Three lenses, a camera and an auction (4) Manfrotto Art 190 Professional Tripod
Vintage Manfrotto Art 190
Vintage Manfrotto Art 190 Professional Tripod
Maybe this series of posts should be called ‘Three lenses, a camera, A TRIPOD, and an Auction” because the tripod is the only item that has served a practical purpose for me.
I have a very nice Velbon UT63D travel tripod which collapses to a silly size and goes in the luggage. The Art 190 is pretty much a studio tripod, and I’ve been using it to take my lens comparison shots.
It came with two heads; the first is a triaxial head, the one I’ve been using. It’s and Art 115 3D with just a screw mount; the second is a panning head with quick release a ‘Model 200’ which I have no use for as it only works in 2 planes and I don’t do video – yet. Although the pan head has a quick release plate it didn’t come with the plate! However, the plate I have from my Stor 63 (really crappy) tripod works OK on it.
The tripod has rather ancient mechanisms. To extend or collapse the feet requires turning what I can only call thumbscrews. Adjusting the triaxial head using stiff paddles is also time consuming and no match for modern ball heads.
The feet are not really adapted to the outdoors. There are no spikes, just plastic end covers which I can’t remove. It’s aluminium, pretty sturdy, but heavy. I have no intention of lugging it around outside.
The legs have two positions: by depressing a metal button at the top of the legs you can get them to splay out wider and lower, but there are only two positions. My portable Velbon is much more versatile.
The Art 115D head provides a nice platform for a camera of the 1980’s, but for a modern DSLR it’s a bit small; and do I want to be screwing and unscrewing my heavy DSLR each time I use it? No, not really. I did contact Manfrotto who told me that any modern head can be fitted on this old body, but I think I’d rather save up for a modern tripod and sell this one – if I can. If you are interested, let me know! In the meantime, I’ll continue to use it for my lens comparison shots.
 Manfrotto Art 115D head |
 Manfrotto Art 190 Branding |
 Manfrotto 200 Pan Head with quick release plate |