The Benro Theta Intelligent Modular Travel Tripod had a terrific Kickstarter campaign raising nearly $2.5million USD. Benro has now made the Theta available for preorder directly from them. As an added bonus, you can save $200 bringing the price down to $399 (Reg $599).

Benro Theta in action

How does the Theta self-levelling work?

Auto-level helps us save time by eliminating the need to manually adjust the legs. However, what we ultimately need is to get the camera level on the ball head; Additionally, can Theta continually keep the camera level while we adjust the ball head for composition?

With this in mind, the Theta ball head was designed with a locking system that allows the ball head to be aligned with the tripod at all times. This means that the ball head can be switched between free mode and roll lock mode. While in roll lock position, when the tripod is level with the ground, so is the camera.

Benro https://www.benro.com

The Benro Theta is scheduled to ship in October 2023.

Preorder Benro Theta Intelligent Modular Tripod $399

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4 comments

  1. I looked at this. Not sure if electronics is a good thing to introduce to a tripod. I use a levelling base. Interesting concept. Clever way to pay for research and development. Can see sea water having an impact over time.
  2. I looked at this. Not sure if electronics is a good thing to introduce to a tripod. I use a levelling base. Interesting concept. Clever way to pay for research and development. Can see sea water having an impact over time.
    Yeah not sure how much I'd trust it either. Guess you could get similar manual result by weighting the levelling base handle in a slightly loose position if have the type that I'm thinking of. I use a video style half ball on set of hybrid vid/stills carbon legs albeit with a short handle when longer would be better for what I'm thinking. It's fast enough for me to manually adjust but if somebody has one where bottom on handle has a threaded hole or centred mounting ring, or if handle material is drillable/tappable you could attach weight/bag etc to the bottom and don't twist it down fully so it's a bit slack so gravity would auto level the tripod but it is tight enough to stop it moving in all but high winds much like a dry clutch or slightly loose ballhead where force moves it but it doesn't on its own.
  3. This is designed - in part - to go with the Benro Polaris (and astro mod). Leveling is critical for the Polaris for tracking at night.
    Unfortunately, a lot of kickstarter buyers of the Polaris are still very frustrated with the software from Benro and them not delivering what they promised during the campaign and sinificantly post delivery. The Polaris has a lot of potential but the SW lets it down.
    Theta looks a lot simpler - thankfully!
    It would be useful for landscape/watefalls/seascapes when changing composition frequently but hard to justify the cost and longevity in salty conditions... and something more to charge up :cool:

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