So I had been wanting a lighter and more compact tripod for a while, after using a cheap aluminum tripod with a high-quality Vanguard head for a long time.
I had read Heie's review of the Sirui T-025X and found the size and specs interesting. A trip to the US (where prices are better) got me thinking again, and I decided to do my own specs comparison. I narrowed the choices down to the Sirui carbon and alunimum versions and the Mephoto travel tripods. The Sirui again came on top, regarding weight, size and reported sturdiness.
Then my wife decided that the tripod would make a fantastic in-advance birthday gift and ordered it for me!
It has been in my hands for more than a week and I can only say, in all honesty, thank you Heie!
Here's what I think about the tripod...
Size is impressive when folded. It's so small, smaller in real life than what I actually expected. Weight is also impressive, my previous alu tripod weights about 3 pounds, so it was not a heavy beast by itself, but still the Sirui is visibly lighter. When extended, it's actually taller than what I expected. I never felt comfortable using my former tripod fully extended, with the Sirui I'll avoid it also but I feel that with a good weight on the hook it will be very stable.
The tripod is a joy to operate, it's smooth, well-made, everything clicks as it should, the rotating knobs for the legs are efficient, it's great. The feet don't have spikes but they are somewhat pointed and they hold their position well.
The legs themselves are very, very sturdy, even if though they are thin at the bottom. Carbon fiber really impresses me here. I applied torsion to the tripod and to my much bigger alu tripod and the Sirui was much, much sturdier, the alu (cheap) tripod twisted a lot more. The Sirui is impressively stable, seriously that's the biggest surprise. I did not expect it to perform so well given the size. You would have to get a much larger and heavier tripod to get a significant improvement in stability (especially if you weight it down when in use).
The head is also surprisingly good. It's quite small, but just as stable as my Vanguard head when locked. No sagging that I saw. I expected to replace the Sirui head with my Vanguard but the latter is much to large for the tripod, so I can't really do that. The only thing missing is a friction control, that's a sad omission. I can work around it by remembering that when the arrow picture on the knob is in a certain position, friction is acceptable for composition. Still, if I manage to find a head that has the specs of the Vanguard and the size of the Sirui, I might go for it. Any suggestions?
The acra-swiss place is so tiny I had doubts, but so far it held my K-3 without any problem whatsoever. In short the head and plate combo performs above expectations for such a small form factor.
The hook is not a hook per se but a carabiner. Nice surprise : it's rubber-coated to avoid damaging the finish of the tripod. A nice touch.
Removing the center column is easy, but fixing the head back on it took me a few minutes. There's a plastic spacer there that can mess things up if the two-sided screw is not properly positionned.
The carrying case is a bit of a letdown. First, it's more of a pouch, not padded at all. This could be a good idea to reduce weight, but on the other hand it's equipped with long, large and
heavy ropes that are not as efficient as a simple zipper. I'd prefer a more regular padded case.
The tripod comes with two allen keys, not needed since it was perfectly adjusted for me.
Some of the competition allows the user to remove a leg to create a monopod, it would be nice to have that option but honestly I don't use my current monopod all that often, so it's not really needed for me. That and the addition of a friction control on the head would be the two main possible improvements I can see for the future, however.
All in all, an extremely positive experience!