Shalom!

The long awaited review of the Feisol CT-3442 tripod and Markins M20 ballhead is finally here! I will be providing a simultaneous review of both products as this is the combo that I’ve been using for the past 15 months. I will be writing from the point of view of a photographer since I’m an avid one myself. 

Feisol (http://www.feisol.com/) has been a involved in the business of hi-tech carbon fibre tripods, monopods and other photographic accessories since 2002. In recent years, their incarnation of carbon fibre tripods have garnered much praise and accolades from the photography community, amidst giants like Gitzo and Manfrotto, just to name a few.  All this while, since the inception of the company, Feisol has always maintained more of a direct sales approach. Their products can be purchased directly from the website. They do have some distributors but my gut feel is that there are not many, especially with the increased convenience of online shopping. They also maintain an E-bay shop to sell their products. Pricing as far as I know is the same as purchasing from the website. Direct purchase also means no unnecessary mark-ups  along the way, making the much coveted carbon fibre tripod more affordable for photographers looking for light-weight alternatives.

Moving on to the Markins (http://www.markins.com/), the M20 ballhead is made in Korea as with all the other products by Markins, which surprised me initially given the name.  Well, never mind where it’s made from, Markins have had a good reputation for making quality ballheads for quite a while. Most would compare Markins to Arca Swiss or Kirk and possibly even the ones made by RRS – Really Right Stuff. Each company offers more or less ballheads of very similar design and have a huge following, primarily from nature and wildlife photographers, who swear by their quality. Singapore is fortunate enough to have a sole local distributor for Markins (TK Photo, located in Shaw Towers at Beach Road) and this is one of the main reasons why I decided on a Markins. For those who are not aware, TK Photo is a local shop specializing in photographic equipment ranging from dslrs, lenses, flash guns, accessories, tripods, ballheads, camera bags and luggages, monopods etc and has long maintained a good reputation for fair prices and quality service in Singapore. Also, they’ve been the sole distributor of Markins for quite a number of years already.

Now that we’re done with the formalities, I’ll move right on to the specs of the items, but before that, a picture of the combo under scrutiny.

 Markins M20 Ballhead: 

• Weight = 568 g
• Max Load = 45 kg
• Height = 101mm

Constructed almost entirely from metal save for a few rubber odds and ends at the grips, the ballhead is extremely well-constructed. In my hands, it felt solid, robust and purposeful. The dull, matt black anodized finish is tough and extremely scratch resistant with all knobs working ever so smoothly. The ball itself is huge, measuring almost 50mm in diameter! The ballhead comes with a panning knob mounted on a laser-engraved panning base. The main knob for adjusting the ball also has a tension control for setting the minimum tension that will allow one to move the ballhead with sufficient ease and at the same time not compromise on equipment stability, an excellent feature when wanting to make micro adjustments. The ball itself is smooth as a baby’s bottom! Buttery smooth! It operates like silk and does not seem to require regular greasing or oiling! For once, we have a ballhead that doesn’t look oily as if something is leaking. The ballhead screams quality and elegance and basically, everything operates very simply and flawlessly, as one would expect of an item of its class.  

When I received my Feisol CT-3442, my first impression was “Wow, this thing is weightless!” Ok, I was coming from a Gitzo Studex version with a geared column weighing a hefty 5kgs. The Gitzo was downright solid and felt planted to the ground under use. Stability was its middle name. But after 4 hours of lugging it around, my back started feeling the strain and soon enough, I didn’t like carrying it around so much. So while it was rock stable, the trade-off was its very unwieldy weight.  The Feisol in comparison was really feather light. Combined with the M20 ball head, it was still way way lighter than the Gitzo tripod alone! The specs of the CT-3442 can be found here http://www.feisol.com/english/feisolen.htm . The weight of the tripod is an astonishing 1.05 kg!! That’s pretty darn light, but then again, the tripod doesn’t have a center column. If this is a bummer for you, look no further. The tripod worked fine for me even without the center column. Of course, if you’re a hard core macro guy, I would suggest getting one with a center column. I used this combi more for scenery and static shots or at least already pre-aiming where I want to shoot in advance.  So your mileage may vary. For me I was satisfied both with stability and weight of the tripod.  Being made of carbon fibre meant that the tripod was more capable of absorbing vibrations, hence further minimizing impact to the shot. The max height of the tripod was 138 cm, together with the M20 ball head and my camera with battery grip mounted (Canon EOS 5d + BG-E4), the viewfinder was just nice for me at eye level. I’m about 176cm by the way, so this should give you an idea of how tall the set-up was for me. 

Below are more shots of the tripod and ball-head for your view pleasure.   

For now, I’m a happy camper with this combo. My advice to would-be buyers of carbon fibre tripods is, let not the big names of Gitzo and Manfrotto blind you from other choices. These guys have much more budget to spend on advertising and playing up their products to create an uncanny lust. If you just google around for Feisol tripods, you will find that there is a good following for their tripods as well, including good reviews by respected photographers. Be practical and don’t let brand consciousness overwhelm you. Ultimately, it’s the photographer that still matters most, and everything else is a tool to get the job done more easily.

With regards to the ball head, all I can say is, let not marketing hype sway you into believing that the best ball heads are made only in the West. Markins is one hell of a ball head and it’s coming from Korea. From the looks of it, this one might just out last me. Sturdy, firm, fluid, elegant, robust, practical – that’s what a Markins is all about.