'Wolf' brand wooden tripods from Germany -- Comments?

[cxc]

I stumbled upon www.wooden-tripods.com, the website for Wolf Tripods

in Germany. I can't remember how I got there; they are not indexed

in Google. It looks like a nice, lightweight, wooden tripod, for

less than half the cost of a Ries.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this brand? Comments?

Recommendations or warnings? They also have a nice looking pan head,

looks like a Bogen 3047, but with striking wooden handles instead of

foam.

 

TIA,

 

CXC

[herwig_prammer1]

christopher,

have a look at www.berlebach.de, you will find out the tripods of wolf and berlebach are very similar, nearly identical. i owned a reporter series berlebach for a while and used it for my 35 mm cameras and for a 4x5. i was absolutely satisfied with it, very fine craftmanship and incredible low price. the shop where i bought it offers both wolf and berlebach, you would not recognize any difference except the brand name. when i bought my 8x10 deardorff i traded it for a larger second hand gitzo series 5. but i will propably go back to wolf or berlebach again, a large one, of course. i have seen ries j600 and j100 tripods and i am sure the berlebach and wolf tripods are equally good.

[chris_patti1]

I also suspect that the Wolf and Berlebach tripods are similar, if not identical. I have a Berlebach, which I got from Calumet when they used to carry them (paid $129 when they were blowing them out). It looks just like the #8032 model on the Wolf website, the one with a built in leveling ball head. I got it because it was the best combination of light weight and low price that was adequate for my 8x10. It's not as nice as that American brand, but it does the job with my 10-13lb Eastman Commercial. The ball head has very limited movement, but is generally adequate for LF (where mostly I'm only leveling the camera) and saves money (and weight) by eliminating the need for a separate head. The Berlebach site seems to show that they have replaced the knob that locks the ball head with a little lever, which might be a nice improvement since my biggest complaint is that the locking knob is a bit tricky to work with.

[cxc]

Thanks, guys, for the info. Looking closer at both websites, it is obvious that the tripods are of the same design. However there are some differences as to the lengths, with the Wolf version of the 3-piece leg headless model being somewhat taller. If/when I buy one, that'll be it. MUCH more reasonably priced than Ries.

 

CXC

[bob_salomon]

Wolf and Berlebach were from the same company before re-unification. After the companies became privately owned they became seperate companies under seperate ownership.

 

We are in the process of re-introducing the Berlebach line and have shown it at the NY show at Javits, the Wewstern States Show last month and currently at WPPI in Vegas. We will also show them at SPE, NANPA and PMA next month..

 

The ball leveler is controlled with a knob - not a lever.

[struan_gray]

If you don't want the ball-leveller - which I have to admit is a nice touch for most LF - another manufacturer to consider for well made wooden tripods Stabil (www.stabil.nu). They have a few nice touches and details not found elsewhere.