Center Column

The first picture below shows the standard center column position while the second picture shows the tripod with the center column removed. Once removed, you can lower the tripod by adjusting the leg length and angle.

This is horizontal position, which is the trademark of Manfrotto's PRO tripods!

This allows you to shoot at odd angles or places that the normal leg angles won't allow you to reach. While it may be fun and even necessary to use the horizontal positions, the tripod can get very unstable. This is especially true if the camera and/or lens are big and heavy.

Finally, if you must absolutely take pictures at ground level, you can actually do that. All you need to do is turn the center column upside down! Images can be flipped back to the proper orientation using any graphics editing software, so that is not an issue.

Upside down

However, adjusting the camera upside down is next to impossible! So, while it's possible to use the undocumented upside down position to achieve incredibly-low-to-the-ground shots, it may not be practical at all.

The 055PROB In Action

Manfrotto 055PROB does not come with any mount, but it will work with any 3/8"-threaded mount. In this case, I used the Manfrotto 486RC2 ball head.

To ensure smooth operation, Manfrotto applied a lot of grease on a few crucial spots, like the joint between the center column bar and the head attachment plate, as well as the locking levers on every leg. Personally, I think they applied way too much grease for my liking. Even the ball head came with too much grease!

My first impression when I tried on the tripod was the weight! It's pretty darn heavy! With the 486RC2 ball head weighing 0.45 kg, both tripod and ball head together weigh almost 3 kg! And remember, this is without the camera! Imagine how heavy the entire setup would be with the camera and a large telephoto lens.

But thanks to its weight, this tripod is pretty stable during operation. It will not tip over, even with my heaviest setup of the Nikon D70 with the Nikon AF-S 80-200mm f/2.8 lens and a Sunpak 383 Super flash attached. It managed to hold steady, even when the ball head was tilted at 45°.

With its rated load limit of 6 kg, it will not be suitable for huge telephoto prime lenses. But it is more than capable of handling any medium-sized telephoto lens setup.

Despite the fact that it's reasonably stable when everything is locked into place, it gets pretty wobbly if you unlock the lock for the center column. This is more of a problem with heavier camera-lens setups. The tripod legs are the same. Once the leg locks are released, the legs not only slide up and down, but they can actually turn left and right. The plastic locks are not much better. They feel a little flimsy, especially when you try to lock them tightly.

Spreading the legs beyond 30° can get pretty nasty if you don't know how to do it properly. For the tripod to sit level at 45° angle with the legs fully retracted, the center column must be removed. The legs are quite stiff, and requires quite a bit of force to spread.

The legs are locked by three gray locks - one for each leg. To spread the legs, you must first press the gray lock to release the leg. But this, you may find, can be quite hard to do... unless you know the trick of first pushing the leg towards the midline before pressing the lock.

At 176cm (5'9") height, this tripod is actually as tall as me! As such, I do not need to fully extend the center column. The ball head as well as the camera adds a lot of height on top of the tripod.

Full height