Sturdy, Well-Designed Tripod with Head
for Video and Still Photography
Review by Erik Vlietinck3 Legged Thing
MikeKit with
AirHed Cine
Company: 3 Legged Thing Ltd.Price: $849.99Rating: 4Hot: Design; materials; easy to operate; silent;
fluid motion of AirHedNot: No weight-adjustment system; when it
arrived, one leg needed fastening with
hex toolThe 3 Legged Thing company sent me a MikeKit, a carbon fiber
tripod with an Arca Swiss AirHed Cine. This tripod has a maximum
height of 1.48 meters and the ability to get as low as 13.5 cm.
It weighs just 1.65 kg and has a load capacity of 14 kg.
The tripod supports leg angles of 23°, 55°, and 80° with a
very easy to operate latching mechanism. The friction of its leg
latches can be adjusted by tightening hex screws, and both the
tripod leveling head and the AirHed have spirit levels. Base locks
can be moved out of the way by pulling out and rotating.
The three legs can be used as monopods, with the leveling
base doing double-duty as a tabletop/low-level tripod or a foot
stabilizer for the monopod. The tripod has a very nice design
that feels robust. You extend the legs by using raised O-pads
that are easy to lock and unlock, even when wearing gloves.
The carbon tubes don’t rotate at all, and are silent to operate,
which is very important for wildlife and bird photography.
The AirHed Cine Arca Swiss model head is surprisingly com-
pact and light, and it comes with a removable panning arm
that can be mounted on the left- or right-hand side of the
head. The AirHed Cine has a fluid-motion, spring-balanced,
tilt action, which allows for really smooth panning. There’s no
system to dial-in equipment weight, so with heavy equipment,
it will tilt much faster and with less counterforce than with my
3 kg camera mounted on top.
I noticed the AirHed Cine has a comfortable 165° of move-
ment—90° down and 75° up. The clamp knob was a bit
awkward to operate with my old Sony A700 because the
body partly blocked it. nREVIEWS › ›> PHOTOSHOP USER>^ MARCH 2020[ 106 ]