Baby Needs New Legs-New Tripods from Robus

Ball heads up, photographers! There is a new brand of tripod legs in the world of photography! The new Robus carbon fiber tripod system has been designed with the necessary features to take on the most extreme environments that the planet can dish out: the frozen tundra, the searing deserts, the teeming cityscapes, while being immune to the rigors of daily use and abuse by the working photographer.

While I am not an engineer, I did spend a lot of time with many different tripods to write The Tripod Explained, as well as our full-size and travel tripod buying guides. After spending some time with the Robus RC-8860 Vantage Series 5 carbon fiber tripod, I can tell you that this is nothing short of a top-tier piece of kit.

Let me dive into some of the features of the RC-8860 and the rest of the Vantage Series line of tripods.

The legs have a 10x carbon fiber weave with an attractive and understated diamond veneer. On the RC-8860, these legs are sizable, and that size helps give you a way-more-than-you’ll-probably-ever-need 77-lb load capacity. If you want to slim your pack, several Robus models are a bit smaller and have a 55-lb capacity. This 4-section model extends to almost 64". Add a head and a camera and you better have a stepstool handy if you are going to be shooting with the legs fully extended. The legs retract to a 24.5" folded length.

The twist locks are rubberized and grippy. The legs slide in and out smoothly and the entire unit has an ultra-high-quality feel. Robus includes standard rubber feet, wide rubber shoes, and spikes.

When it comes to tripod manufacturers and the leg grips, the verdict is still out on what the best method is. Some makers use foam, which gives your hands good thermal isolation and nice padding when the rig is thrown over the shoulder. The foam eventually degrades. Others use nylon wraps secured with hook-and-loop fasteners that some users love and others detest. Robus has gripped two of the three legs on the Vantage line with a heavyweight rubber grip that provides sure traction for your hands, but not a lot in the way of padding. It is, however, probably the most durable of the three options.

The chassis, or spider, does not have a center column, but the unit comes with an interchangeable machined top plate and a 75mm video bowl as a standard feature. A telescoping center column is available separately if you need to extend the unit another 14.75" for eye-level portraits of giants and NBA players. The chassis has smooth-working leg locks for positioning the legs at multiple angles.

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The machining of the unit is top-notch. There were no hard edges on any surfaces on my test model, and the tripod was more than stable, even on a windy rooftop, for the heaviest tripod/lens combination I could dig up—a Nikon F4 and Nikon AF Zoom-NIKKOR 80-200mm f/2.8D ED lens.

Per the company, even though it is the new kid on the block, its tripod designs are the fruits of years of testing, engineering, and innovation. Robus has its sights set on the professional photographer who needs the best possible performance in a tripod, be it in the cozy confines of a studio or the rugged outdoors—way, way off the beaten path. The tripods come with a 10-year warranty—twice the duration of many top brands. That alone demonstrates the company's confidence that these tripods are built to take on the rigors of the lifestyle of a professional shooter.