there seems to be some kind of benbo mystique I´d like to poke some holes
in. I was in the grips of it till I played with one. I think part of the
persistence of the mystique is the widespread notion that the key to benbo
happiness is practice. This is clever cause you´ll always tell yourself the
reason you dont really like/use the thing is because you havent yet got the
hang of it.
ok, this may seem like picking nits, but the mechanics of the leg spread
really suprised me precisely because all of the comments on the
benbo(including yours) and the blurbs seem to suggest that the legs really
can "have any footprint you please". This is simply not so, and here´s why:
The middle leg has two ramps cast on either side of its top end. The other
two outer legs rotate about these ramps. Now its true that they can swivel
as much as they please, and the angle is infinitely variable in relation to
the middle leg, but the angle in relation to its symmetrical brother can
never exceed the angle between those cast ramps. I dont know what that
angle is, but just because it approaches(or even reaches) 120 deg on the
ground, it gets progressively narrower as you leave the deck.
What this means in day-to-day use is that in most conditions, i.e.,when you
have a somewhat flattish ground, and you shoot at, say chest level, the
benbo has a significantly narrower footprint on its two symmetrical legs
than a conventional pod. And the only way to spread those two is to lower
the whole thing. Unfortunately, this is not a matter of "getting the hang
of it", there is simply no way around that. I think this would suprise
most people to learn, as the thing is hyped as being so infinitely
adjustable(and looks it in the pics) So I think what you have here is a
tripod that offers an advantage only when conditions are REALLY wierd,
otherwise a disadvantge. And even the advantages it has are not, I think,
really significant when one considers that many conventional pods are now
available with individually splayable(to straight out) legs . . .
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