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Message: <blockquote data-quote="hark" data-source="post: 674462" data-attributes="member: 13196">Woody, I'm not Roy and don't have that tripod, but I can give you a little insight with my own experience. I'm 5'9" tall, and I prefer tall tripods. My Gitzo's (both are 'long' models) are 58" and 59" tall without the center columns raised (and without factoring in a head). The Benro is listed as 60" without the center column extended so my tripods are in the same ballpark.With normal situations, I do not extend the center column. In fact, I don't even extend the bottom section of the legs all the way because when I do, it is too tall for me to see through the viewfinder (and that's when the center column is NOT extended). Different heads will add various differences in height, but unless you are extremely tall, most likely you wouldn't need to extend the center column.I've had only a handful of unusual situations where I did need to raise the center column. When I take photos during Worship, I don't want anyone to trip over the legs. I stand in the very back of the Sanctuary where the choir comes in. So what I do is to extend the front leg all the way but splay it forward more (so it is angled more sharply). Then I set that leg over the last pew. The 2 back legs need to be lowered to compensate for the front leg being extended out so far. When you view the tripod from the side, it looks like a right triangle rather than an isosceles triangle. It doesn't tip backwards though. Even if it would get pushed, that front leg is under the pew in front of it and gets hung up underneath it. Another time when I fully extended a tripod (my Bogen Manfrotto 3021 which goes to around 70" tall with center column extended), is when I shot film. I took photos of the front of my Sanctuary and didn't want to deal with parallax. The ceiling is so high, and I didn't want to angle the camera upwards. Since I didn't have Photoshop almost 20 years ago--which could have fixed any parallax issue--I fully extended the tripod and stood on either a chair or a step stool. No one was around so no chance of it getting knocked over.And the only other time I've had to extend the center column is when I've shot on uneven ground. If the front leg has to be longer when standing on an incline/decline, the back 2 legs have to be shorter to keep the tripod level. At those times the center column needs to be extended somewhat. Of course, I could always bend over, and have done that at times, too.So even though you don't particularly want/need a center column, you might find yourself in similar situations where one would come in handy.</blockquote>

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