Worth Every Penny (and Then Some!)

A few years back one Christmas gift around our house was a digital camera I ordered on-line. Besides that camera the vendor, DigitalFotoShop.com, threw in a digital camera kit they said would contain a lens care kit, camera bag, and tripod. The lens care kit turned out to be just a yellow cleaning cloth and a one-ounce bottle of cleaning solution; and the case, although cheesy vinyl, was good enough to serve the purpose. The tripod, on the other hand, was more amusing than utilitarian. Of course I'd expected something small and cheap, but the Vanguard VS-41 Tripod is just about the literal embodiment of getting what you pay for when you don't pay anything!

I'm holding it in my hand right now: it is, after all, about the size of a half-smoked Romeo y Julieta. By that I mean a cylindrical object less than five inches long and a bit more than half an inch in diameter. It's so small that it has a pocket clip, like a mechanical pencil! The three legs (tripod, of course) are springy flexible stalks that end in little spherical rubber feet. A one-inch cylinder sits atop the three legs; it has a threaded screw projecting out of its top and a teeny bit of rubber padding. That screw is the standard size that fits the tripod socket of any SLR or digital camera.

To use the Vanguard VS-41, just screw the tripod into the camera, then bend the legs to form a three-legged configuration. As long as the camera is light - very light - the whole thing is stable enough to sit on a table or shelf long enough for you to use the self-timer. Since the legs are completely independent, the tripod works fairly well on irregular surfaces: a rock ledge, for instance. That becomes a curse, however, if the surface is flat and level, such as a table: it's very difficult to be certain that the camera is square and level. It's quite well-suited for a small digital or a half-frame camera like a Minox, but would not form a stable base for an SLR or even a larger digital camera.


Advantages?

• light-weight and portable, can be carried in a pocket or purse
• adapts well to irregular surfaces
• fits the tripod socket of most cameras

Disadvantages?

• cannot support a large digital camera or an SLR
• difficult to get the camera square and level


All and all, worth everything we paid for it and perhaps a little more. If you need to operate a larger camera and want more stability, though, you'd be better off paying for a tabletop tripod.




At 445 words, this qualifies as an entry in the Lean-n-Mean VI entry.