SLIK Camera Tripods

1 | Park J. McGraw

September 3rd, 2009 at 3:28 am

The Slik Sprint Mini II Tripod I received was made in Thailand and a “Most Excellent” product for the $78 price. In terms of value, engineering, selection of materials used, the quality of the individual parts, to the ease of operation I recommend this product as a MUST HAVE for any active photographer.

Yes, the Slik Mini II is small and compact but that is exactly what a person wants in a travel tripod. This unit is light and sets up very fast. The quick release tripod adapter is a nice new addition over the last model and the primary motivator for me to give this light weight yet fairly stiff tripod a chance with the rest of the gear.

The ball head for the value is smooth, locks into place firmly and holds a fully outfitted Pentax K20D with BG2 battery pack, 360 Flash and 18-50 f2.8 Sigma at full height with grace (no wind). Granted, a load of this nature is pushing the tripod’s design envelope but even then, the Slik Mini II took the load very well. Just make sure for optimum stability that you have a tripod leg extended in the same direction as the lens.

The foam padding on the legs are a nice touch and make the tripod look like a mini version of a Bogen 3021. The gun metal finish looks sharp and resonates of a grade above the casual photographer, and an item that those in the profession would not feel diminished in anyway while using this product. The plastic quick releases on the legs are sufficiently large enough that the releases feel secure when locked and not too large that they add unnecessary bulk to the legs and make packing the tripod more cumbersome. Although the leg releases are made of plastic, the grade of plastic used appears to be of high quality and does not plant a concern in my mind.

I like the discreet angle stops for the legs and the two piece center post. When fully collapsed and ball head tilted to the side, this tripod is about 13.5″ long and as compact as most any travel tripod I have seen. The Slik Mini II also feels stronger and stiffer than the other tripods in its class. This tripod also fits very nicely and sung in the external vertical side pocket of a SYNERGY Computer Backpack from Swiss Gear with just the ballhead portion of the tripod exposed. The compression style center post collar nut turns smoothly and a nice feature that adds extra stiffness to the tripod at full height.

As a minor operational limitation, the Slik Mini II tripod, can only pan safely when the center post is fully lowered. Also minor, adjusting the center post compression nut may be difficult to loosen and tighten with gloves on.

If I were to make some slight changes it would be to add a rotation or some sort of panning feature to the ball head. I frequently like to take images I can stitch together later to make a panorama, and it is nice when I can get consistent angular spacing between the images.

Second, I would add a leg angle setting that lied between the first and second angle stop. I’m guessing that the first two setting are at 30 and 60 degrees from the tripod center line. With the legs fully collapsed and set at 30 degrees, I feel safe leaving a small Canon Elf 790 on the tripod and walking away or turn my back for a moment, but not with the K20D. With the K20D, I feel it prudent to extend the legs, at the minimum, two additional segments for the sake of equipment safety.

With the tripod legs set to 60 degrees, the legs are more open than I would normal like because then, the tripod starts to take up a larger foot print than need be, limiting it’s over all versatility. An additional angle stop, somewhere around 45 degrees, would be very nice as it would increase tripod flexibility and compaired to the 30 degree stop provide an extra sense of equipment safety when mounted with a loaded DSLR.

Third, it would be nice if the tripod came with one more extension piece for the center post for those times I want to get a group photo and have the camera closer to chest height. It could be a sub diameter column piece that fits inside the current top post section and hence not increase the overall length of the tripod when collapse.

Last, I would increase the surface area of the camera tripod adapter plate on the order off 15-20%. The current size of the plate now is as small a plate as I would want attached to the bottom of a fully dressed DSLR.

In the past 7 years I have trashed 4 travel/compact tripods from a lesser Slik Compact XL (pan head camera plate insert fell out and got lost), a Giottos Mini (ripped out leg segment), a Sima (broke a leg hinge), to a Velbon (twist lock miss threaded from grit) and this Slik MINI II tripod looks to be the most promising candidate to date to last a few years or more.

Item was promptly shipped by Adorama Camera.

Rating: 5 / 5