Wow! My first review, Feb 2008

[Chris Soucy]

I could have sworn it got trashed some years ago when Chris Hurd re - jigged the photo gallery, but nope, here it is in all its glory, much to my utter amazement.

Sadly, Vinten ceased making the FiberTec's not very long after I bought mine, simply couldn't make them profitable enough due to the high cost of manufacture.

Shame as they are the gruntiest (and easiest to handle) sticks I've ever used, by a country mile.

Anyone who's been a recipient of my pearl of wisdom with regard to a "decent system will pretty well outlive YOU" can probably appreciate that these are the sort of thing I am referencing, and it's true, they will most definately, barring catastrophe, see me into my grave.

They're not only bomb proof but CS proof as well!

The review itself seems to have aged pretty well, with only one major howler jumping out at me - referring to the leg cross sections as "H" beam instead of "I" beam. Ho hum, there's always one that gets through.

Anyway, enjoy a bit of light Christmas reading.

DV Info Net Review: Vinten FiberTec Video Tripod by Chris Soucy, Part 1 of 5


CS

[Alastair Traill]

Quote: -
BUT! How to choose a replacement? Top of my "must have" list was the obvious:

Resistance to "wind up"
Ditto "lateral displacement"
Ditto "warp"
Followed by the usual: max. / min. height and carrying capacity, etc.

The only figures that I have seen for the torsional stiffness of a tripod (or resistance to wind-up) were posted in Andris Andrejuks’s thread on Dec 21, 2012. The figures were easy to obtain and
easy to check. I could have added a third (and stiffer) tripod but as it was largely homemade it is not readily available to any one else for verification I left it out. Admitted the torsional stiffness of 2 obscure tripods is not very breathtaking but if reviewers start to include such figures they could become a useful basis for comparison of one basic tripod property.

I am uncomfortable with the advertising approach used by Vinten, namely to compare their product against a couple of unidentified models. Had the models been named potential buyers could have checked the models themselves to see whether the shortcomings as described by Vinten were of practical importance or not. The graphs look impressive but without further information they are not very helpful.

[Chris Soucy]

Agreed, Alastair.

The graph I highlighted in the review was the very first, and very last attempt by a manufacturer I have ever found to do a direct comparison of one camera support to another, though not naming "the others" was pretty naff.

I've tried over the years to get Vinten to grasp this nettle, with no success whatsoever.

However, having rediscovered this review back in one piece (last time I saw it, it was devoid of formatting and photo's, so pretty sad) I've mailed a link to Andrew Butler, the new Product Manager at Vinten, asking if he's interested in taking this issue up.

You never know, he just might. Stranger things have happened.

Heck, they might even be persuaded to restart making FiberTec's, now that would be something, though how many takers there'd be at over 2 grand, 3 with spreader and case, is an interesting question.


CS