As I have mentioned a little while back, SunwayFoto has introduced (and is continuing to introduce) a series of products aimed at the shooting and hunting market.
I was curious, so I got my hands on a few and have been using them. This particualr tripod is the first of the reviews that I am publishing. The video will be out in a week or so.
The tripod in question is TL3240CS-Q (doesn't that just roll off the toungue?) and it has spent some time on the range:
and some time in the field:
This particular tripod is very new, so I have not yet seen it at any of the retailers. Here is a link to it on SunwayFoto's website.
A similar tripod with collar locks on the legs does seem to be available from a few retaielrs like Adorama: https://adorama.rfvk.net/Ea3q2n, but if you decide to buy it directly from SunwaFoto and use code "DLO", it will get you 5% off.
The choice between collar locks and lever lock is sorta individual. For heavy duty applications, collar locks are probably a little more robust. Personally, all else being equal, I prefer lever locks since they give me immediate visual confirmation on whether the leg segments are locked or not.
The tripod comes nicely packaged with 1/4-20 and M-lok ARCA plates, spike feet and all the appropriate allen wrenches. The machining quality on everything looks quite good. I tried the ARCA plates with a variety of clamps I have here and nothing looks to be out of spec. Carbon fiber legs do not have any obvious manufacturing defects that I can see.
The tripod itself is an interesting design. It has a 38mm ball head, but the non-removable ball head is integrated into the tripod so that it sits very low. That greatly aids stability. If you imagine a convergence point (where the axis of each tripod leg would end up), it is right where the ARCA clamp is. Is it as stable as my heavy duty bowl top tripods? probably not. It is more stable than I expected it to be though. It is also light enough to take to the field with me. This is a hunting tripod, not a longe range competition one. SunwayFoto does have heavier duty tripods, but I was looking for somehting light enough to comfortably strap to m pack. The tripod weighs in right around 4lbs and at that weight I am quite impressed with the stability. The downside of setting up the ballhead that way, of course, is that you loose some range of motion. You still get about 35 degreed in any direction from center. That is sufficeint for my purposes. The Arca clamp has a couple of levels integrated into it on opposite sides of each other, so you have an indicator of tilt. Some sort of a tipping angle indicator could be good as well, in principle, but tilt is more importnat here.
There is no center column, so height adjustment is done with the legs, which is one of the reasons I like the levers. Locking the ballhead down is also done via a lever. Lever operation is nicely smooth. My preferred way to set it up for shooting is with the lever on the opposite side of the tripod from me:
Most people prefer to operate the lever with their thumbs, but I like to keep my hand a little higher, so this is how I use it.
When I first received it, I went to the range and the clamp starting flopping around under recoil. I said some uncompimentary things abotu the design that turned out to be premature. Whoever assembled it at the factory installed the clamp onto the spline coming out of the ballhead incorrectly. See all that air under the clamp? You are not supposed to see that.
It was installed 90 degrees off:
Once I got it properly lined up, the spline was at 90 degrees to the recoil direction which is how you want this stuff to be.
Even when installed correctly, there was a touch of extra space that I ended up shimming with some aluminum tape. It is a common problem with most tripods out there, especially with manufacturers that come into this from the photography side of things. Recoil does introduce considerations that do not exist in photo/video applications. That spline should really be mated via a tapered interface to avoid a potential tolerance stack up. Still, once I stopped exercising my vocabulary, I got it to work properly in a matter of a few minutes. Thanks to the thin shims and a little blue loctite, nothing loosened up afterwards.
I've spent a fair bit of time shooting off of the tripod at the range and a LOT of time glassing in the field.
With a low binocular adaptor, glassing standing was slightly uncomfortable. I am six foot tall and the tripod was just a hair too low:
Most of the glassing I did was sitting down, however, so that was not an issue. For glassing, a center column comes in helpful for small adjustments, but for shooting it would not be good for stability. I think this tripopd's configuration is a good compromise of size, flexibility and stability.
The legs can be opened very wide to get low and increase stability. I played with it at the range, but in the field, I had to get above tall grass, so I could not get that low.
I was a little concerned that I could get a spring-like effect with the legs, but 32mm carbon fiber tubes are pretty stiff. No issues there. Each leg can be set up at three different angles, but given the terrain I really did not exercise that very much.
Note, that in most of these pictures I am using the rifle adapter from Spartan Precision since that is how the two rifles we've been huntin with this season are set up. That places the gun a little higher than it would be if I were going direct to a weapon mounted arca plate.
Also, keep in mind that the tripod I have came with an Arca clamp. However, SunwayFoto does make a clamp that can attach to both Arca and picatinny rails: https://adorama.rfvk.net/ORj1xN I might get one and swap it out on this tripod. I assume it should work fine, but I'll doublecheck.
Edited to add: They do offer it with the dual clamp now as well.
What are my conclusions so far?
Overall, mostly positive. Nothing failed on me in the field. Build quality is good. I would prefer to see a combined Arca/Picatinny clamp on this tripod. Given the application, it would give it a little more flexibility, but with Arca being so ubiquitous what I have is a good setup.
The low mounted ballhead is an unusual and rather effective re-interpretation of a traditional tripod head. I'll keep using it and post any updates if I uncover anything new.
