Calumet 7300 tripod review

Yes, I am fully aware that many people advise never to save on a tripod. I know Thom Hogan wrote a good piece on the subject. http://www.bythom.com/support.htm

However, I just didn't have a $1000 to spend on a tripod and I really wanted one anyway. I decided to look at the budget end of the market and see if I could find something useable for less than a 100 euros.

• Calumet NL
  
• Calumet UK
  
• Calumet DE
  
• Calumet USA
  

I like calumet as a shop. Unlike some other bigger shops in my country the staff are friendly, know their stuff and aren't pushy. When I got a monopod I topped it of with a calumet head. That's since outlasted the monopod. So, when I went looking for a tripod I remembered calumet's own brand.

When I googled I mainly found people asking questions about this, not many sharing opinions so here's a first look. This is going on vacation with me for some field testing, I will update after that.

Other options in this price range are Velbon, which is nice enough. In fact I was using my dad's old tripod which dates back to the days when aluminum was a novelty and which seems to be made of parts left over from some cold war warplane. Other options include hama and cullman (seem to be identical) and various other noname brands none of which really appealed to me.

So, I went for the calumet 7300.

It can extend high enough that I hardly have to stoop to look trough the viewfinder (and I'm 2 meters tall)




For extremely low shooting you can remove the bottom bit of the central pillar.

The head is a simple but well made 3-way:


Which includes a tiny spirit level. Controls are simple but well constructed.

The tripod is able to support a d300 + sigma 150-500 without getting wobbly (unless it's windy)


Pulling up on these clamps with calumet cast into them allows you to spread the legs further. You have a choice of 3 positions.


When you get it as low as this it gets a bit bouncy. Sliding the legs in helps with that but it's not able to provide the level of support the serious birders get from their gitzo tripods

The whole tripod weighs in at about 2600 grams and comes with a 3 year warranty. I don't think it's an excellent tripod but I do think it offers very good value for money. At a price where you'd struggle to find a basic set of Manfrotto legs you get a capable, no-frills tripod. To my mind it does show that budget tripods are not all bad.

I like herons. We get 'm in two basic flavours. Tame, sometimes tame enough that if you go fishing somewhere it will sit next to you ready to snatch whatever you catch before you can get the hook out.



Then there's the more or less wild variety. A lot less used to humans and incline to take off if they think you get too close. This one didn't, judging by the beak it's so young it has not yet learned to act wild.

Herons have another advantage for us photographers, they're one of the few birds with a build-in grey card (you know, those cards with 18% grey you can get to really nail your exposure).



It's true, meter on a grey area of the bird using spot metering and you will nail the exposure each and every time!

Grasshopper Warbler
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Yesterday I got my first ever chance to photograph a grasshopper warbler. These are generally shy birds that are often heard but rarely seen. The characteristic sound is a very long rattle, almost like a rattle snake. I heard this one long before I got a chance to see it. This was an unusually tame bird, I got the chance to take 40 pics at a comfortable distance. Light wasn't from the best direction but this way it does work I think. While I was observing it I was stunned at how long such a tiny bird can make so much noise.

Here's the sound one of these makes:courtesy of wikimedia

Six-spot Burnet
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Anyone who's spend any time outdoors shooting wildlife and insects will sooner or later find that disruptions in a normal pattern are what catches your attention. The most common is, of course, movement, anything that moves catches your attention. But, it can also be shapes, some things draw your attention immediately because the shape does not fit what your subconscious expects to find. Somewhat trickier is colours. I noticed this burnet because the colour clashes with the pink plant it is sitting on. So I got down on hands and knees, mounted my trusty 100mm tokina and got out a flash and a cable. Some additional light from just on the left side and I got a dozen nice shots. I think this one is one of the nicest because it brings out the antenna but I still need to sort out the rest.

Ant eye to eye
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

A red wood ant. These insects fascinated me ever since I was a little boy. There's something about the size of them and their anthills that impressed me.
Over in the west where I live these are not very common but in the wooded areas in the south you find these a lot more. They will feed on absolutely anything they can drag into their nest, they certainly enjoyed a few mosquitoes I swatted.

Shooting was challenging in a new way. Of course there's not much light and I didn't feel like holding a flash in one hand, a camera in the other (yes, this is shot handheld)while balancing over an anthill so I just cranked up the iso a bit and did my best.
No, the challenging is following a specific and and focussing on it. There's a certain effect that shoals of fish and some herd animals like zebras used to confuse predators and it was having the same effect on me, confusing!

I think I shot 30-40 pics and got three that I liked, two of which went on flickr. You can see the other here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/j_wijnands/5884976407/

Ruff
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

I love aviaries. They offer a unique chance to get good pictures of species that are otherwise difficult to find and even more difficult to shoot. To get a shot like this in the wild I'd need to do a lot of reconnaissance and spend a few hours in a hide.

Photographically this is relatively easy. Avoid blown highlights, get down to as low as you can, relax and shoot.

Via Flickr:
A male ruff in Blijdorp zoo

common tern
Originally uploaded by j_wijnands.

Let's start something else, a photograph a day type of post. Just a picture and the story behind it.

I noticed this bird hunting along a channel that also had some tufted ducks, a mute swan family and a few grebes. I like terns, nice colouring and interesting behaviour the way they swoop down and plunge into the water to catch a fish. In flight it reminds you of a black headed gull sometimes until you seem them close to eachother, the tern is significantly smaller.

Now, like all mainly white birds these are tricky, it's all too easy to blow the white bits. Additionally you want a nice and high shutter speed to capture any sharpness.

So, I metered on something middle brownish on the ground and set the camera manually for it. Then a matter of tracking and keeping focus.

Nikon D300, Sigma 150-500
Exposure 1/3200 sec
Aperture f/6.3
Focal Length 500 mm
ISO Speed 500
Subject Distance 21.1 m

Had to crop because it was in the bottom left of the frame.