Benro Theta self-evelling tripod now available for preorder with a $200 discount

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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). How does the Theta self-levelling work? Auto-level helps us save time

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Oct 3, 2015
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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.
 
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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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