What stands over five foot tall, has three legs and wobbles about a lot?? (Jessops TP327 Tripod)

Member Name: thebigc1690

Product:	Jessops TP327 Tripod
Date:	14/09/09 (169 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Easy to use and lightweight.

Disadvantages: Not steady enough, the spirit level doenst work and it is overpriced.

Some people see Jessop's as a place to trust in the photography world and others see them as rip off merchants that over charge for basic products, I won't give my opinion on Jessop`s on the whole but I am here to give you my opinion of their TP327 Tripod.


Firstly i should start by saying that although I am a professional portrait photographer, this is not a professional tripod. This tripod is available at my camera class for people to use and to learn with and as I have shown people how to use it on many occasions as well as using it myself; I felt that I was qualified to give my opinion on it.


I will abstain from comparing it with professional tripods, simply because it cannot compare, this tripod costs around £50 whereas my tripod of choice cost me nearly ten times that.


This Jessop`s tripod is very lightweight and therefore easy to carry around, which is important of course and especially so if you are an outdoor photographer covering a large area in a day shooting in many places.


There is more needed from a tripod though than just being portable and the main thing a tripod should have is of course stability, after all that is the entire point in using one. The Jessop's TP327 Tripod is stable to a point, that point being at about half of its full height, once you go above half height the unit starts to wobble a bit and did not fill me with confidence at all and if it is an outdoor shoot and there is a strong wind then I feel you will get better results hand held than you will using this tripod at anything over half height.


Fully extended this tripod can reach 167 centimetres or five and a half feet if you prefer, this is not really high enough for me as a portrait photographer as most adults I photograph tend to be a bit taller than that and therefore I could not get to eye level with them using this tripod.


I also find that a really tall tripod and a remote shutter release for your camera can give you the option of taking landscape shots from a completely different perspective, my own tripod reaches nearly seven foot fully extended and there can be little need for more height than that.


The top of this tripod is fitted with a flat quick release platform to attach your camera to the tripod with and although it does its job well enough it is nowhere near as good or as flexible to use as a ball head which gives you almost as much freedom as shooting hand held. The movement of this tripod for panning and tilting is quite smooth but still not perfect and getting the exact angle for a shot can be tricky.


The worst thing about this tripod is the spirit level that it has fitted which is supposed to allow you to ensure that you are shooting straight, this is especially useful when shooting outdoors on rough or uneven ground.

Unfortunately the spirit level on this just simply does not work, the bubble pops around randomly all over the place and when I used a hot shoe spirit level attached to my camera it never agreed with the one on the tripod and it was always the tripods one that was wrong.


The tripod is easy to use and does have a very simple set of adjustments to raise and lower the height but all you are getting is a cheap tripod and to be honest it is over priced at £50, you can get better tripods from Sony for around the £35 mark and if you need a strong, sturdy and reliable tripod then I am afraid you simply have to spend over £100.


The Jessop's TP327 Tripod`s features:

Closed length - 69cm
Maximum height - 167cm
Weight - 3.82lbs
Leg gauge - 27mm
Number of sections - 3


TO SUM UP:

The long and the short of it is that with most things you simply get what you pay for but I have to say I do not feel you get what you pay for with this but rather you get slightly less. It could do with being a lot more stable at full height or in fact anything over half and it could do with a spirit level that actually works.


The good points are the fact that it is lightweight and portable and also easy to use but this in itself is not enough and even when you add to the fact that you get a free carrying bag it is still not enough to convince me to recommend this to anyone at its cost of a bit over £50.


My advice would be that if you are on a tight budget then look at the Sony tripods from £35 upwards but if you can spend a bit more then look at the Manfrotto 7301YB which costs around the £120 mark or if you need a professional tripod then you can look at the much more expensive tripods from Manfrotto or Giotto.


Thanks for reading

© thebigc1690

Summary: Better available at lower costs.