It’s again that time of year for me, the season is ramping up and time to replace old broken and lost gear.  In an effort to pack lighter for trips on the unfriendly skies I recently looked at my pile of light stands looking for a way to cut some weight and to get things in smaller bags.  In the past I’ve been packing my rolling ski bag in order to get my older 9 foot Bogen light stand in the mix.  The nine foot basic stand sits at 36″ long folded up and weighs in at three pounds.  While it’s a pretty good sturdy stand, packing my rolling ski bag around the airport and small rental cars really sucks.

My new solution hopefully is a good one.  After staring at specs for about an hour I ran across the Lowel 0133 Omni Light Stand.  This compact light stand packs down at 29 inches folded up and weighs in at 2.9 pounds.  It isn’t as sturdy as your standard, basic tubular legged light stand however I’m hoping it’s compact size will make up for that.  The legs are 1/8 thick, 9/16″ wide solid strip aluminum as opposed to the typical tubular aluminum legs that most light stands these days have.  This makes for a bit less stability however it’s made up for in it’s compact size, especially when folded up.

The 9′ Lowel 0133 Omni Stand seems to be built very well, using solid aluminum collar clamps as opposed to most of the lightweight stands out there that use plastic collar clamps.

Being a bit ambitious, I also ordered the Lowel KPH Half Pole 3′ Extension.  Carrying around an extra pound in my luggage can get me an extra three feet on top of my nine foot stand.  It isn’t the sturdiest combination, however with some weight holding down the base of the stand, it should work ok in light winds with a small head or speedlights on top of the stand/extension combo.  I’ll let you know how that works out later though.

More about the extension though, it’s a 2-section extension pole with the same solid aluminum collar clamps as the 0133 Omni Stand and the same gray anodized finish.   The base of the extension is a bit on the wide side compared to the 0133 Omni Stand but it gets the job done.  I think it will.

(Left) Lowell 0133 Omni Stand fully extended at 9 feet

(Right) Lowel 0133 Omni Stand fully extended with Lowel KPH Half Pole at 12 feet