Comparison of Original Ultrapod I with Non-Brand Tripod

Описание: Having owned and used an Ultrapod I mini tripod for a long time (probably 20 years), I was amazed to see a very similar item being sold by one of my regular photographic suppliers. I bought a couple and offer this comparison of their function.

UPDATE A DAY AFTER UPLOADING!

Decided to de-plate the ball/thread element in one of the new tripods, with the aim of roughening the surface to increase friction and hence stability.

Took off circlip (which broke in doing so - very cheap and nasty metal!), and removed the ball/thread metal part. Did not bother to take off the plastic camera support platform.

De-electroplated the ball end by immersion in a regular table-salt bath on positive terminal with a piece of aluminium on the negative terminal. Set a power supply to current limit at 1A, and supply settled between 2.2V and 2.9V depending on proximity of electrodes.

After 3 or 4 minutes, the surface was pitted and showed what looked like a copper inter-layer. This surface now works wonderfully in the tripod clamp - plenty of friction with only moderate tightening of the clamping knob.

While I had the thing disassembled, I opened out the non-threaded hole in one of the fishplates with a 7mm drill, which makes operation of the clamping knob smoother.

Job done - a useful tripod for less than £4 that weighs almost nothing!

Further edit: 'Almost nothing' turns out to be 47grams for the old one and 57grams for the new one. The difference is entirely due to the use of steel rather than aluminium for the ball joint and tightening screw, without which components they weigh 33grams each. Fascinating ;-)