Velbon DV-6000: Review

Posted to Photo Accessories 2009-12-17

Velbon DV-6000 review:

The Velbon DV-6000 tripod offers photographers and movie makers the ability to pan and tilt a camera with ease for a nice smooth shot. The tripod has 360 degree panning abilities. The built in tilt option allows you to take a solid shot whether it's on the ground or in the sky with ease. The tripod promises a nice fluid motion with both the panning and tilting but fails to deliver completely smooth tilting and panning.

The tripod has a nice wide range of height adjustments but maxes out at about 60 inches and has a minimum height of 10 inches. Just looking at the numbers makes me scratch my head and wonder who Velbon was creating the tripod for. The low height max makes this the wrong tripod for anyone over 6'0 as the need to bend will surely be uncomfortable.

Rating:

1.6 out of 5

Quality

The Velbon DV-6000 advertises itself as a professional tripod that is appropriate for both photography and video. While Velbon claims this is a professional tripod the device is only useful for the most basic of photography and still shots. If you desire to take still shots you might as well just hold the camera, it is just easier. The tripod has a serious issue standing on anything accept the most level concrete, so taking pictures on a hill or in the grass is a huge annoyance. Now the Velbon tripod is intended to make photography and videography easier, but the tilt is difficult to operate and a bit jerky at times. You probably won't get a real smooth tilt upwards and downwards. The same issue appears in the panning feature, only magnified. The panning feels really tight as if the joints need to be oiled even out of the box and you need to really put some muscle into panning the camera. The end result is awkward panning. This is not a good tripod for video but it might be okay for still photography.

Ergonomics

At first glance the Velbon DV-6000 looks like a nice enough tripod. The device is small enough to carry around and folds up quickly and without much effort but that is where the good seems to end. Placing the DV-6000 on grass or even uneven concrete will make the device wobbly and no amount of adjusting can get it to steady itself. With other tripods you can usually adjust the legs for more stability but the DV-6000 just seems to wobbly no matter what. The tripod is easy enough to change in terms of height so a multitude of people can use it but the max height of 60 inches will be a major issue if you are even slightly above average height. The tripod does shrink down to just 10 inches which is nice if you want shots from ground level.

Summary

The Velbon DV-6000 tripod is a rather light and easy to carry device. The tripod has a total weight of about 5 pounds and has a max load of about 9 pounds. While the light weight is great for portability it also makes the device unstable and toppling is a potential hazard especially if you plan to use this for a video camera rather than a still camera. My best advice would be to just leave this one alone.

Pros

Easy to carry

Cons

Low max height
Panning is jerky and difficult
Light weight creates a toppling hazard
Overall poor quality and reported problems are not worth the risk