. It isn’t nearly as stable as my Gitzo Mountaineer 2-series, not as tall. BUT it is so tiny when collapsed and so light for its height and stability. It far outclasses my Sirui travel tripod.
Very quirky in operation but I can see why they made the design choices.
I was initially looking at the RRS Ascend-14 Long, which I still like in theory, but the Ascend-14 is not as light as the Peak Design after you add in the head, and to beat the height of the Peak Design you would need the long model which is even heavier. For 50" non-extended both the compact RRS Ascend and Peak Design will get you there. RRS at 3.2lbs and PD at 2.8. 0.4 lbs isn't massive, but in the context of the question "Isn't the point of this purchase solely to reduce the carry weight over my general purpose tripod?" then the 0.4 lb reduction is a bigger deal.
If I was starting from scratch and looking for my first and only travel/human-powered adventure tripod, the Ascend 14 Long would probably be my first choice. Since I already have my franken-gitzo (mountaineer legs, travel head, RRS panning clamp) at 5lbs, going down to 3.2 for the compact Ascend-14 isn't as dramatic as going down to 2.8 for the PD. My Sirui travel tripod comes in at 1.9lbs, but it cannot handle my gimbal and it is very short...I just don't use it anymore. The PD is in a nice zone where it is a clearly different choice than my Gitzo but still robust enough that I will actually choose to use it.
