If you live in the US you can already get Novoflex products from big retailers like B&H, but availability in the UK has been rather patchy. But now major distributor Mac Group Europe has taken the brand on so that UK consumers can get Novoflex products too.
So for those who don’t know, Novoflex is a German manufacturer specialising in premium quality camera supports and radical head designs. Its most interesting product lines are its modular TrioPod (not ‘tripod’ but ‘Triopod’) range and its crazy-looking MagicBall heads.
The TrioPod range is modular in the extreme. You can buy tripods as complete kits but you can also assemble them from individual components, choosing the base (spider) and the legs you want to put with it (three-section, four-section, aluminium, carbon fiber). You can even buy the legs individually so that if you break one, you can simply replace it – you don’t need a whole new tripod.
The MagicBall is especially interesting. It takes regular ball head design and turns it upside down. Instead of the ball being an internal component encased within the head, it’s actually naked and exposed and the camera attaches to a clamp that fits around the ball. This arrangement offers exceptional freedom of movement, and clamps tight via a side grip that can also serve as a handle for controlled camera movements.
Novoflex also makes regular ball heads in varying sizes, levelling bases for video and table top and macro setups.
Unfortunately, Novoflex products aren’t cheap. All this invention and engineering costs money, so you are firmly in Gitzo rather than Manfrotto pricing territory.
You can find out more at the main Novoflex website and there’s also a Novoflex YouTube channel where you can see these products in action. Don’t watch too many, though, because they are addictive and you’ll want to buy something!