Ampex Codazzi 2 Person Tent Review

The Ampex Codazzi 2 Person Tent is a budget friendly freestanding tent weighing 4.01lbs, or approximately 64.2 ounces. This weight includes the tent body, rainfly, poles, footprint, 14 stakes, guy lines, and all included sacks.

Made from ripstop nylon, this double walled tent boasts two doors and two vestibules. The setup is quick and easy with only a slight learning curve that you will master after repeating the process a time or two.

Being in the market for a 2-person tent, I initially had my eye on the big name brands. However, I am a sucker for a deal and I always explore Amazon to see what new backpacking products are available.

I came across the Codazzi 2-person tent from Ampex Gear and it caught my attention immediately due to its design and seemingly high quality. I searched the brand and found ampexgear.com. Through more research, I discovered Ampex Gear is a young company based in Kansas that at the time of this posting is only a few months old.

Exploring their website, I found they seem to make quality gear for a very budget friendly price. I decided to try out the Codazzi 2-person tent.

So, was it worth it?

Yes. Let’s find out why.

Overview

Before discussing my experience with the Codazzi, let’s highlight the specs, construction, and features of this freestanding, 3 season tent.

Specs

What’s Included

The Codazzi 2-person tent comes with everything you need to set it up, including stakes, guy lines, and even a footprint (not included in most tents). Below is everything in the box:

• Tent Body (w/sack)
• Tent Poles (w/sack)
• Rainfly
• Footprint
• 14 Stakes (w/sack)
• Guy lines (w/sack)
• Repair Kit (patch, pole sleeve, w/sack)

Construction

The Codazzi is a double wall tent, meaning the rainfly is separate from the tent body. The tent body is made of 10D 500T ripstop nylon and 28G nylon “no-see-um” mesh. The rainfly uses 15D 420T ripstop nylon coated with sil/PU (silicone/polyurethane). The floor of the tent is 20D 400T ripstop nylon as well as the included footprint.

The poles are ultralight 9mm aluminum and come as one assembly, so you won’t need to keep up with separate poles or a separate ridge pole (though I won’t guarantee the ridge pole can’t be separated). The ends of the poles are color coated along with the tent body, rainfly, and footprint for an easier setup.

The 14 included stakes are “needle” stakes, likely made from aluminum. They weigh approximately .35 ounces per stake.

Features

The Codazzi 2-person tent has multiple features that backpackers typically enjoy and many find as a requirement. These features include:

Three pitching configurations: These include full pitch, stargazer, and fast fly. The fast fly pitch allows you to set up your shelter with only the rainfly, useful to prevent your tent body from getting wet inside during rain or if a minimalist setup is desired. The stargazer configuration allows you to roll back the rainfly over the tent body and secure it with a series of toggles and loops. With this configuration, as the name suggests, you will be able to view the stars or whatever you can see overhead.

Color coded foot connection system: Ampex Gear has color coded every component used to set up the Codazzi. The footprint, tent body, and rainfly all have either a red or silver color at the corners that you match to the red or silver tent poles. Even the clips for attaching the tent body to the poles are color coded so there is no question where they go.

Two doors: Each side of the Codazzi has a side door, each utilizing two YKK zippers.

Two vestibules: There is a respectable sized vestibule on each side of the tent. The vestibule storm flaps can be rolled up and secured with toggles and loops, or you can utilize one or two trekking poles to prop open the doors for more coverage.

Guyline bag light diffuser: The included stake bag doubles as a light diffuser, dampening your headlamp or flashlight when low light is all you need.

Gear pockets: There are several gear pockets inside the Codazzi 2 person tent, including pockets at the footend of the tent as well.

Vents: Each side of the rainfly has a vent (four total), that can be propped open for improved airflow.

Ampex backpack top lid integration: If you have a backpack from Ampex, the top lid can be removed and hung inside the Codazzi with clips.

My experience

Now that we have covered the facts about this tent, let’s talk about how all this works in practice. We’ll cover everything from style, the setup process, livability, functionality, and performance.

Style

The first thing that catches your attention with the Ampex Codazzi is its style, resembling many of the most popular backpacking tents available. The red and white colors give off a MSR vibe and I believe they drew a lot of inspiration from the Hubba Hubba.

However, unlike the Hubba Hubba, the rainfly is white with red accents on the Codazzi, giving it its own unique appearance. The Ampex logo is displayed in a minimalist fashion on each side of the tent.

The Codazzi is a freestanding, double wall tent, with a pole assembly akin to many other lighter weight backpacking tents. A single horizontal pole stretches across the top of the tent, crossing the ridgepole midway, and splits to each corner as it approaches the ends of the tent body.

Overall, the style of the tent holds its own against competitors. While nothing is completely unique with the Codazzi, it matches what some of the best looking tents have.

Setup

Pitching the Codazzi 2-person tent can be easy and quick, thanks in large part to its simplicity, but also due to its color coded system on all components necessary for setup.

Laying out the footprint first, note the colors of the connectors in the corners. Aware that the side with red connectors is where the doors are, orient the tent how you desire. There is no need to stake the footprint down at this point.

With the footprint laid out, spread the tent body over the top again noting the colors of the corners. Simply align red to red and silver to silver.

Next, connect the tent poles. They easily snap into one another, and once assembled, take the red poles and insert into the red foot connectors and the silver poles to the silver foot connectors. Pretty simple so far, right?

With the tent poles secured into the foot connectors, you should have a standing structure ready to attach the tent body to. This is done via clips that securely snap onto the tent poles. It is easy to tell what clips go where, but these clips are also color coded for even more simplicity.

Setting up the rainfly is the most difficult part, but nothing you can’t master after setting the Codazzi up a few times. While the color coding makes it easy, the problem I had is the rainfly being inside out, which isn’t hard to do if you aren’t paying attention.

Lastly, stake out all the corners and use one stake each for the storm flaps of the rainfly. Easily tension the corners and flaps with a pull of each cord until you have reached the desired tension. At this point, for extra stability in windy conditions, use the provided guy lines with the remaining stakes as you see fit.

Once the rainfly is strewn on top of the tent body, use the hook and loop fasteners underneath to secure the fly to the tent poles. While not completely necessary, this does provide extra stability.

Summarizing the setup, it is very easy and the color coding is helpful. You can stray from matching color to color from the tent body to the footprint though, but as long as the rainfly and tent body match up, it still works and the rainfly storm flaps will match the doors of the tent body. All-in-all, setup can be less than five minutes once you get the hang of it.

For additional setup instructions, visit Ampex’s webpage for setup instructions.

Livability

As a 2-person tent, the Codazzi is what you expect from backpacking tents this size. There is enough room for two people to fit snuggly with larger gear stored underneath the vestibules. I, however, prefer to use this tent for solo trips. Doing this allows me to keep all my gear inside, completely protecting it from the elements.

Speaking of the inside, the interior space measures 50-inches at the head and foot ends, meaning there is no taper. And being this wide, two wide sleeping pads will fit without overlapping.

The Codazzi is 90-inches in length, long enough for even taller people to lay down comfortably, and the peak height is 42-inches, which is taller than the Hubba Hubba by two inches. These extra inches may seem miniscule, but for taller individuals, this can make a huge difference.

The gear pockets inside, as always, are useful for clearing up floor space and organizational purposes. You can also use the removable top lids from one of Ampex’s backpacks and connect it inside the tent with fasteners specifically designed to do so. While I do not own one of their backpacks, I can see this being handy under some circumstances.

Another neat feature is the use of the guyline bag as a light diffuser. I used this with my Nitecore NU25 headlamp and it does the trick, though it is a little more tedious to remove your light from the bag when needed than just having a built-in pocket overhead.

Overall, this tent is comfortable for one person to call home for a night or more. Even when sharing with a partner, the uniform head and foot ends (no taper), gear pockets, dual doors, and moderately sized vestibules still make the Codazzi very livable for two. However, I would still recommend a 3-person tent for two people when on extended trips.

Performance

Ultimately, nothing else matters if a tent doesn’t perform or function the way you need it to. A tent must stand up to reasonable conditions out in the field such as wind and rain, and the features have to do their job adequately. So how does the Codazzi perform in this arena?

Functionality

First, the Codazzi uses YKK zippers, which are known to be the most durable on the market. These zippers flow nicely on both the doors and the rainfly. You can even unzip the door from the top to bottom with one hand, uninterrupted even when rounding the corner. However, zipping back up usually requires persuasion to get the zipper around the curved corner.

The doors themselves are standard for this style of tent, but the rainfly storm flap is a little more unconventional, but nothing that hasn’t been done before. There is a zipper on each side of the storm flap. The one closer to the headend of the tent is easily accessed from inside, but the other requires a reach, at least when unzipping. The benefit of this storm flap style is you can prop it up with the use of one or two trekking poles for extra coverage if needed.

The vestibules of the Codazzi are moderately sized, with each having enough room for your shoes and backpack. However, if your backpack is still full, it may press against the rainfly and potentially intrudes on your floor space. A minor inconvenience when camping solo, but for two it may be a nuisance.

Having four vents in the rainfly is a big plus for airflow. I’m not sure why all tent manufacturers don’t include enough of these on all tents, but kudos to Ampex for this. Being a double wall tent, the Codazzi already has better airflow than single wall tents, meaning less condensation issues, but it also has better airflow than many double wall tents thanks to the number of vents.

Weather Resistance

Thus far, I believe the Codazzi performs on par with the big name brands that are more expensive. But how does it hold up against the elements?

The rainfly and tent floor of the Codazzi are made from ripstop nylon coated in sil/PU. The main disadvantage of this coating is slightly reduced tear resistance. However, it makes the floor less slippery than pure silicone and enables the seams to be factory taped.

The big fear for most is the poly side of the coating (the inside) will begin to degrade and flake, making the tent less waterproof. This isn’t the case with newer poly coatings, so the durability of this tent should hold up.

The materials of this tent (excluding tent body) all have a HH (hydrostatic head) of 1200mm. Simply put, this means a column of water can be 1200mm high before penetrating through the fabric. This is on par with the more expensive Hubba Hubba and Big Agnes Copper Spur, but less than the fabrics Nemo uses, which typically range from 1500mm to 2000mm.

Regarding wind resistance, there are multiple places for additional guylines. Utilizing all of these during windy conditions should maximize its ability to hold strong. The use of ground stakes that have better hold power, like the groundhog from MSR, can reassure your confidence.

Value

This is where the Ampex Codazzi really shines. You get a tent very comparable to the MSR Hubba Hubba that costs only half. The footprint is also included with the Codazzi while you will need to pay an extra $50 for MSR’s.

As far as weight, the Codazzi total package weighs just over 4-lbs. The Hubba Hubba is lighter at 3-lbs 4-oz, but this doesn’t include the footprint which weighs 8 oz, bringing the total weight to 3-lbs 12-oz, only 4 ounces lighter than the Codazzi.

And let’s not just pick on the Hubba Hubba. Here are a few other examples:

The only tent that comes close to the Codazzi’s affordability is the REI Half Dome, but it is 11 ounces heavier and still cost $60 more! The Big Agnes Copper Spur and Nemo Dragonfly are both lighter but are significantly more expensive!

Again, the value of this tent is remarkable. This could easily be a $400 tent in my opinion. However, I’m glad to see it priced where it is, otherwise it fades into the field.

Summary

In summary, the Codazzi has its pros and cons, though the positives outweigh the negatives. In fact, the only real negative I can currently point to is less than perfect stitching. Meanwhile, the price, ease of setup, and modern style of this tent are all high points.

However, if you are searching for an ultralight tent, the Codazzi might not be for you. While it is lightweight, it doesn’t qualify as ultralight. I recommend reading my article on the top ultralight 2 person backpacking tents if this is what you are looking for.

But for someone looking for a quality, budget-friendly backpacking tent, the Ampex Codazzi is worth a look.