The Sirui T-1205SK in Tuscany — a Review
The Sirui T-1205SK was the perfect travel companion to Tuscany, Italy, where we as a family spent ten days this summer. I was in particular keen to shoot the milky way knowing that in July the MW season has started in the southern parts of Europe. Having that in mind I was looking for a lightweight and sturdy travel tripod which also offered a decent working height.
With the Sirui K-10X ballhead the carbon tripod weights 1460 grams, and folded it takes up only 37 cm of space which made it fit very neatly in my Lowepro PhotoStream so that it was possible to carry all my gear into the plane.
A new magnesium leg socket and ergonomic S-Grade leg design make it lighter and stronger than previous models, and that comes with even better shock-absorption according to Sirui. I do not of course have the means to examine such a claim. I can only conclude with that none of my 20 sec exposures were ruined due to vibration or wind.
Twist lock legs assure that the tripod won’t ruin night shots due to the fact that this type of locking mechanism isn’t affected by temperature changes. If the lock knobs are sufficiently tightened by the photographer the legs won’t begin to slide. Some years ago a tripod with a flip lock system to my great frustration ruined several aurora images due to sagging.
The legs are divided into four sections. By twisting all four leg lock knobs 1/3 turn a leg is extended. All three legs can be extended and secured in only 15 seconds, and with some practice even faster than that. Our son clocked me on two attempts which both gave 15 secs.
Concerning the image above: It blew quite a bit this evening but none of my shots were ruined due to the wind. The tripod had no troubles handling the conditions.
Fully extended the Sirui T-1205SK is 141,5 cm and for me that was a perfect working height. A shorter center column comes with the tripod for shooting close to the ground. In addition, one of the legs can be detached and converted to a monopod. A hook in the bottom of the centercolumn can be used to add weight using for example a camera bag.
A nice addition to all the aforementioned is a circular level located at the base of the tripod so that the tripod can be adjusted for panoramas. This of course involves adjusting the leg lengths until the tripod is level.
Maximum load for the tripod with the K-10X head is 12 kg. It had thus no problems operating my Pentax K-1/Pentax 15–30 combo.
The K-10X ballhead was very smooth working and securely held my camera and lens in place without sagging or any other problems. A safety pin assures that the camera cannot accidentally fall off from the ballhead and tripod because of handling errors by the photographer like for instance not sufficiently tightening the locking knob.
Even though it was a family vacation where photography was second priority I was able to head out several evenings while we were in Chianti shooting the much desired milky way, and the tripod was a perfect tool both for travelling and shooting my images. It was also a relief that light pollution was rather modest around Castellina in Chianti. Lucca, however, was a different story. Due to the nature of the trip driving long distances to escape light pollution was not an option.
All images: Pentax K-1 and Pentax 15–30
