Just got back from a week in Las Vegas for the 2003 NAB trade show(my 12th). Had a chance to visit the large Bogen booth on the last day when our own booth traffic slowed. Bogen/Manfrotto/Gitzo are all one big happy family now under some UK(I think) parent company. As usual Bogen have at lot of new products. Some items of interest:
1. Manfrotto now have custom QR plates for the follwoing spotting scopes: 200Z1 plate for Zeiss Diascope, 200LE1 for Leica Televid, 200SW1 for Swarovski AT/ST80 and 200NK1 for Nikon Field Scope 78. These plates relplace the standard 3157 QR plate supplied with the popular 3130 fluid head. Street price ~$17.50. A bit higher than the 3157.
2. A new 700RC2 fluid head weighing just 1.1 lb and rated for 5.5lb. Could be interesting to hikers wanting the save the last few oz.
3. Bogen have several Carbon fiber tripods in the 3443/3444 series. Weight 3.5-3.6 lbs--about 1.5 lbs lighter than the traditional Al tripods in the 3011/3221 series. However, all of them are priced at over $300 which is twice the cost of the Al tripods. The Carbon tripods are also several inchs shorter. I think they are OK with angled eyepieces but probably too short for binos with straight thru eyepeices.
4. There is a new Bogen 516 fluid head with TWO pan hadles and weighs 4.4 lbs. The head is rated for 22 lbs and priced about $380. Could be a alternative for someone who wants to use a 100-125mm telescope for terrestial viewing or for mounting the new Burgess/Oberwerk 20/40X100mm asto binoculars.
Erik D
1. Manfrotto now have custom QR plates for the follwoing spotting scopes: 200Z1 plate for Zeiss Diascope, 200LE1 for Leica Televid, 200SW1 for Swarovski AT/ST80 and 200NK1 for Nikon Field Scope 78. These plates relplace the standard 3157 QR plate supplied with the popular 3130 fluid head. Street price ~$17.50. A bit higher than the 3157.
2. A new 700RC2 fluid head weighing just 1.1 lb and rated for 5.5lb. Could be interesting to hikers wanting the save the last few oz.
3. Bogen have several Carbon fiber tripods in the 3443/3444 series. Weight 3.5-3.6 lbs--about 1.5 lbs lighter than the traditional Al tripods in the 3011/3221 series. However, all of them are priced at over $300 which is twice the cost of the Al tripods. The Carbon tripods are also several inchs shorter. I think they are OK with angled eyepieces but probably too short for binos with straight thru eyepeices.
4. There is a new Bogen 516 fluid head with TWO pan hadles and weighs 4.4 lbs. The head is rated for 22 lbs and priced about $380. Could be a alternative for someone who wants to use a 100-125mm telescope for terrestial viewing or for mounting the new Burgess/Oberwerk 20/40X100mm asto binoculars.
Erik D
