You’ll find many clones out there, but the best tripod with flexible legs is the Joby GorillaPod. If your camera is on the smaller side, you’ll be able to mount. Benro Go Plus Travel Aluminium Tripod (FGP28A) & IB2 Triple Action Ballhead. ![]() Best Travel Tripod of 2. A tripod is an indispensable piece of equipment for every serious DSLR photographer. But if you’re a photographer that travels a lot, you’ll often have second thoughts about taking a heavy, bulky tripod with you. Especially if you’re traveling by plane, where every ounce of baggage counts, you’ll want to pack your camera bag as light as possible. Photo by Manfrotto. Fortunately, there are special travel tripods on the market that are designed specifically with portability in mind. You can easily take them with you on the road, as they are lightweight and compact. We’ve did some research and reviewed the 8 best models. We hope it helps you to find the best travel tripod of 2. Carbon Fiber or Aluminum? When purchasing a travel tripod, you can generally choose between two types: carbon fiber construction and aluminum construction. Carbon fiber tripods are lighter and stronger than aluminium ones, so when you’re on the hunt for the very best travel tripod, we definitely recommend going with carbon fiber. Carbon fiber tripods are priced a little higher than aluminium ones though. In our overview we’ve reviewed both tripod types: The Best Travel Tripod 2. Top 8. A Closer Look At The 8 Best Travel Tripods. The Gitzo GT1. 54. T is the absolute winner when it comes down to travel tripods. It is the lightest, yet most stable and durable tripod that we’ve come across so far. The Gitzo GT1. 54. T has an all carbon fiber construction with exceptional build quality. It weighs just 2. The maximum height (with the center fully expanded) is 5. This provides an excellent height range for most photographers. The tripod legs are tightened using Gitzo’s patented G- lock, a twist lock system that works very good and keeps the legs in place at all times. The GT1. 54. 2T also performs very well in vibration resistance tests, thanks to it’s carbon fiber construction and some magnesium parts. There are only two downsides to the Gitzo GT1. T. First off, it doesn’t include a ball head. ![]() Some photographers consider this to be a plus, as they can use their own favorite ball head. Second downside: its price is rather high. The Gitzo GT1. 54. T is the only tripod in this overview that’s priced over 5. While this is a lot of money for a tripod, this might be the only (travel) tripod you’ll ever need to buy. Pros. Lightweight Carbon Fiber construction: only 2. Compact: folds down to 1. Exceptional build quality. ![]() Excellent height range: 8. Good vibration resistance. Cons. Higher price range. Ball head not included (can be purchased extra as a package)Me. Foto is a newcomer on the tripod market, but they offer an excellent range of travel tripods. The Mefoto C2. 35. Q2. T Globe. Trotter is their top model. It is a very well built carbon fiber tripod that folds down to 1. This makes it an ideal travel companion for many photographers. A weight of 4. 6 lbs doesn’t make it the lightest model in this comparison, but the Globe. Trotter does have a very high support capacity of 2. It is therefore an excellent travel tripod for larger camera bodies and lenses. The maximum height of the tripod is 6. If you’re into macro and very low angles, than you might find this minimum length to be a little too high. A high quality Q series ballhead with an Arca- Swiss compatible quick release plate is included with the tripod. It also boasts a separate head and pan lock, so you can accurately move your camera into any position. A nice extra feature is the ability to use the Mefoto C2. Q2. T as a monopod. This can be achieved by unscrewing one of the legs and attaching it to the center column. Pros. Folded length of 1. Supports very large cameras, up to 2. High quality carbon fiber construction. Can also be used as a monopod. Very reasonable price for a carbon fiber tripod. Cons. Less suited for macro and low- angle (min. Weighing just 3. 1. Despite its compact size, it offers an impressive height range, with a minimum height at 1. The Feisol CT- 3. It therefore offers a very good vibration resistance. It also comes with an excellent CB4. If you already own a good ballhead, it is possible to get this tripod without the ballhead. This model is priced a bit lower and is known as the Feisol Travel CT- 3. S. What we don’t like about the Feisol CT- 3. Pros. Robust carbon fiber construction. Lightweight: 3. 1. Extends to a maximum height of 7. Compact: folds down to 1. High quality CB4. Cons. Weight hook at the bottom doesn’t retract. Minimum height is 1. The Me. Foto A1. 35. Q1. T Roadtrip is a compact and relatively lightweight tripod that weights about 3. It measures 1. 5. The maximum height it can reach is 6. It can support most larger DSLR bodies and lenses, as the maximum supported weight is 1. It includes a very decent Q series ball head and a quick release plate that is compatible with Arca- Swiss. A very nice feature is that this model can also be used as a monopod. This can easily be done, by screwing together the center and a tripod leg. Pros. Lightweight: 3. Compact: 1. 5. 4 inch when folded. Maximum height: 6. Maximum supported weight: 1. Can be used as a monopod as well. Cons. Becomes slightly unstable when fully extended (can be fixed by hanging a weight in the center, like a camera bag)Legs use a screwing mechanism to lock instead of handles. Check out this video to see how to convert the Me. Foto Roadtrip into a monopod: Manfrotto is considered to be one of the best tripod brands. They also feature a travel tripod in their product range: the Manfrotto Be. Free. The Be. Free is a light and compact tripod with a solid construction, but is priced higher than its main competitors. The tripod weighs only 3. Its length when fully folded is 1. A decent aluminium ball head is integrated to quickly level your camera. The Manfroto Be. Free also has a quick release plate and leg locks with adjustable tension. It comes with a padded carrying bag. Pros: Compact: folded length of 1. Lightweight: 3. 1 lbs. Maximum height: 5. Leg locks have adjustable tension. Sturdy, all- metal design (aluminium)Cons: Easier to knock over because of its light weight. Fitting it correctly in the supplied bag requires some practice. The Me. Foto A3. 05. Q0. K Backpacker is the little brother of the Me. Foto A1. 35. 0Q1. T Roadtrip. It basically has the same features: a Q series ball head with an Arca Swiss style compatible quick release plate. It also has a seperate head and pan lock for securing a camera angle. This way you can make precise 3. It weights about 2. Roadtrip big brother. Unlike its big brother, it can’t be converted into a monopod, but it’s priced a lot lower. Pros: Very lightweight: 2. Compact design, folded length: 1. Maximum height: 5. Q series ball head included. Two leg angle positions. Cons: Maximum supported weight: 8. Enough for most DSLR cameras, but less then main competitors. Can’t be converted into a monopod like the Me. Foto A1. 35. 0Q1. T Roadtrip. If you’re on a budget, then the Dolica TX5. B1. 50. SL might be a good option Despite it’s relatively low price, this tripod offers professional quality. Thanks to it’s reversible legs, it’s possible to fold it down to 1. On top of that, it weighs only 2. It can support most DSLR camera’s up to 1. The Dolica AX6. 20. B1. 00 also has a ball head with a quick release plate, foam grips and an angle locking knob. A sturdy carry case is included. Pros: Lightweight: 2. Maximum height: 5. Maximum supported weight: 1. Legs can be locked in position. Low price. Cons: Twist lock: the leg segments can come loose when twisting them too long in the wrong direction. Becomes slightly unstable when fully extended. Slik has updated their popular Sprint Pro model and named it the Slik Sprint Pro II. This tripod has been designed with the traveling photographer in mind. It folds down to 1. The maximum height it can extend to is 6. The Sprint Pro II includes a new designed SBH- 1. DQ ball head with a quick release system. Pros: Very lightweight (lightest in this overview): 2. Compact: folded length is 1. Maximum height: 6. Well build, All aluminium construction. Cons: Supported weight is only 4. Becomes slightly unstable when fully extended. Quick release plate is a little small. We hope this detailed comparison was helpful to you. Good luck finding the best travel tripod 2. More information on tripods. The Best Tripod (for Most People)We settled on this model because it’s the best overall choice for most people. This is a great tripod if you want to try your hand at macro photography, to take long exposures in low light, or to work with a 5. You can grab the tripod by itself or in the 2. AB 1. 00 kit, a combo pack that includes the SBH- 1. Most photographers will tell you that spending less than $2. I recommend the lighter, less stable, and much simpler Slik Sprint Pro II with a ball head or a pan head. You’ll find many clones out there, but the best tripod with flexible legs is the Joby Gorilla. Pod. If your camera is on the smaller side, you’ll be able to mount it just about anywhere using the Gorilla. Pod’s twistable legs. If you’re looking for a tripod that’s small enough to collapse down to easily throw into a backpack or suitcase, but still extends high enough that you can use it standing up, have a look at our guide to the best travel tripod. And if you’re trying to figure out the best way to keep your i. Phone (or other smartphone) stable, we have a guide for that, too. Table of contents. Why you should trust us. I’ve spent more than 1. Internet for reviews and information from major publications, user forums, You. Tube videos, photographer sites, and more. I’ve spent hands- on time shooting with three of the better models. I’ve been covering photo gear for DPReview, Digital. Camera. Info, and Pop. Photo for five years, and although I may not be a professional photographer, I’ve spent more than my fair share of time behind the lens. How to spot a good tripod. The first step is to throw out that horrible plastic thing you got for free with your camera—it’s more frustrating than it is useful. What you should look for is a tripod from a well- known brand with excellent stability and good extras that hits the right price. The Vanguard Alta Pro meets all those criteria. Let me take a moment to talk about what your tripod should be made out of, which is a tricky thing. Plastic probably won’t serve you well in a traditional tripod. Right now, the most popular materials are aluminum, carbon fiber, and, somewhat surprisingly, wood. Choosing the right kind for you is one of those common compromises. Pick two of the following three: weight, price, or vibration dampening. Wood is pretty affordable and extremely good at absorbing vibrations, but it weighs a ton. Carbon fiber is light and stable, but you’ll certainly pay for it. Aluminum is affordable and fairly light but prone to channeling vibrations. At this point I should discuss carbon- fiber tripods and why we passed them over for this review. They’re incredibly popular right now, and more affordable than ever, but they’re still too expensive to justify for most casual photographers. You’re still looking at double the cost of aluminum legs, more or less, for a midrange set. Now, if funds aren’t a problem, and you know you’ll spend the rest of your life doing some interesting photography that requires the best gear possible, I suggest reading this excellent guide by Thom Hogan. He recommends buying top- of- the- line gear at the start to avoid a costly upgrade cycle, and dropping around $1,0. To be honest, I don’t think that’s the right choice for most of our readers, so I’m recommending a tripod kit that costs less than $2. The other problem with carbon fiber is its fragility. It’s especially light, which makes it excellent for traveling, and it absorbs vibrations quite well. However, compared with many other materials, it lacks in sturdiness: Whereas aluminum might dent and bend from a sudden shock, carbon fiber can snap dramatically. In addition, its lightness isn’t always an advantage, as that makes for a generally less- stable platform to work with. We also ignored wooden tripods because they’re too heavy to be practical in most applications. Okay, so you’re all set on looking for an aluminum tripod. Where do you go from here? Don’t forget the head. Remember: A tripod isn’t enough on its own. You also need a tripod head to go with it (we have recommendations here for heads, too, of course). Usually you’ll see tripod heads sold separately from the legs, but sometimes you’ll find them sold together in bundles. This arrangement allows you to choose a head that best suits your specific needs and to upgrade each part individually. Technically, you can attach a camera directly to a tripod using a mounting bolt, but in doing so you’d lose all the mobility of a head and be stuck with a rig that can move on only one axis. I really don’t recommend this approach. What you should look for in a tripod. First and foremost, you should ask how tall a tripod can get. Most tripods will have specs for their maximum height with the center column fully extended, their maximum height without the center column extended (it’s more stable that way), and their minimum height for when you want to work close to the ground. Keep in mind that you get quite a few more inches above that height once you attach a tripod head and then your camera atop that. You’ll also want to think about how large a tripod is when you collapse it all the way down. Having more leg segments allows it to squeeze down smaller, but extending them all takes longer, and such setups tend to be a bit less stable. There’s also the matter of how much the tripod weighs, which you’ll be intimately aware of while trekking about with one strapped to your back. Finally, you also have to take into account how much gear a tripod can hold. In general, if you’re shooting with a modern midrange SLR or mirrorless camera, that isn’t too much of a worry—but if you have some heavier stuff around, the total weight is worth keeping in mind. After that comes consideration of the bells and whistles, which vary from model to model. One of my favorite extras is a hook on the base of the main column: Having one there means you can hang weights from it to create extra stability—all the better if the hook retracts when not in use. Also, can the center column do anything beyond moving up and down? Some let you reverse them so that you can flip your camera upside down for shooting near the ground, and others can swing outward to all sorts of wonderful angles. Does the tripod come with a carrying case? What about the feet—can you put spikes on them for unstable situations? Do the legs have foam padding to give you something to grab hold of in the cold? Finally—and this comes down to personal preference—does it have screw or flip locks on the legs? Yes, that’s a stupidly long list of things to keep track of, especially when each tripod maker often has multiple variants with only minor changes between the different models. Luckily, we’re now going to cut out the chaff. The way to go is to pick up the Vanguard Alta Pro 2. AT by itself or in the 2. AB 1. 00 kit with a tripod head. It offers the best bang for your buck, because it has all the features you could look for in a tripod at one of the lowest prices. With the legs fully extended, the Vanguard Alta Pro has a height of 5. It’s a smidgen over 2 feet long when fully collapsed, and it weighs 4. In a field of really good tripods, this Vanguard model manages to tick all the right boxes to win my approval. It has a retractable hook at the bottom for attaching stabilizing weights. The central column easily shifts, so you can remove it and invert it for upside- down work or tilt it to just about any angle within a near- 1. The legs consist of three sections (a design that is generally more stable than a four- section setup) and have feet that you can twist to reveal spikes for working on poor surfaces. If you flatten out the legs entirely, you can work just 6. For comparison, an SLR with a lens probably weighs less than 3 pounds. It also comes with a tripod bag, so you can lug it around with you, and Vanguard covers it with a limited lifetime warranty. Also, it has flip locks for the legs, which is something I prefer, but that’s really a matter of personal taste, if anything; a lot of people don’t care one way or another. Its reception was good enough for it to win the TIPA award for Best Accessory in 2. We found a shortage of reviews from larger publications but encountered a handful of decent reviews from photographers. The people at Camera Dojo praise how easily the user can adjust the center column to different angles, writing, “With one simple movement, you can easily and securely reposition the center column while maintaining it’s stability.” For an idea of how the column adjustment works, check out this photo review at Photography- on- the. In an older review, Kirk Norbury approved of its light weight and the flexibility of the center column, but he dinged it for being a little too long. When the Vanguard Alta Pro series debuted a few years ago, its reception was good enough for it to win the TIPA award for Best Accessory in 2. That’s a fair few years ago now, but tripods age gracefully. In that time we’ve seen no physical damage or performance issues—all of the locks still function well, and the joints move easily. Michael Hession, our photo editor, has been using one at home and one at the office for about a year, too, and they still appear to function perfectly. We feel confident in continuing to recommend the Vanguard Alta Pro as the best tripod for most people. An affordable alternative When you start talking gear for photographers, costs can skyrocket. While a total of about $2. So if you’re trying to keep your costs down, grab the Slik Sprint Pro II with either a ball head or a pan head. This model is much simpler, much lighter, and much less stable than our main pick. It’s rated to hold only about 4 pounds of gear, and I wouldn’t trust it in notably adverse conditions. But Slik is known for making good, affordable, long- lasting tripods. If you can live without the bells and whistles, here’s where you can save money. A tiny tripod If you shoot with a small camera and don’t need anything big, I don’t think I can recommend the Joby Gorilla. Pod strongly enough.
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