cheap carbon/magnesium tripods on ebay?

[darinwc]

Has anyone tried those cheap carbon fiber & magnesium alloy tripods on ebay?

ebay item# 7618773796

Are they worth the money?

 

[MattKing]

Buying from Amvona

I have a tripod with head, a ballhead, and a camera bag that I bought from Amvona (in three separate purchases).

Each were purchased at very favourable prices, when I won an auction.

I am quite happy with the quality and the features. Although the tripod isn't a carbon/magnesium model, it is large, stable, and it and the head work well.

One caution though - Amvona's customer service is terrible.

My bag purchase, and my ballhead purchase went without a hitch. I had them shipped to my US shipping destination. It wasn't the fastest shipping, but it wasn't bad.

However, I tried to customize my tripod purchase.

If anything goes wrong, they'll probably make good on it, but you will need a lot of patience, and will need to spend a lot of time and energy in the process.

You will have similar problems if you want to customize your order any way. As an example, I dare you to try and order extra QR plates for an Amvona head!

When you deal with them, you get the impression that they have about a 1/4 of the staff that they really need.

I would buy again, but only if I was prepared to deal with some hassle.

Matt

 

[titrisol]

Amvona has a very decent website... google them

 

[david b]

Amvona makes decent stuff but you get what you pay for.

And as stated above, their customer service sucks. Don't ever expect to talk to anyone on the phone. And don't expect quick shipping. I think the last thing I bought from them took 3 weeks to receive.