Manfrotto 055 Pro professional aluminium tripod camera support review

A review of the Manfrotto 055 Pro professional aluminium tripod camera support.

I use the Manfrotto 055 Pro tripod for my wedding photography. It wasn't always this way, I can't remember the make/model of my previous tripod but it fell apart, indeed it broke almost straight away. My Manfrotto 055 Pro however is years old and is as good as new, bar a few scratches (I use the silver versions rather than the black to minimize this. Vain or what, it's only a tripod!). I use it with a Manfrotto 141 RC head.

Manfrotto are constantly updating and tweaking the 055 Pro, the sign I would guess of the longevity of the product so this review is intended to be a general one aimed at the basic design of what a Manfrotto 055 Pro is rather than a specific vintage. Mine is the one which allows the central column to be withdrawn from the main assembly and clamped at right angles. I have to say I rarely use this function, the central column pretty much stays where it is, being used only to gain some extra height. I would think this is true for most wedding photography, I don't think that us wedding photographers as a breed are hugely demanding of tripod dexterity and for my portrait photography I use a tripod hardly at all.

It is quite heavy

The 055 Pro is aluminium but still reasonably heavy, I can't remember the weight but it isn't the sort of camera support you want to trek into the wilds with. Mine travels in the car. If you walk up and down hills all day long you will be needing something altogether lighter, like carbon fibre.

It is quick to set up

Now you might think that the lot of a wedding photographer is a slow one. If you do then most likely you aren't a reportage wedding photographer. I would not go so far as to say reportage wedding photography is frantic, far from it, but you are busy, no you are very busy and while the nature of the format requires that most photographs are hand held when you do need to call on the services of a tripod, that tripod needs to work reliably and work fast. The bride and groom will get bored very quickly unless everthing you do runs smoothly, on time, without fuss. They would rather be talking to their friends than watching you struggle.

Do I like it?

So do I like the Manfrotto? Yes I do. It is quick to set up, goes up quite high, and the legs are easy to adjust using a simple mechanism enabling me to get get down real low or set up in weird places. As a wedding photographer this simple mechanism is important to me because it needs to work reliably, it needs to last many years so that I get value from it and it needs to be easy and intuitive to use, even in the dark. I often have to set up in the dark for photographs of wedding venues at night or to photograph fireworks etc. I friend of mine had a Benbo (now Unilock?) tripod. They are real fiddly, great idea and they look great, but hard to put up in a hurry (I always struggled to set it up) while convincing yourself it isn't going to collapse once you put your camera on it along with your prize lens.

How fast is fast?

So how fast and low can you set up the Manfrotto 055 Pro? I'll quantify it with an example. Here's an exterior picture of the Russell Suite (for those interested: named after Bertrand Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, (1872-1970), a British philosopher, mathematician, historian, logician, pacifist, and advocate for social reform, who once lived here) at Pembroke Lodge in Richmond Park, Surrey taken in autumn. I often photograph weddings at Pembroke Lodge so I should really show you a picture with a bride, however this photograph better illustrates the point I am making - speed. The grey squirrel is not the most patient of animals, in fact they rarely seem to sit still around humans for any time at all, but I manged to get the Manfrotto set up and fit my Nikon D200 with a Nikon 18-200mm DX lens fast enough to capture the squirrel before he jumped off the log.

Why did I need to use a tripod for this image? It was taken in October or maybe November after a long warm autumn and the light was very dull and the Nikon D200 won't go over ISO 400 without getting noisy.

The acid test - would I buy another?

Would I buy another? Yes I would, in fact I already have, I own two Manfrotto 055 Pro tripods. It didn't occur to me to buy anything else, not because other tripods aren't any good, I'm sure there are many fine examples, but I just didn't need to look and the Manfrotto 055 Pro is relatively inexpensive.

I purchased the second online from Speed Graphic. I did choose a different type of head, the Manfrotto 229 head. The second tripod also came with some rather fetching leg warmers on two legs or rather they are leg insulators to stop my hands getting cold in poor weather. Well this is England you know, look at the squirrel, does he look warm?

As of January 2009 the closest Manfrotto tripod to my 055 Pro is the Manfrotto 055 X Pro (Manfrotto 055XPROB), unfortunately only available in black (I like chrome but obviously I'm in a small minority) which has this specification:

• Tripod weight: 2.40 kg

• Maximum load you can put on it: 7.00 kg

• Material: Aluminum

 :

• Closed length: 65.5 cm

• Minimum height: 10 cm

• Maximum height: 178,5 cm

• Maximum height: (with center column down) 142 cm

 

• Number of leg sections: 3

• Spirit level: 1 bubble spirit level

• Leg angles 23°,45°,65°,88°

• Centre column type: Rapid type

• Attachment screw thread diameter: 3/8"

The main improvement of the Manfrotto 055XPROB over my 055 Pro seems to be the way the centre column pulls out and is positioned at 90°. I have tried it in a shop and certainly it is easier to use. However I never use this feature for wedding photography so the difference between the two tripods is negligible for me.

I must say the carbon fibre versions look great and are very light, but my car boot doesn't mind either way so aluminium is still fine for me.

More details about current Manfrotto tripods can be found at www.manfrotto.com.