Disclosure
I am a Fotopro Product Experience Officer and this Sherpa Max tripod is provided to me by Fotopro. Despite that, this is an honest review as the company itself, expects from Product Experience Officers to test the products and report potential flaws, problems and bad experiences we might have. So, let’s get into it.
Thoughts after 6 months of use
This is probably going to be more of a thoughts mixed bag, rather than a formally structured article. Mostly because, in the initial review, I described the tripod and its specifications. But this one is mostly conclusion driven.
I can clearly remember my first impression of the tripod, when I got it out of the box. It felt nice and premium. The build quality was great and that has not changed after all this time I use it. To the contrary, as it withstood the test of time, my appreciation only grew stronger. Its consistency to perform by the same level each time, is what matters in the long run.
Some of the things I have really enjoyed while using the tripod, are its height, the ballhead, the weight range it can handle, its overall versatility and the leg twist locks. And there are also some other little things worth mentioning.
The height of the tripod is more than enough for most case scenarios. I mostly use it with the legs fully extended and the center column retracted. This gives me a stable platform to work with and in case I need some extra height, it is there to use it on demand.
The ballhead is really awesome to use. It can handle a serious amount of weight if need be and the grip is firm when tightening the knob. Moving around the ball is smooth without any jamming occurring whatsoever. The thing I am mostly excited about is that its performance has been the same since day one and has not degraded even a bit.
When it comes to weight handling, both the tripod legs and the ballhead can support a serious amount of weight without any problem. Even when using it with heavier cameras than my usual Micro Four Thirds setup, I have no doubt that the rig was safely secured.
I love the way the leg twist locks work, as they need to be turned very little in order to be locked and unlocked. This saves so much time when you constantly want to setup and make adjustments. They tighten securely making the legs stiff, like they are made out of a single tube.
I have very much enjoyed the fact that with the Sherpa Max, I can have peace of mind for all my shooting needs. With that, I mean shooting both stills and video. I have appreciated the stability of the tripod with the footage I get out of it. All my footage are stable and most of the times that they are not, it is due to user error. So, obviously, when I am satisfied with my video footage, I will also be with my photographs.
I have also appreciated a couple of small things like the expansion holes, the independent pan feature and the rubber feet caps. All those features show how much thought has been given into designing this product. The expansion holes have proved valuable when shooting video. When not using a cage and going with a lighter setup, I can attach my external audio recorder on the tripods expansion holes without putting excessive stress on my cameras hot shoe. I have also used it to mount a mic, a monitor and a cell phone when needed.
Having the spikes as part of the tripod itself is, in my opinion, the way all tripods should be made. Screwing and unscrewing rubber feet in order to get the spikes on the tripod legs, is time consuming. Also if you don’t have the discipline to store those parts appropriately, it won’t be long until the time they will get lost.
Lastly the dual panorama head feature is awesome to use. For a perfect pan you have to level the tripod. Doing so by adjusting the feet height is time consuming and surely not precise. On the contrary, leveling the ball by using the integrated bubble level, is so easy. When that is done, the camera is leveled and ready pan, with a single lever twist.
Verdict
Since the day I got this tripod, I have been testing it thoroughly, in an attempt to find out how does it fit in my workflow. For the type of work I do, it has been a great choice and I have been very happy with its performance. It checks all the boxes for me at the time being, and I am confident that I will be totally satisfied with the Sherpa Max for the foreseeable future.