Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony VCT-R100 Tripod For General Use

Bought this tripod as was fed up trying to prop up my sony handycam on books/chairs etc. Well built, comes with a small sleeve/bag, and can fit in a rucksack easily. Quality product, but i'm sure not good enough for people who need a full size tripod for semi-pro work. great for hobbyists though.

This a great tripod for still photography, but is so jerky for video it can be annoying.

Should have read the specs better! This tripod only just reached above my hip! Pointlessly short I cant imagine why you would ever need a tripod this small.

I bought this tripod thinking 'it's cheap, but not the cheapest so it should be OK'. I also stupidly thought that Sony's name would be a mark of some sort of quality (should have known better from experience). This tripod functions well and is fairly light and portable, so great if you just want to be able to take still shots whilst out and about.

However, I have several major gripes, the biggest of which being IT'S NOT BIG ENOUGH! Fully extended, this tripod barely comes higher than my stomach. I guess I must have thought this wouldn't be a problem when I bought it, but it's been nothing but a pain, especially for video where the tilt of the camera to get people's heads in is much more noticeable. Although the manoeuvrability of the top part is good, it is clumsy at times which is again a problem if you are working with video. The base is not nearly wide enough meaning if you have a heavy lens on your camera, the whole tripod becomes top-heavy and unstable. The legs are incredibly flimsy and I am surprised they haven't broken yet. It also does not go down very low (perhaps less of a requirement for the average person, but a problem for me nonetheless). I have found myself spending far more time adjusting my tripod than taking photos or shooting footage and that takes all the fun out of it.

My advice to people looking at this tripod is to spend that little bit more and get something more substantial (or at the very least something that extends to near eye level).

This is a great quality tripod and perfect for throwing in a rucksack. It's extremely light and collapses down to about 30cm. If your after a full height tripod look elsewhere, it only only extends to about a metre but this is a compromise for the portability of it.
Being quite small and light in a strong wind it may move a bit and also wouldn't be suitable for a heavy telephoto or similar.
All in all for a light, small portable tripod it's ideal if you don't fancy carrying around a full heigh tripod.