I am an early kickstarter backer for this head, and as far as I know they haven't shipped yet. When (if?) I get it, I will certainly write up a review.
sjms wrote:
i had one of the early original prototypes of what ended up being this model. this ended up looking like a piece of art rather than a usable head.
That's exactly what it looks like!
That open-balled design looks like it will be an issue with dirt/debris and the panning base is rather a joke with just a few unlabeled markings. Durability will require months in the field and we can let someone else try it.
no it was definitely a few generations earlier. even the one he has in the video isn't the most recent rendition. the cleaned up the balls little holes and made it look nifty. these have been in pre order for quite awhile. looks like covid sucker punched them. i also don't know where they are actually made. i know where my highline mini originated though.
Not a fan. Too big and garish looking. Storing a tripod with that head is going to be an issue. I like the range of motion, but that's something that can't be compensated for with a traditional ballhead.
I'll stick with my Acratech GXP head. And it's not that much lighter than my GXP - the GXP is 1lb, the Colorado is .97lbs. That said, for the size of that thing, 0.97 is an impressive feat.
I ordered one on July 29th and I have yet to receive it. Needless to say, I'm not real happy about that. A really crappy business model to say the least.
alastair6 wrote:
I ordered one on July 29th and I have yet to receive it. Needless to say, I'm not real happy about that. A really crappy business model to say the least.
Unfortunately, they seem to have an endemic issue with extraordinarily long lead times, and it doesn't appear to be clearly communicated. That's pretty much the only thing that has held me back from buying one of their tripods and heads. The few reviews I've found about the actual products seem fairly glowing, but none of that matters if you can't even get the product in the first place.
If you check out their Kickstarter page you won't find many happy people. I backed the campaign for their carbon fiber tripod three years ago and am still waiting. In the beginning they responded to questions and comments and seemed genuinely interested in backers for the first year. After that they became nonexistent. I called and can't remember ever being treated so rudely by a company.
They advertised as the first titanium tripod and haven't produced anything of the sort.
Just my experience...and that of many others.
Butchdog wrote:
If you check out their Kickstarter page you won't find many happy people. I backed the campaign for their carbon fiber tripod three years ago and am still waiting. In the beginning they responded to questions and comments and seemed genuinely interested in backers for the first year. After that they became nonexistent. I called and can't remember ever being treated so rudely by a company.
They advertised as the first titanium tripod and haven't produced anything of the sort.
Just my experience...and that of many others.
Wow, 3 years and still waiting? Can't blame that on Covid supply chain issues. Good luck, hopefully you get it eventually.
Be skeptical about CTC's claimed performance. I tried the small 40mm "Highline" head which claimed a 50lb capacity. That is wishful thinking at best. I experienced significant deflection with less than 3 pounds loaded. Similarly sized heads from other brands commonly rate <20 pounds which seems reasonable. But "capacity" is rarely an accurate measure of actual performance.
I really wanted to support this local company but was not impressed with the head I tried. Overall fit and finish was in line with mid-range Chinese made heads I have used.