- Peak Design Travel Tripod, Carbon Fiber, Compact Design, 20 lb Capacity

This is my second Peak Design Travel Tripod. The first one was apparently so nice that an unnamed TSA agent decided it would be better off in his possession than mine. That said, it was such a well designed tripod that I was willing to purchase a replacement immediately, which says a lot considering the price of this thing. It's not cheap, but its worth the cost to me. First, it's important to understand what this thing really is. It's not the most stable tripod in the work. There are much heavier sturdier tripods that are great for studio work, or if you don't mind lugging something four times heavier around with you. However, I have yet to find anything even close to as sturdy as this item is that is as easy to carry with you, or that is so well designed. This extends all the way down to the travel case for the tripod, which is a little padded fabric sleeve that keeps the tripod protected without adding an ounce more weight than necessary, and has handy attachment points for clipping to whatever other gear you have. Collapsed, the tripod is small and maybe more importantly well balanced. Its not overly top heavy or awkward to carry. It fits in water bottle pockets on backpacks (top will extend out, of course, good to have a strap too). Personally I usually clip it to the bottom of whatever pack I'm using using the reinforced loops on the travel pouch. In use the tripod is great. Its sturdy and very adjustable. Stability is greatly enhanced by hanging your backpack or other item from the hook on the center post, but even without that I had no issues and I use some pretty big lenses. Again, there are sturdier tripods, but this is meant for travel and easy carry, and considering how light it is I'm very impressed with the stability. The swivel mount is also well designed, but be aware it's different from a typical ball-mount tripod head. It has a lot of adjustability, and I really like using it once I got comfortable with it. But I'm not sure it's quite as adjustable as my Sirui. It's possible to mount a third party head on this tripod, but that requires the Universal Head Adapter from Peak Design, an additional purchase. Finally, there are a few additional nice touches with this tripod. It has a built-in mobile phone adapter. Yes, I'm guessing most people buying this tripod have "real" cameras to use with it, but it's a nice touch, and there are some uses for being able to easily mount your phone at times. It also has built in storage for the only tool you need for adjustments, a little allen wrench. The head is reversable, so you can actually mount your camera between the legs to get a really low shot. All in all, it's the best portable tripod I've found, and I've looked around a lot.

I've been using the carbon fiber model of this tripod for about 2 years now. I got it shortly after crushing the leg of my old tripod in a car door. So I recognize that while this tripod sometimes makes me feel like an idiot, I also just may be an idiot. This tripod is light. I didn't think I'd use the shoulder bag, but I almost always pack it in the bag. It deploys super fast. Flip 3 clips and the legs fly out. Camera gets locked in immediately. It's really great. I've used this tripod in variety of spots and it's proven rugged. Everything from forests and mountains in Colorado, to beaches in Portugal. It's weathered a lot of terrain... and weather. The way the camera clips in feels secure. And it's easy to do, even in the dark. It's felt secure and mostly stable. Everything from a small (but still large) 50mm 1.2 to a fully extended 100-500mm. In high winds I get shake at 500mm when filming video... But that's expected. For photos it's been plenty stable. Ok so here is what I hate. I hate closing the clips to secure the legs. 2 out of 10 times I pinch the skin on my hand. The webbing between my thumb and fore finger. I feel like an idiot closing this thing. Because I know it's going to pinch. But I still rush it and feel like an idiot. The amount of mobility of the ballhead sucks when you go vertical. I know you can spin things around a certain way which gives you a full range of motion, but it sucks figuring it out in the dark when you're trying to grab a photo. The fix for this is to buy an L-Bracket for your camera (or use a long lens with a collar and rotate there). My issue is that Peak Design doesn't sell an L-Bracket. So I bought one from a very good company, but still have to alter it slightly and add another Peak Design clip to it so that it still works (with the shoulder strap latch thing). It sucks that the solution isn't all within the Peak family. It also sucks that the ballhead has that funny little hitch. And lastly, the little wrench/hex key holder. It's that little 2 hex key thing that costs $15. Buy extras. I have lost two already because my thumb sometimes hits the bottom of the holder which ejects the hex key from the holder. I'd knocked it out dozens of times, but lost it once on the floor of my studio, and again on the beach in Portugal. I'm holding out hope that the one in my studio is still findable. But the one in Portugal is a piece of treasure you can find if you go barefoot on Nazaré's North Beach. I have hopes that Peak can refine the design so it's not so easy to eject. It's another element that makes me feel like an idiot. And I want my tripod to comfort me and tell me I'm smart. Capable. Not a loser (of hex wrenches). Lastly the phone holder attachment is 100% unnecessary. But I'm still happy it's there. I've used it a grand total of 3 times. And when I did it was a handy solution.

So much neato stuff built into this travel tripod! I travel by motorcycle on camping/photography trips. Have another brand of travel tripod that I've used for several years. But when I saw this tripod and saw how small it is, I just had to pull the trigger and buy it for my next motorcycle camping photography trip. I just returned from the trip. I gotta tell you, this is the epitome of travel tripods. It really is only about 3-1/2" diameter and maybe 15" long. It packs in my saddlebag instead of having to be strapped to the motorcycle. And it's so easy to deploy! I can have it up with camera or spotting scope attached in just a minute. The lever-type binders for the legs make it so easy and quick. I deployed it several times where I might have hesitated or not deployed at all with my other tripod. The tripod is stable enough that I was able to train my 40X spotting scope on Saturn one evening, clearly seeing the rings and the space between the planet and rings. Of course, Saturn moved across the field of view with Earth rotation and without a little cross-hair spotting scope for the big one, it wasn't easy to keep Saturn centered. But that isn't because of the tripod. For wildlife viewing and photography, it was wonderful Who'd have thought about putting an iPhone mount in the center stem? It's there! Didn't need to buy one! The little tool kit kept falling out until I learned that it has a detent if I turn it the right direction before stowing. Then, it's firmly attached. I may buy some of the accessories that Peak Design offers. Gotta sell my other carbon fiber travel tripod first.

So out of the box it's impressive. It's really a sight to behold, and when you have it in your hands you will feel the weight of it and wonder how it feels so well built while having the weight of cheap plastic. It's bold, it's strong, its stable. The cherry on top is how easy it is to use. Setting and resetting your position is so easy. It takes minimal movement. I can go from fully loose, to tightened down without ruining my shot. There's zero sag. When you set it, it stays. I also love how compact it is. Aside from it being as light as a croissant, it's so tiny that it makes storage a breeze. I've tried inside my bag and out. I settled on outside, and thanks to a durable case strap, I can feel confident in the way I mounted it. I couldn't be happier. This is well worth the money.

I have owned many tripods in my 50+ years of photography. There have been many very expensive, top of the line brand name units as well as highly rated light weight units. This one blew my away right out of the box. It was well packaged and it was easy to open the box. Set up was very intuitive (I will read the instructions soon). One can easily extend only as many legs as needed or all of them in one simple motion for each leg. The ball head and camera mount are all made of anodized aluminum and feel very sturdy. mounting my camera was easy, especially because they include a wrench set that tucks away on the inside on any of the upper leg section. I mounted a large medium format camera on it with some trepidation, but alas, it was very secure and feels very stable. The locking feature for the camera mount to the ball head is really a great feature and i feel comfortable mounting the camera and carrying the whole thing on my shoulder. The tripod extension post is skinny, but sturdy - I might not do a long exposure on a windy day with it fully extended, but it makes for very convenient, quick height adjustment for less extreme days. All in all, a great unit and will be my primary tripod from here on.

Great build quality, stability. And flexible design. Great product I would recommend as it is very stable for its size and folds down for travel to a very compact package with a quality protective case.

I’m slowly building my photography interest and had a hard time deciding on a replacement travel tripod. This is my third travel tripod. Lost one and last one broke. I have a Canon R6Mii, and my two biggest lenses are the RF 24-105 and the RF 100-400 w/1.4 converter. I’ve attached two photos showing them. I waited to buy this after building up Amazon points and for the 2024 Black Friday deals. For the most part, I am really pleased with my decision. The tripod is very easy to use and only took me 20 minutes to thoroughly learn the ins and outs of how to use this. I love how compact it is and how it easily fits on the side of my camera backpack. Very lightweight. The bag it comes in is very nice to store this, but I don’t intend to use the bag much at all. I read where, if you buy the pointed feet, it won’t fit in the bag. I can clearly see why as the bag is snug with the rubber feet. For me, the only downside is when I am using my RF 100-400 lens. When I focus on something and tighten the ball head, the camera will sink (or droop) from my intended focal point. I have to visually “calculate” a higher point, tighten the ball head, and then see if the camera stops where I want it to. The few times I’ve used this tripod, I’m getting quite good at this. I’ve ordered an optional bracket that I hope offsets the center point of my set up and elimates the sinking effect. Although the adjustment ability is very easy to do, I’m bummed that I’m experiencing the droop factor. Logically I can see why, but I think my brain looked at the weight limit and never considered that most of the weight is off center. This tripod has a far superior design over my last two attempts, and with that, I’d say I’m getting a far better quality tripod. After going on a hike with a 1000 foot incline, the weight factor of the CF design was a smart choice. For my type and level of photography experience, this appears to be a good value, even at the full price.

If you need a full size tripod that’s relatively “lighter weight” but is ultra compact and able to fit into any and all regular backpacks with ease then it’s probably your best option. For me personally I am not a professional photographer but I take my hobby seriously and have several tripods that ranged in price from $60-$250 with the more expensive version being a traditional ultra sturdy full size tripod. However, the size and weight of the thing made it impossible to pack inside of a regular backpack. Since I wasn’t interested in buying a specialty camera backpack I needed to be able to store it inside of my Lululemon camo backpack for traveling and my Briggs&Riley Backpack that I used for daily business use. For those requirements alone I opted to spring for this tripod and don’t regret it at all. It fits into both backpacks easily and doesn’t take up much room. Based on how heavy-ish the carbon fiber version is and it is relatively heavy I can only imagine just how much more heavy the all aluminum version would have been so I am glad I opted for the more expensive carbon fiber version from the jump. Your situation may differ from mine but it’s the most compact, sturdy, full size tripod I’ve ever used and it fits my needs well. The quality is insanely good and the fit and finish are on the level of the price tag. If you can afford it and justify the cost to portability ratio then I doubt you will have any regrets.

Very impressive tripod, lightweight and well thought out. Highly recommend this if you are doing any travelling.

Vraiment super trépieds

This Peak Design travel tripod exceeded my expectations. I chose the carbon fibre version on a Black Friday sale. It has all the feel of my larger, more cumbersome tripod that will now be relegated to the shelf. It is also solid enough in portrait position that I no longer need an L bracket which is a big plus to me. Reviews of the unique ball head may vary but I find it excellent and easy to position. Lots of flexibility for different heights and the legs are so easy to open and close. Other than a premium price, there is nothing to complain about and lots to love for practical usage. Try to find it on sale for best value but otherwise, it is highly recommended!

Top Stativ das keine Wünsche offen lässt. Kompakt und leicht.

This tripod has been reviewed in minute detail in many reviews. The basic feature important to me is that it takes minimum space in my luggage and weighs a minimum amount for a travel tripod. It supports my Nikon Z7 with 70-200 mm f2.8 lens and all smaller ones easily. The quality is outstanding which matters to me. The ball head is not the best in the world, but doesn’t need to be.