Diving diving diving # Victory 3080 Tripod – Personal View
Finally I landed my hand on a sturdier professional tripod with ballhead. Well, maybe you won't class it under 'Professional' because it is actually an entry level one. But to me, it is good enough. I bought it at cheaper-than-retail price through a photography network. My first impression of it was 'Wow, it looks sturdy... and heavy!' Yeah at 2.5kg, it is not something you like to bring with when you are climbing Mt. KK.
It is a Victory 3080. By looking at the sticker, you can already guess it is China made 
It is actually a close mimick of Manfrotto 190XProb (a real professional tripod that costs about 4-5 times the price of this). The price i paid for come with a ballhead which can handle up to 4KG. Not really a big factor for me now as the longest lens I have is only 90-300mm.
Quick release plate is a norm for such ballhead
This is how it looks like at folded length
Where's the center column??
Here it is... dismantled??
One superb point about this tripod is how low it can go. Most of them can go until ~15-20cm low, but this out-do them by able to go as low as this!
Of course, i haven't thought of any useful application at such height. Maybe when you are laying low in a bush to capture some unusual macro shot.
This is how high it can go. I'll say around 157cm.
Conlusion, I like it! I have brought it out twice and the ballhead really speed up the orientation process. My friend mentioned that one bad about ballhead is that straight might not be straight, and now I get his point. Apart from the weight, I have nothing to complain about. You might argue that it is wiser to spend more on a better tripod, but not everyone can afford that and not every cheaper stuff is bad. Until today, it still have my vote and recommendation for budget user.
20081011 Today’s Photo – The Zoo!
My last post was early September and my last visit to Zoo Negara was 17 years ago! My god, how times flies! I remember I visited it when I was in Primary 5. That time the whole family travelled by bus around Malaysia and I had car sickness almost throughout the whole trip. I've heard bad about the zoo and this visit is a solid proof. It is not well maintained and the animals don't look very healthy! How sad!
