You can’t beat an L-bracket for convenience if you want to shoot in landscape and portrait orientation when using a tripod, while maintaining precisely the same shooting position. An L-bracket also ensures an optimum center of gravity in portrait orientation shooting, rather than your camera hanging off to one side of your tripod head. However, I have a problem. I’m a bit of a camera addict and have quite a few in my current collection. 3 Legged Thing makes dedicated L-brackets for a vast range of specific bodies, but buying an L-bracket for each and every camera would be a costly business.

The original 3 Legged Thing Lexie solved the problem with its universal design. Thanks to easy adjustability, you could tailor it to fit just about any camera in just a couple of minutes. One size really does fit all. I’ve been using one for years and didn’t really think it could be improved upon. I was wrong. The new Lexie QD adds a Quick Detach socket and is an even better fit for the 3 Legged Thing XPAND system, which I’ll come to a bit later. The new Lexie definitely has her eyes on the prize for being one of the best L-brackets on the market, as well as one of the most adaptable and versatile.

3 Legged Thing Lexie QD: Specifications

3 Legged Thing Lexie QD: Price

Everything’s going up in price nowadays, even more so when a ‘new and improved’ replacement comes along. Bucking the trend in a surprisingly budget-friendly move, the new Lexie QD costs $60 / £50 / AU$129. That’s pretty remarkable, considering that the original version of the Lexie universal L-bracket still lists for a more expensive $65 / £60 / AU$138 (although you might be able to pick up one of the last few remaining on special offer if you’re quick). Either way, I reckon the new Lexie QD is excellent value for money, if the features, build quality and performance all hold up. Let’s find out…

3 Legged Thing Lexie QD: Design & Handling

Some people like bright colors; others prefer to go to the dark side. The Lexie QD caters to different tastes, being made in alternative orange and black options. Both are engineered from aerospace-grade magnesium alloy, with stainless steel QD sockets and screws, and anodized in their respective colors. Naturally, the different colorways match up with 3 Legged Thing’s tripods, monopods, heads, and other accessories in its extensive catalog.

The base plate is where all of the new design work and re-engineering is focused. Instead of having a strap loop at one end, the new plate features an XPAND Triple Axis Slot instead, plus a new QD socket in its main body. More on those later.

As far as I can tell, the upright plate is identical to that of the original Lexie, which is no bad thing. It has a similar connection system to the one featured at the outer end of the base plate, but placed at both the top and the bottom of the upright. There’s also a cutout on one side for cable management. Continuing the ‘universal’ theme of the L-bracket, you can position the cutout in any of four different placements, tailoring it for the best fit.

To adjust the length of the base plate to suit your camera and to connect the base plate and upright together, there are two different sizes of hex-head screws. A third size is used for the camera mounting screw. My only slight niggle is that while 3 Legged Thing supplies a neat dual-size hex key in the kit, there’s also a separate, more basic hex key in the pack for adjusting the length of the base plate. Naturally, this means carrying an extra hex key around with you if you need to alter the base plate length for a different camera. I’d have preferred to see the smart 3 Legged Thing Toolz2 included in the kit, which features all three sizes of 4mm, 3mm, and 2.5mm hex keys, plus a coin key, bottle opener, and both carabiner and keyring attachments. It’s a great little gadget, well worth the extra $8 / £8 / AU$11 to buy it separately.

Crucially, the base plate and upright join together with a really firm and secure fit, so there’s no hint of wobbling or unsteadiness. In the shortest configuration of the base plate, the upright fits flush to one side, as shown in the image below.

To ensure universal appeal, the extendable inner part of the base plate has no fewer than seven alternative screw holes. You can rest assured that it won’t pull out too far and drop off when making adjustments, thanks to two additional safety screws that you can see in the following image.

Whereas the base plate of the original Lexie had two slots for securing a camera, the QD edition has just one. That certainly shouldn’t be a problem and, again, it comes with a stainless steel ‘Stagsden’ camera mounting screw (Stagsden being the historic home village of 3 legged Thing in the UK). The screw can be fastened with either a coin key or a hex key, but there’s no D-ring for just using a finger and thumb.

Shown just next to my thumb in the image below is the new stainless steel QD (Quick Detach) socket. If the system is new to you, it’s a type of quick and easy yet extremely secure fixing that’s used by an increasing number of companies (including NASA, for securing cargo on space rockets). A simple press of a button is all you need to release whatever’s plugged into the socket.

A good choice for the socket in the base plate is one of the 3 Legged Thing Axis camera straps, which include neck, crossbody, harness, wrist, and backpack options. This enables you to quickly and easily swap between shooting handheld with a neck strap or wrist strap, or removing the strap so that it doesn’t dangle down when mounting the L-bracket on a tripod or other support.

With the base plate and upright joined together, there are XPAND Triple Axis Slots at both free ends of the L-bracket, as shown in the image below. These are fully compatible with the 3 Legged Thing XPAND system. If you need an introduction, it’s a system that features cheese plates, risers, and other magnesium alloy components, so that you can build your own fully customized cage or rig. It’s a bit like Meccano for camera supports. The base plate and upright also feature additional 1/4-inch threaded sockets for attaching the likes of magic arms, LED lamps, mics, and other accessories.

By way of example, when I used the Lexie QD with my Sony A7 III camera, I extended the sliding inner part of the base plate so that the third threaded socket was used for locking the upright in place. You’ll notice this in the image below, which also shows the two 1/4-inch threaded sockets for attaching accessories.

A problem when using any L-bracket is that the various connectivity ports of your camera can become inaccessible because they’re obscured by the upright’s metalwork. With so many different makes and models of cameras on the market, this can be more of a problem with a ‘universal’ L-bracket that isn’t designed for a specific body. However, I found that all of the ports of my Sony camera were accessible, and that I could open and close the weather flaps with the camera fixed to the L-bracket.

The final item in the kit of parts is a drawstring pouch. It’s nicely made, bears the 3 Legged Thing logo, and is useful for stashing the L-bracket and its incumbent tools when they’re not in use.

3 Legged Thing Lexie QD: Performance

I’ve always been impressed by 3 Legged Thing’s dedicated L-brackets. Designed for use on specific camera bodies, they’re made from a single piece of magnesium alloy. As such, there are no separate parts with joints between them that are potential weak points. These dedicated L-brackets are wonderfully rigid and inflexible.

My worry with the Lexie QD is that it’s basically two separate plates joined together. Actually, make that three plates if you include the sliding inner part of the base plate, which enables the ‘universal’ fit. My concerns turned out to be unfounded, as I found that the Lexie QD remained incredibly robust and resistant to any unwanted flexing or twisting when assembled and in use.

Any weakness or wobble in the joints becomes more apparent when shooting in portrait orientation rather than landscape orientation. In this configuration, the upright is mounted on the tripod, and the camera is still mounted to the base plate, putting more stress on the joint that connects everything. Throughout my extensive testing with different camera models and different sizes and weights of attached lenses, I found that the Lexie QD remained absolutely stable and rigid.

Finally, the Arca-Swiss profile of both the base plate and upright enables quick and easy swapping between portrait- and landscape-orientation shooting, as well as maintaining an ideal balance. And that’s really the main point of an L-bracket, after all.

3 Legged Thing Lexie QD: Verdict

In the land of L-brackets, I think that Lexie QD is the reigning queen of versatility. It’s not just that the new 3 Legged Thing bracket is universal and able to quickly and easily adapt to fit almost any camera. And it’s not just that the Lexie QD combines effortless adaptability with rock-solid support and robust, rigid performance that never falters or flexes. The upgrades that elevate the QD edition above the original version are that versatility is taken to new dimensions.

First up, the addition of a QD (Quick Detach) socket makes it effortless to swap between tripod-mounted shooting in either landscape or portrait orientation, and handheld shooting with the security of a 3 Legged Thing Axis camera strap that simply plugs into the QD socket. You can also add other compatible accessories to the QD socket, and it’s equally quick and easy to detach them again, as its name implies.

Secondly, there’s also enhanced compatibility with the 3 Legged Thing XPAND system, going a fair way beyond what was possible with the original version of the L-bracket. That’s thanks to XPAND Triple Axis Slots being featured on the spare end of the base plate, instead of just on both ends of the upright. To seal the deal, the Lexie QD costs even less to buy than the original, making it great value for money.

Alternatives

Tether Tools has released two new storage products designed for a rather unusual location: the space between the legs of a tripod. These 'tripod hammocks' turn what would otherwise be dead space into somewhere to place frequently used gear, keeping it safe, off the ground, and easily accessible during a shoot.

Two hammock versions are available: the Tripod Hammock Sport, and the Tripod Hammock Multi-Pro.

Tripod Hammock Multi-Pro

Priced at $99.99, this is the premium offering. It serves not just as a temporary open storage hammock, but can also be zipped up and transported as an enclosed triangular kit bag. Inside are three segments, separated by removable padded dividers. Within each section are three removable pouches, each large enough to fit a small lens, or other accessories like batteries, filters, or cables. Around the edge of the main hammock unit you'll also find multiple exterior quick-access pockets ideal for memory cards.

The Tripod Hammock Multi-Pro is suspended from a tripod's legs using a magnetic quick-connect system that holds securely but is still easy to attach and remove. This enables rapid setup and teardown, after which the hammock can be zipped closed and moved using the integrated carry handle, or attached to a backpack. A durable, weather-resistant rip-stop construction keeps the hammock usable in inclement conditions.

Tripod Hammock Sport

If you like the idea of having a convenient place to put gear during a shoot, but don't need the enclosed storage design of the Tripod Hammock Multi-Pro, then the Tripod Hammock Sport is for you. It's priced at $49.99, and does away with the closable top of the Multi-Pro, as well as its interior dividers and three separate storage pouches. Instead you get a single open area to temporarily place frequently used gear, though there are small, quick-access pockets on the side where you can keep smaller items. Thanks to its more minimalist design, the Sport is able to fold small for compact transportation, but still features a protective PU coating and a tear-resistant design for enhanced durability and weather resistance.

Both the Tripod Hammock Sport, and the Tripod Hammock Multi-Pro are available to buy now from B&H.

Vanguard and I go back a long way. I’ve been testing and reviewing its kit for the last 20 years or so, and have generally been very impressed along the way. If you’re not so familiar, allow me to make the introductions… Vanguard is a global company with headquarters in Myanmar and branches in many countries around the world. It’s been making high-quality tripods and other photographic accessories, as well as the likes of binoculars, spotting scopes, backpacks, and gadget bags, building up an extensive catalog over the last 40 years or so.

Although Vanguard has a very diverse range of products, it’s always tripods that first spring to mind when I think of the company. The Veo 5 264CO is a case in point, but unlike most of the range, it’s designed for spotting scopes rather than for photography or videography. As such, it’s geared towards high-magnification scopes that you might use for birdwatching, wildlife and nature, target sports and hunting, surveillance and tactical use, and even for astronomy. With its upmarket carbon fiber build and 2-way pan head, the Veo 5 264CO kit aims to be one of the best spotting scope tripods on the market.

Vanguard Veo 5 264CO: Specifications

Vanguard Veo 5 264CO: Price

The Vanguard Veo 5 264CO sells for around $399 / £280 / AU$399. As a premium carbon fiber full kit, that’s pretty reasonable compared with another of the favorite luxury kits, featured in our best spotting scope tripods buying guide. That’s the 3 Legged Thing Winston 2.0 Kit, which costs around $499 / £339 / AU$629. For my money, the Winston is more of a photographic tripod anyway, and its ball head is less ideal for spotting scopes.

If the Vanguard carbon fiber kit is beyond your budget, there’s a more ‘affordable’ Vanguard Veo 5 264AO aluminum version that costs rather less to buy, at around $349 / £220 / AU$299.

Vanguard Veo 5 264CO: Design & Handling

Even the very best spotting scopes don’t tend to be particularly weighty, unlike a camera fitted with a monster telephoto lens. Nearly all of the scopes I can think of weigh less than 2kg / 4.4lb, most are 1kg / 2.2lb or less, and some only weigh about 0.5kg or about a pound. Suffice it to say that you don’t need a tripod with a mighty maximum payload rating. Some photographic tripods, like the Winston 2.0 that I mentioned earlier, have a 40kg / 88lb payload rating, which is frankly overkill for a spotting scope.

You might think that the 8kg / 17lb payload rating of the Veo 5 that I’m reviewing here is much more than you need. However, I wouldn’t go too flimsy. Due to the high-power magnification of spotting scopes, you still need a tripod that’s going to be rigid and resistant to vibrations, which can be hugely magnified when you look through the eyepiece. The extra payload rating also gives you scope, so to speak, to add ballast, which can steady the tripod in windy conditions.

Sturdiness is enhanced by Vanguard’s decision to use a fairly chunky outer leg section with a diameter of 26mm. I think that’s a good compromise between sturdiness and not making the tripod too heavy to carry out in the wild. A little bonus is that one of the upper sections also features a rubber comfort pad, often omitted in carbon fiber rather than aluminum tripods. It not only makes the tripod more comfortable to carry, but also makes it feel less slippery in wet weather.

Extending the legs a little, I measured off the four sections at 26, 23, 20, and 17mm, working my way down to the bottom. Again, I think the choice of four sections per leg is ideal. It enables a fairly compact carrying size as well as a fairly generous maximum operating height. Most spotting scopes have a 45-degree angled eyepiece, so you don’t generally need a tripod to be overly tall. The Veo 5’s maximum of 167cm / 66in should more than suffice.

It’s tempting for manufacturers to include five sections in each leg, which are often featured in some of the best travel tripods, where a small folded size can be a prime consideration. I’m glad that Vanguard resisted the urge when designing this spotting scope tripod, for two reasons. Firstly, the total of 12 section clamps in 5-section tripods adds to the time and effort required for setup and takedown. Secondly, the bottom leg sections often end up being thin and spindly, lacking rigidity and robustness.

For speed and ease of use, I favor twist locks rather than flip locks, especially if they operate with minimal rotation for loosening and clamping. The twist locks featured here are designed to do just that, while being silent in operation, which can be important in the context of birding and wildlife. Moreover, the twist locks are designed to be easy to clean, so you can venture out into the mucky outdoors without being too precious about your tripod.

There are three different locking leg angles on offer: 23, 50, and 80 degrees. I really like the simple pushbutton mechanism for selecting different angles, and that you don’t need to swing them all the way up and then come down again in increments to complete the process. It’s another factor that makes the Veo 5 quick to adjust without any unwanted, audible clicks.

I’ve started to notice some manufacturers making triangular-profile center columns. This tends to enable a space-saving design, with the legs fitting more snugly around the column. In this case, Vanguard has opted for a hexagonal center column. Again, it can save a little space, but it also ensures that you can remove the center column and slot it directly into a traditional clamp, if one is available in a birding/wildlife hide. For adding stability when the center column is back in the tripod, there’s a weight hook at the bottom for adding ballast.

The ability to invert the center column is of little benefit when using a spotting scope. Of much greater value, you can split the column into two separate sections. This leaves a relatively short, stubby section at the top, so you can splay the legs and achieve an ultra-low viewing position with your spotting scope the right way up.

To ensure a firm footing on any type of surface, the tripod feet are made from rubber pads with retractable metal spikes. I’d use the rubber pads on most surfaces, but the metal spikes can give greater stability on very soft or loose ground.

On two sides of the canopy that connects the three legs together up top, there are sockets with standard 3/8in threads. You can use these to add accessories with or without magic arms for greater control over positioning. If you need a 1/4in thread instead, you can simply use a 3/8in to 1/4in adapter. Another bonus is that the sockets include bayonet slots on either side, which work with compatible accessories to avoid any unwanted twisting when fitted.

Also on the canopy is a bubble level that aids in easy leveling of the legs. If you switch from your spotting scope to using a camera for shooting stills or video, this helps to ensure that your horizon stays level in the shot if you start panning.

Moving up to the head, the kit comes with Vanguard’s VEO PH-28 2-Way Pan Head. It’s specially made for spotting scopes, with smooth panning and tilting being core design criteria. As such, it can rotate through a full 360 degrees, while also offering a tilt range of 91 degrees forward and 30 degrees backwards. Also available to buy separately, the head typically costs around $100 / £120 / AU$179 on its own.

I like that the panning handle has a retractable design and that a simple twist is all that’s needed to lock or release both the tilt and panning movements. As such, it offers a completely one-handed operation of the head, leaving your other hand free to adjust magnification and focusing controls on the spotting scope.

The head’s scope platform has an Arca-Swiss profile and comes complete with a spring-loaded safety locking pin and bubble level. The locking pin stops the quick-release plate from accidentally sliding out if the clamp becomes loose. It’s handy that if your spotting scope has an Arca-Swiss mounting plate, you can slot it straight into the platform without the need to use the supplied quick-release plate, thus taking an extra component out of the equation.

The quick-release plate is pretty standard Arca-Swiss fare and has a 1/4in treaded screw for attachment to your spotting scope or camera. You can tighten and loosen the screw with the supplied Allen key, a flat blade or coin, or by using the incorporated swiveling D-ring. Not relying on the tightness of its fit alone, the QR plate also features a spring-loaded pin that pushes up into a socket on compatible spotting scope mounting plates, ensuring that there’s no unwanted twisting when the scope is attached.

An Allen key is supplied with the kit and, unusually, it has a smaller profile at its end. This enables engagement with smaller and larger Allen screw heads with a single key. The smaller fitment is ideal for loosening or tightening the locking screws for splitting and rejoining the two-part center column. A screw-in blanking plug is also supplied for use with the upper part of the center column, once it’s been split into two.

Unlike some tripod manufacturers, Vanguard generally supplies a carrying bag with its kits, and this one’s no exception. The high-quality, stylishly designed padded carrying case features a main internal compartment for the tripod, plus an additional lengthy internal zippered compartment for accessories.

One minor niggle is that the tripod doesn’t fully fit into the bag with its panning handle attached, so you’ll need to remove this first, stash it in the bag, and reattach it to the tripod every time you pack it away and get it out again. However, thanks to the bag’s 2-way wraparound zipper, there’s the alternative of stowing the tripod with the handle sticking out through a small gap. The bag also features both a padded Velcro-closing pair of handles and an adjustable padded shoulder strap.

Vanguard Veo 5 264CO: Performance

An important performance factor for any tripod is that it’s sufficiently compact, lightweight, and easy to live with, so that you’ll actually take it along for the journey rather than leaving it at home. The Vanguard completely succeeds in this respect, while also being robust and sturdy, and achieving a generous maximum operating height.

A fairly short tripod setup can often be problematic, as the feet end up covering a relatively small area on the ground, making the tripod prone to toppling over if accidentally nudged, or in windy conditions. The Vanguard’s multi-angle legs are a big help in this respect, as you can splay them a little to massively enhance stability, as well as work around obstacles or on tricky terrain, which you might often encounter when using a spotting scope in the great outdoors.

As I’ve mentioned, the maximum operating height with the center column extended is 167cm / 66in. I’m a fairly tall 6ft 5in, but found the maximum height more than sufficient for using my spotting scope. Like most of its breed, my spotting scope has a 45-degree angled eyepiece, which effectively reduces the operating height. And even if your scope has a straight-mounted eyepiece, you shouldn’t have any problems with the tripod’s maximum operating height. I’m also impressed that the tripod remains rigid and very resistant to flexing, right up to and including its loftiest setting.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, or at least of the height range, the tripod can go really low. This can be useful if you’re trying to keep out of sight, or if there’s an elevated rocky ledge or something similar on which you’re placing the tripod. It only takes a moment to split the center column in two, after which you can just use the stubby top section to enable ultra-low-level operation, as shown below.

The tripod won me over with the intuitive elegance of its controls and its ease of use. The twist-locks for the legs work with minimal rotation, enabling smooth adjustments and solid clamping in equal measure. Importantly for wildlife scenarios, you can also make adjustments in virtual silence. The same goes for the 2-way pan head, which delivers a smooth, fluid feel for panning and tilting. The extending/retracting nature of the handle is a further bonus, enabling variable torque and tactile feedback. And finally, the dual rubber pad/metal spiked feet help to give an assured footing on virtually any surface.

Vanguard Veo 5 264CO: Verdict

The Vanguard Veo 5 264CO is everything I need and want from a spotting scope tripod, and more. When I’m taking my scope off the beaten track and into the wilds, often negotiating tricky terrain along the way, I don’t want a tripod that’s heavy, cumbersome, and awkward. The Veo 5 shrinks down pretty small when folded and is refreshingly lightweight to carry, so that’s the first box on the wish list ticked off.

On the other hand, I don’t want a lightweight tripod that’s flimsy and wobbles around in the breeze. Any movement is massively magnified when looking through a high-powered spotting scope, so rigidity is essential. The Veo 5 succeeds here as well, with a robust carbon fiber build and excellent resistance to flexing and vibration, right up to its maximum operating height with the center column fully extended. Speaking of which, you can also split the center column for ultra-low-level operation, while the multi-angle legs adapt to pretty much any situation.

Last but not least, the 2-way pan head works with smooth simplicity, enabling a fluid range of tilt and panning movements, while also locking off firmly. And it does this with a single do-it-all, retractable panning handle, leaving my other hand free for adjusting the magnification and focus setting of my scope. The Vanguard kit certainly isn’t cheap, but I think it’s perfect for the job.

Alternatives

Based in China and operating in more than 40 countries around the world, Leofoto was founded in 2014. It’s come a long way since then, and its name has become synonymous with luxurious, pro-grade photographic supports and military-grade tactical gear, all at very reasonable prices. I was certainly very impressed last year when I extensively tested and reviewed a whole bunch of Leofoto kit, including the Leofoto Ranger LS-365C tripod legs, Leofoto LH-36LR Ball Head, Leofoto VH-30R Two-Way Head, Leofoto G2 Geared Pan Head and Leofoto PG-1 Gimbal Head.

The Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40 tripod kit is a relatively new addition to the line-up. It’s tall and robust enough to qualify as a full-sized tripod, yet folds down small with swing-up legs, more typical of modern travel tripods. It has an impressive carbon fiber construction and comes complete with a ball head that costs almost as much as the full kit if you buy it on its own. All in all, the kit is a contender as one of the best tripods for photographers, one of the best carbon fiber tripods, and maybe even one of the best travel tripods.

Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40: Specifications

Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40: Price

I’ve previously seen recommended retail prices for the Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40 tripod kit quoted as $325 / £250 / AU$567. At the time of writing this review, however, they’ve dropped to just $225 / £175 / AU$425, the British price being confirmed by Leofoto’s official UK distributor. That’s pretty remarkable considering that the NB-40 Professional Ball Head on its own sells for around $179 / £170 / AU$269, just £5 less in the UK.

The closest equivalent I can think of in terms of design, being a robust, full-sized carbon fiber tripod kit with travel-friendly swing-up legs and a ball head, is the 3 Legged Thing Winston 2.0 Kit, which costs around $499 / £339 / AU$629. That’s about twice the price in the USA and UK, and around 50 per cent more in Australia. That said, the Winston is taller and has a much beefier 40kg / 88lb payload rating. Anyway, let’s see what you actually get for your money.

Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40: Design & Handling

The design of this tripod kit has me in a bit of a quandary. I can’t quite decide whether it’s a full-sized tripod for photographers, a travel tripod courtesy of its reverse-folding legs, or a tripod for hybrid shooters thanks to the dual-panning mechanism in its head. Ultimately, I think it’s designed to fit the bill for all of these scenarios, as well as enrolling for a bit of monopod duty on the side.

Bridging the gap between big tripods that often seem too large to take along for the journey and lightweight travel tripods that seem too flimsy, I think the Leofoto is an ideal compromise. It has 4-section legs, which enables a smaller stowage height (especially as they’re reversible), whereas 3-section legs tend to remain quite tall when folded, and 5-section legs often have very thin and spindly bottom sections. The net result is that the Leofoto uses chunky 28mm diameter outer sections that enable a strong 15kg / 33lb payload rating, along with an easily manageable carrying weight of 2.2kg / 4.9lb for the complete kit.

I usually prefer twist-action leg section locks to flip locks, but only if they require minimal rotation to loosen the sections and lock them again firmly in place. Most manufacturers have become very good at this, but the twist locks featured in the Leofoto are among the easiest to use that I’ve ever encountered.

One thing I always look for in a tripod is multi-angle legs. Typically, you get three lockable leg angles, and it can be a massive help when you’re working on tricky, uneven terrain or trying to cope with obstacles that you can’t move out of the way. Splaying the legs a little also gives a more stable support when you’re shooting from a fairly short height. The Leofoto obliges, with 3-angle legs and again, the mechanism for adjusting the angles is particularly quick, easy, and intuitive to use.

The center column works with similar simplicity to the other features I’ve mentioned so far. That’s just as well, as you need to extend it fully each time you fold the tripod if you want to take advantage of the reverse-folding leg action for compact stowage. To lock or loosen the center column, there’s a large rubber twist-lock just above the tripod platform, which looks similar to the twist-locks for the leg sections and works just as efficiently.

At the bottom of the center column, there’s a large weight hook. You can use this for adding ballast, which can help steady the tripod in windy outdoor weather conditions. Unlike some tripods, the Leofoto lacks a splittable center column, so you can’t turn it into a short stubby column for ultra-low-level shooting. Instead, you’ll need to unscrew the weight hook, remove the center column, invert it, and refit it. That’s all well and good if you don’t mind shooting with your camera upside down, which is less than ideal for stills and a bit of a non-starter for shooting video.

As well as inverting the center column, there’s another good reason for removing it. One of the legs (the one with the silica comfort padding, shown in the image above) unscrews from the canopy. You can then attach the top of the leg to the bottom of the removed center column, and you’ll be rewarded with a full-featured monopod. Another option is that you can remove the leg and turn the tripod into a bipod for use as a tactical support. And to keep a firm footing on any terrain, you can also unscrew the rubber pads that act as feet and replace them with stainless steel metal spikes, supplied as part of the kit.

Up on top, the kit features the Leofoto NB-40 Professional Ball Head. It’s such a seriously good head that I’d consider buying it on its own and, as I’ve mentioned, it doesn’t come cheap. It has a 51mm diameter base and 95mm height, and ensures smooth action with a large-diameter, precision-engineered 40mm ball. In fact, it has a really heavy-duty payload rating of 25kg / 55lb, far exceeding that of the tripod legs.

The head backs up its hefty payload rating with an adjustable friction damper, built into the main lock/release knob. It’s a useful addition that enables you to tailor the action of the ball head to anything from a lightweight compact camera to a pro-sized camera body with a monster telephoto lens attached. As usual, the ball joint features a cutout so that you can shoot in portrait as well as landscape orientation without needing to use an L-bracket, as well as shooting vertically upwards or downwards.

One of the smartest things about the head is that it has two panning mechanisms, which is great news for videographers, or if you want to shoot a sequence of panned stills to stitch into a panorama. The regular bottom panning mechanism works just fine if your legs are perfectly level, but that can be a chore if you’re working on uneven ground. However, if they’re not absolutely level and you’ve compensated by tilting the head, your horizon will go on the skew as soon as you start panning. This is where the secondary, upper panning mechanism comes into play, as it only requires that you level the ball head and not the legs as well.

A further leveling aid is that a bubble level is built into the Arca-Swiss compatible camera platform. It’s nice to have, but unfortunately it’s obscured when you fit the quick-release plate into the platform. The upshot is that you need to remove your camera from the tripod every time you want to use the bubble level. To be honest, though, I tend to use the virtual horizon that is featured in most cameras nowadays, which is more accurate and easier to work with.

The quick-release plate itself is another trick bit of kit. It has the usual Arca-Swiss profile but goes further by adding a strap loop and an adjustable bracket. The latter is particularly useful, as it can help to lock your camera in place on the QR plate and ensure there’s no accidental twisting.

Further reinforcing the tripod’s suitability as a travel buddy, it comes complete with a smart padded bag, similar to the one shown below. And you can also pack the metal spikes and crafty little multi-tool into the bag. The multi-tool itself is very similar to one that I use from 3 Legged Thing, and includes a flat blade, various sizes of Allen keys, a carabiner hook, and a bottle opener.

Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40: Performance

No matter how big or small, heavy or lightweight a tripod happens to be, rigidity is always a key factor. The Leofoto impressed me from the get-go, delivering rock-solid support that’s very resistant to unwanted flexing and vibrations. Moreover, its section locks, leg angle locks, and ball head are all brilliantly designed and excellently engineered, making them a joy to use.

I don’t usually like reverse-folding legs that are featured in most travel tripods these days, as they require more time and effort in setting up the tripod and folding it down again afterwards. However, the Leofoto proves that the configuration can be quick, easy, and highly effective.

The 4-section legs and full-height center column enable the tripod to stretch from its folded height of a very travel-friendly 50.5cm / 19.9in to a lofty maximum operating height of 169cm / 66.5in. Sure, the Leofoto isn’t the tallest tripod in the world, but I’m 6ft 5in and I found it perfectly tall enough for me to use without stooping, when putting my eye to the camera’s viewfinder. More importantly, the tripod’s rigidity and resistance to flexing and vibration remain excellent even with all of the leg sections and the center column fully extended.

While the tripod is perfectly tall enough as far as I’m concerned, the minimum operating height is rather too tall for my liking. Leofoto quotes it as being just 21.5cm / 8.5 in, but it's more like 49.5cm / 19.5in by my reckoning (and measuring). Sure, you can invert the center column and go right down to ground level, but do you really want to shoot out from between two of the legs with your camera upside down? I’d have liked to see a splitable center column, or a short stubby low-level adapter supplied in the kit, to enable ultra-low-level shooting with my camera the right way up.

Back on the plus side, it’s quick and easy to unscrew one of the legs and attach it to the removed center column for monopod duty. It’s easy to remember which leg it is that unscrews, because it’s the one with the silica comfort padding on it. And in terms of performance, the Leofoto works every bit as well as a monopod or bipod, as it does as a tripod.

To cap everything off, the Leofoto NB-40 Professional Ball Head that’s supplied as part of the kit is an absolute peach. The ball mechanism works a treat with its adjustable friction damper, while the dual panning mechanisms pay dividends for stills, even more so for shooting video. And as with the tripod legs, all of the adjustments are quick, easy, and intuitive.

Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40: Verdict

The Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40 tripod kit has really won me over. It’s a luxurious, high-quality 10-layer carbon fiber tripod that’s easily tall enough for me (and I’m pretty tall) yet folds down to very travel-friendly dimensions. The chunky leg sections enable superb performance with excellent resistance to flexing and vibrations, and yet the tripod feels lightweight to carry around in its smart padded bag.

The only thing I can’t decide on is whether I prefer the ‘professional’ ball head with its dual additional panning mechanisms, or the tripod legs themselves, which also convert into a useful monopod or bipod. One thing’s for sure though… the head and legs combine to make a pretty epic kit. My only slight niggles are that there’s no ultra-low-level adapter for the legs and the head’s bubble level is obscured by the QR plate.

The bottom line, in the UK at least, is that the entire kit of legs, head and accessories, all wrapped up in a padded bag, costs barely any more than the head on its own. It feels a bit like a ‘buy one get one free’ deal in the UK, and it’s also standout value for money around the world.

Alternatives

What’s in a name? Poseidon is well known as the Ancient Greek god of the sea, although it’s perhaps not such common knowledge that earthquakes, storms, and horses also fell under his remit. The Leofoto Poseidon tripod is well named, being a waterproof and corrosion-resistant tripod, taking saltwater, stormy rainfall, and muddy puddles in its stride. I’m not so sure about earthquakes and equines.

I’m no stranger to Leofoto, having reviewed a bunch of the company’s products last year, including the Leofoto Ranger LS-365C tripod legs, Leofoto LH-36LR Ball Head, Leofoto VH-30R Two-Way Head, Leofoto G2 Geared Pan Head and Leofoto PG-1 Gimbal Head. A common theme is that the Chinese company makes high-end and fully pro-grade tripods, heads, and photographic accessories, as well as military-grade tactical equipment.

The Poseidon tripod kit that I’m reviewing here is a very sturdy carbon fiber model, while also packing down pretty small. It’s refreshingly lightweight to carry as well. All in all, it aims to be one of the best tripods for photographers, one of the best carbon fiber tripods, one of the best travel tripods, and definitely one of the few waterproof tripods on the market.

Leofoto Poseidon Ocean LP-284C + LH-30: Specifications

Leofoto Poseidon Ocean LP-284C + LH-30: Price

There’s a fair bit of work and some exotic materials that go into making a truly waterproof tripod, and that’s reflected in the list price of $499 / £369 / AU$825. On the plus side, the Poseidon kit is often discounted in various markets around the world, making it a little more affordable for many of us.

Even so, the Poseidon unsurprisingly costs a fair bit more than another Leofoto carbon fiber tripod kit with a professional ball head that I’ve just reviewed. The Leofoto Armour LN-284CT + NB-40 tripod kit isn’t waterproof but does convert into a classy monopod, and is particularly good value at just $225 / £175 / AU$425.

Leofoto Poseidon Ocean LP-284C + LH-30: Design & Handling

The Leofoto Poseidon Ocean LP-284C that I’m reviewing here is the smaller of two sets of legs in the range, the alternative LP-324C being taller, heavier, and having thicker leg sections. That one’s also available with three different heads in a variety of kits, whereas the LP-284C is only sold with the LH-30 ball head – and there’s nothing wrong with that, as I’ll come to later. Apart from differences in size and weight, both sets of legs are essentially the same, made from high-quality 10-layer carbon fiber.

The decision to make the tripod with 4-section legs is a good one as far as I’m concerned. It enables a more compact stowage size than 3-section legs, whereas ‘travel tripods’ with 5-section legs often have thin and spindly bottom sections, which can impair rigidity and robustness. The payload rating of the tripod is 10kg / 22lb, whereas it’s 15kg / 33lb for the larger model.

The twist locks are designed to be ‘maintenance-free’ so that you don’t need to take them apart and clean them. They feature additional seals to keep out water, sand, and dust, being a critical component of the ‘waterproof’ design. Even so, Leofoto says that it can’t absolutely guarantee that no water at all will get into the tubing. The twist locks work really well in practice, requiring minimal rotation to loosen the leg sections so that they extend and contract smoothly, and the same goes for tightening the locks again afterwards.

At the top of each leg is a latch for selecting any of three alternative leg angles. Again, they work with simple efficiency. You simply pull the latch out, rotate the leg to the desired angle, then push the latch back in again. Many tripods feature spring-loaded latches for this, but the ones featured here work equally well.

Moving up top to the canopy, it has a noticeably slim design. That’s because the tripod has no center column, which I think is both good and bad. It’s good in that the folded diameter of the tripod is very slim and compact, while also enabling easy ultra-low-level shooting without a center column getting in the way. Conversely, it’s bad that you can’t further extend the maximum operating height, which is limited to a rather modest 129cm / 50.8in. There’s also no option to unscrew any of the legs and use it with or without a center column as a monopod.

The underside of the canopy again reveals the hollowed-out design, and instead of a center column, you get a socket with a standard 1/4-inch thread. A typical use for this is to screw in the weight hook that’s supplied with the tripod. Adding ballast can steady the tripod if you’re using it outdoors in windy conditions. I’m thinking it would have the opposite effect completely if the tripod were submerged in wavy conditions!

As well as the underlying weight hook, the canopy features a 3/8-inch threaded socket on the side. This can be useful for adding a magic arm and/or accessories like an LED lamp, microphone, monitor screen or smartphone. If you need a 1/4-inch socket instead, you can simply use a 3/8 to 1/4 inch adapter.

The feet supplied with the tripod look like regular rubber pads, but they’re more specialized in that the metal parts of the assembly are made from titanium rather than stainless steel or aluminum. This makes them more resistant to corrosion from saltwater, and they also feature rubber waterproofing O-rings.

If spikes are a better option than rubber pads (when standing the tripod on loose sand on a beach, for example), the kit comes complete with screw-in metal spikes, which you can substitute for the rubber pads. Again, they’re made from anti-corrosion titanium rather than aluminum or stainless steel.

The LH-30 ball head is simple but effective and very nicely made. It has a 47mm diameter base and is classed by Leofoto as one of their ‘low-profile’ ball heads, having a height of 74mm. It’s based on a 30mm precision-engineered ball that enables smooth and precise adjustments.

The main ball joint lock/release lever has a nice, tactile feel to it. It’s spring-loaded and mounted on splines so that you can pull out the lever on its shaft and rotate it to a more convenient angle, if necessary.

As well as the main ball and socket arrangement, there’s a separate panning release/lock. This can come in useful if you want to pan your camera to shoot either stills or video while the main ball joint remains locked in place.

The camera platform is Arca-Swiss compatible and comes complete with a like-minded quick-release plate. The platform also features a bubble level, and unlike those that I’ve seen in some Leofoto heads, it’s clearly visible at all times instead of being buried under the quick-release plate when you mount your camera on the tripod.

Extras included in the kit comprise a set of three titanium foot spikes, three Allen keys, a screw-in carabiner weight hook, and a multi-tool. The multi-tool itself includes a flat blade, Allen keys of three different sizes, a keyring attachment and carabiner, and even a bottle opener. The seaworthy tripod and all of its crew are wrapped up for the voyage in a high-quality padded carrying bag.

Leofoto Poseidon Ocean LP-284C + LH-30: Performance

The tripod folds down nice and small and feels very lightweight for carrying around, which I’d call a performance benefit of sorts. After all, big, heavy tripods are often left at home, where they’re of no use at all. Unlike most modern travel tripods (not that it claims to be one), the Poseidon doesn’t have swing-up or ‘reverse-folding’ legs that surround the center column. That’s no surprise as it doesn’t actually have a center column anyway. Again, there’s a performance plus point here, in that the tripod is extremely quick and easy to set up.

Speed and ease of adjustment as well as setup are further boosted by the action of the twist locks for the leg sections. They require minimal rotation for unlocking and locking the sections, and you can easily grasp all three locks for each leg and operate them with one hand, in one gesture, when the leg sections are contracted.

When shooting at a fairly short height, the multi-angle legs enable a wider circumference for the placement of the feet. This makes the tripod more secure and less likely to topple over if accidentally knocked or in windy weather. It also adds resilience against being toppled by waves or underwater currents, given the Poseidon’s watery nature. With that in mind, I used the tripod extensively with it submerged in water, and it didn’t suffer any seepage into the twist locks or into any of the tubular leg sections.

The maximum operating height of 129cm / 50.8in can frankly feel a little disappointing. However, you could argue that the tripod is geared more to towards contending with watery depths than rising high above the land. Either way, the tripod remains sturdy and is impressively resistant to unwanted flexing and vibrations, right up to and including its maximum height.

You can split the center columns in some tripods that actually have a center column, or substitute them with a low-angle adaptor. There’s no need in this case, as the Poseidon’s multi-angle legs enable ultra-low-level shooting with no center column to get in the way. Naturally, you might be advised against doing this when you’re using the tripod in water, unless you happen to have a waterproof camera to pair with your waterproof tripod.

As with the leg section locks and leg angle locks, the ball head enables a full and free range of movement with very firm locking, and minimum fuss and bother. It doesn’t feature an adjustable friction damper but I found that the main lock/release lever worked well enough with a range of different sizes and weights of camera kits. Its payload rating of 15kg / 33lb is actually 50 per cent more than for the legs on which it stands. The panning action works nicely and smoothly as well, which is another performance bonus.

Leofoto Poseidon Ocean LP-284C + LH-30: Verdict

Water, and especially saltwater, can cramp your style as a photographer. By way of example, you might want to capture a long exposure with a 10-stop ND filter to blur the waves in a seascape shot, but worry about dipping your regular tripod in the sea. The Leofoto Poseidon Ocean LP-284C + LH-30 tripod kit can give you a new kind of creative freedom, thanks to its waterproof construction.

I like that the tripod is made from high-quality 10-layer carbon fiber, but I love that the leg-section clamps are fully waterproofed and that the metalwork in the rubber-padded feet and alternative spikes are made from corrosion-resistant titanium rather than aluminum or stainless steel. The same goes for the metal bases of the leg tubes.

The tripod is sufficiently compact and lightweight to take just about anywhere and everywhere, yet offers sturdy and solid support that’s very resistant to unwanted flexing and vibrations. The only real problem is that while the lack of a center-column pays dividends for quick-and-easy ultra-low-level shooting, the maximum operating height is rather underwhelming.

Alternatives

Based in Hong Kong, the Freewell company started out in 2012, aiming to entice creators and filmmakers with a range of products from camera gear, filters and lens hoods to accessories for smartphones, drones and action cameras. It launched its first tripod, ‘The Real Travel Tripod’ back in 2024 and has now followed on with The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1.

Immensely versatile, the 5-in-1 is sufficiently compact and lightweight (and definitely slim enough) to qualify as one of the best travel tripods, while being tall and sturdy enough to be a contender as one of the best tripods for photographers. Even so, it’s not massively tall nor overly short when folded. Back on the plus side, it’s classy enough to eye up a place as one of the best carbon fiber tripods. True to its Multi Tripod name and design, it fits into multiple categories. Let’s take a closer look.

The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1: Specifications

The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1: Price

For a complete carbon fiber tripod kit (and then some) that comes a sophisticated ball head and intriguing extras, Freewell’s The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1 looks incredibly good value at $299 / £268 / AU$429. Another Chinese carbon fiber tripod I reviewed recently that’s actually two tripods in one, but lacks a monopod conversion, is the Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S, which is considerably more expensive at $399 / £349 / AU$649.

The Freewell’s space-saving center column design reminds of the Peak Design Travel Tripod carbon fiber, which is pricier again at $599 / £599 / AU$1,169, while the newer and thoroughly excellent Peak Design Pro Tripod costs a properly expensive $900 / £800 / AU$1,500. All in all, the Freewell gives you an awful lot of support for the money.

The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1: Design & Handling

Catering to all sorts of needs and shooting scenarios, The Real Multi Tripod’s 5-in-1 remit covers use as a regular photographic tripod, a tabletop tripod, a monopod, a hands-free monopod with triple-foot base, and a walking pole. If you’re feeling generous, you could also add smartphone tripod and selfie stick to the list, thanks to the cunning Arca-Swiss quick-release plate that doubles as a phone mount. You could also use it as a tactical bipod, bringing the total up to eight and making it an 8-in-1 support. How does it do all of that? Let’s dive deeper.

Despite having a slim, travel-friendly profile, which I’ll come back to later, the 5-in-1 doesn’t claim to be a travel tripod as such. Like Freewell’s actual ‘The Real Travel Tripod’, it doesn’t have the kind of swing-up, space-saving legs that are now typical of travel tripods. I don’t mind that at all, because the business of fully extending the center column and swinging the legs up around it adds to the pack-away time, as well as the setup time next time around. And thanks to its 4-section legs, the 5-in-1 still has a reasonably small stowage height of 55cm / 21.7in.

Delivering a strong payload rating of 20kg / 44lb, the legs have chunky top-section diameters of 28mm. And because there are four rather than five sections in each leg, the bottom sections retain a fairly wide diameter of 19mm. I’m dubious about the strength of some 5-section tripods, which have relatively thin and spindly bottom sections. Releasing and locking each section is based on quick-action twist locks, and they really are quick, requiring very little rotation to release or securely lock them.

It’s similarly quick and easy to select any of the three available leg angles, which equate to 22, 55 and 85 degrees from the vertical. The lock/release mechanism is a simple pushbutton arrangement at the top of each leg. And they’re easy to see, thanks to having the same bright red coloring as the controls in the ball head. The multiple angles enable you to work around obstacles or on tricky terrain, and splaying them to wider angles aids stability in low-height setups.

It’s quite common nowadays for tripods to feature a removable leg. The idea is generally that you can remove the leg, attach it to the (also removed) center column, and transform the tripod into a monopod. It’s a neat idea, as it adds versatility without requiring you to pack and carry an extra bit of kit. The Freewell goes one, or perhaps two better, in that you can remove any and all of the legs. Remove one leg and you can use the tripod as a bipod. You can also attach the head directly to the top of the detached leg for monopod duty. The absence of the center column in the monopod setup limits the maximum height, but you can actually join two or even all three legs together if you need extra height.

Getting back to the uncommonly slim folded size, the tripod uses the same trick that I’ve seen in Peak Design tripods. As such, the center column has a triangular cutout profile that avoids any wasted space, because the legs fold around it more tightly. Unlike in Peak Design tripods, the legs themselves still have a circular profile rather than being arc-shaped to fit even more snuggly around the center column, but the folded diameter is still remarkably slim at just 7cm / 2.8in.

Unscrew the weight hook from the bottom of the center column and it reveals a built-in allen key. With the weight hook unscrewed, you can completely remove the center column and invert it for ground-level shooting, albeit with the camera upside down.

A better option for ultra-low-level shooting is that you can use the allen key to loosen a screw in the center column and split it in two, enabling you to splay the legs and go really low without the center column digging into the ground. This way, you can still shoot with the camera the right way up.

The tripod feet are fairly large rubber pads which offer good grip and support on most surfaces. As with most parts of the tripod, they have more than one function and you can unscrew one of the pads and attach it up on top, for grip and comfort, if you’re using a detached leg or two as a trekking pole.

If you’d rather have metal spikes for digging into soft ground, all you have to do is unscrew the rubber pads to reveal them. You can also use the allen key to unscrew the spikes as well, if you want to fit alternative footwear or join two or more legs together for a longer monopod.

The chassis that connects the three legs together at the top of the tripod is made from aluminum and is suitably sturdy. Again, it goes the extra mile in terms of versatility, and includes two accessory sockets. These have a standard 1/4-inch thread, enabling you to attach magic arms, LED lights, a monitor screen or other accessories.

No tripod kit is complete without a head and the Freewell comes with a durable ball head that, yet again, is impressively versatile. However, it’s arguably not an ideal match for the legs, as it has a relatively modest 10kg / 22lb payload rating, which is only half that of the legs, the latter being rated at 20kg / 44lb.

The largest control knob in the head is the main ball joint lock/release. There’s no separate friction adjuster but it works well on its own and the socket that the ball fits into has the usual cutout on one side. This enables swapping from landscape to portrait orientation shooting in the absence of an L-bracket, as well as for shooting directly upwards or downwards.

Making the tripod suitable for panoramic sequences of stills and even videography, the head has dual panning mechanisms, one at the bottom and the other at the top. The bonus here is that if your legs are perfectly leveled, you can use the main bottom panning mechanism. You’ll soon see if they’re not perfectly leveled and you’ve compensated by just leveling the head, because your horizon will start to slant when you begin panning. As there’s no leveling base featured in the tripod and leveling the legs can be a time-consuming chore, you can simply use the head’s upper panning mechanism instead, which will keep your horizon straight and true.

As a leveling aid, there’s a bubble level built into the head’s camera platform. It’s a useful addition but it’s frustrating that you can’t actually see it when the quick-release plate is attached to the platform. You therefore need to remove your camera every time you want to use the bubble level. In fairness, I tend to use the electronic ‘virtual horizon’ instead, which is available in the vast majority of modern cameras and tends to be more accurate and precise than using a tripod’s bubble level.

Even the Arca-Swiss compatible quick-release plate is based on a crafty bit of design. It works as expected with a camera or anything else with a standard 1/4-inch treaded socket. However, it also features hinged panels at each end and spring-loaded sliding rails. The upshot is that you can also use the QR plate as a phone mount, thus attaching your phone to the tripod or monopod, or using the latter as a selfie stick.

Tools supplied with the tripod comprise an additional, carabiner-style weight hook and three allen keys. The allen keys are in addition to the one that’s built into the center-column’s fitted weight hook.

Everything’s wrapped up in a stylish, high-quality padded carrying bag. The bag comes complete with handles that lock together with a Velcro pad, plus a removable shoulder strap. The inside of the bag features a long, secondary zippered compartment for holding the various tripod accessories.

But before we grab the bag and go outside, there’s yet another tricked up design flourish. I’ve seen tabletop conversion in full-sized tripods before, mostly from 3 Legged Thing, like my trusty 3 Legged Thing Winston 2.0, for which you can buy optional Vanz footwear to make the change. The table tripod conversion legs for the Freewell are supplied ‘free’ as part of the package, and they also have a relatively high-end design, complete with dual-section extension and handy twist-action leg locks. They’re more like a miniaturized set of regular tripod legs than a cheap and basic add-on.

The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1: Performance

Performance is mostly very good but not entirely great. Setup speed is certainly very quick, thanks to Freewell avoiding the temptation of travel-style, swing-up legs. The twist-action leg clamps also work with minimum fuss and bother, and while there are three of them in each leg, it’s easy to grasp all of them in one go when the leg sections are all retracted. The ball head also works with smooth efficiency and its dual panning mechanisms give a performance boost when shooting panoramic sequences of stills or for videography. The multiple leg angles offer greater stability for shooting at fairly short heights.

My main criticism in terms of performance is that even with four sections in each leg rather than three, the maximum height feels a little limited. Naturally, it’s a trade-off because if the maximum operating height was taller, the folded height would be less compact and the tripod would be less travel-friendly. Either way, I often found that I needed to raise the center column to achieve the shooting height that I wanted. The legs on their own are fairly but not massively resistant to vibrations. However, the center column feels relatively wobbly and lacking in rigidity when extended.

While rigidity could be better at maximum extension, the tripod delivers solid performance for ultra-low-level shooting. Splitting the center column and splaying the legs to their widest angles enables you to get right down to virtually ground level.

I’ll admit to being quite tall at 6ft 5in. As I mentioned earlier, you can’t join one of the legs to the center column for monopod duty and as a result, I found that adding the head directly to one leg didn’t give me enough height. The problem is solved by joining two or even three legs together, which enables a huge maximum height, but it’s a bit more fiddly as you have to remove both parts of the rubber pad and metal spike feet from the upper joining tripod legs.

One of the five modes on offer is described by Freewell as a ‘hands-free monopod’ monopod. I don’t feel brave enough to take my hands away for more than a second or two but the ability to connect the short tabletop legs to the chassis and use it as a base for the monopod does add a firm footing. In this respect, you get the added stability of using a three-footed pole like with the Benro A48FD Monopod.

For landscape photography in the wilds, negotiating tricky terrain can be more problematic than carefully composing the shot when you finally reach your destination. Again, the Freewell comes to your aid, serving as a trekking pole as well as a tripod or monopod. The trekking pole configuration is essentially the same as the monopod setup, except that you can attach one of the rubber feet to the top for comfort, instead of fitting the head. Down below, you can use either a rubber pad or a spike at the bottom, depending on the type of ground that you’re covering.

The Freewell can serve as a tripod, monopod or selfie stick for your smartphone. You won’t need an additional phone mount, as the supplied Arca-Swiss compatible quick-release plate converts into a self-contained phone mount. It’s spring-loaded with hinged sides, and gives a safe and secure grip.

Last but not least, this full-sized tripod works particularly well as a mini-tripod or tabletop tripod. Unlike many of its kind, it features adjustable carbon fiber legs based on dual sections with a twist-action clamp. Couple that with the three leg angles enabled by the tripod chassis and you get a generous range of adjustment.

The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1: Verdict

There’s a lot to love about the Freewell The Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1. It definitely lives up to its claims with amazingly versatile, multiple modes. Better still, it’s highly effective in all of them, as a regular tripod, tabletop/mini tripod, monopod, monopod with feet, trekking pole and smartphone support.

The build quality looks and feels very good, based on luxury 10-layer carbon fiber and an aluminum alloy chassis. Everything works with smooth simplicity, enabling quick and intuitive setup and similarly straightforward takedown. The ball head follows suit, and I like that it has dual panning mechanisms. As an incredibly comprehensive, multi-mode tripod with a premium build, the Freewell is outstanding value for money.

I’d give it top marks, but for a few little niggles. The maximum height is fairly modest and the folded length isn’t particularly compact. I can live with that, but I found that the center column was quite wobbly at anything more than slight extension. And while the legs have a payload rating of 20kg / 44lb, it’s only 10kg / 22lb for the head. That should still prove sufficient however, as you’re unlikely to have a camera outfit that weighs more than 10kg /22lb, and the extra payload rating of the legs enables the fitment of accessories via the additional mounting ports, and hanging ballast off one or other of the weight hooks. All in all, the Freewell is a pretty remarkable tripod.

Alternatives

L-brackets are an increasingly crucial piece of kit that allows for quick horizontal jto vertical tripod swaps – but most are built for a specific camera. Tripod maker 3 Legged Thing, however, has a new option that’s meant to adapt to a variety of different cameras without blocking port access – and expands to accommodate accessories.

The 3 Legged Thing Lexie QD is an L-bracket with an expandable design that makes it possible for the accessory to fit a variety of different camera bodies. But the adjustable base plate isn’t the only way the new Lexie aims to adapt to different shooting styles.

The bracket is built with a sliding screw. This allows photographers to position the bracket more forward or backwards on the camera in order to help prevent that side piece from blocking access to crucial ports. The cutout in that same vertical piece is designed to double as a guide to manage cables coming from those ports.

3 Legged Thing has launched universal brackets before, along with custom-fitted options built for specific camera models. But the Lexie QD is the first in the lineup to include a QD socket that’s built for the brand’s quick-swap straps. That QD system allows photographers to switch from tripod to strap quickly, without removing the L-bracket.

The new L-bracket is also designed to work with the company’s modular XPAND system launched earlier this year. The base includes connection slots that allow creators to add a cheese plate, risers, and connectors to build out a custom rig designed to house different accessories.

Without adding extra cheese plates, the Lexie QD still has two 1/4”-20 accessory threads on the vertical to install accessories like lights, mics, monitors, and accessory arms.

Announced on September 16, the Lexie QD is already shipping directly from the manufacturer as well as retail stores. The new L-bracket comes in at a price of about $60 / £50.

The company will also be selling a new XP 85 Base Plate that allows photographers who own the earlier Lexie bracket to add the QD and Xpand compatibility from the new version for $30 / £30.

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Take a look at the best L-brackets or the best tripods for photographers.

At first, you think the camera is the most important thing in your photography world. Then, you realize it’s the lenses. But if you’re a landscape or macro photographer, you’ll quickly learn that the tripod is just as important (if not more). And you either learn that the easy way or the hard way.

Buying the best tripod for photography is a rite of passage for the beginner photographer. You’ve got the camera and the kit lens, so you go out and buy a camera bag and a tripod. But more often than not, the tripod is a cheap, plasticky implement that’s – for lack of a better word – completely useless…

A beginner might not understand the foibles of a cheap tripod until it’s too late. In fact, they might merrily capture soft shot after soft shot without realizing that they deserve better. I myself made this mistake; I didn’t know what camera shake was when I started, and I certainly didn’t realize it could happen on a tripod. In fact, I blamed my camera or myself when it was my tripod all along.

Cheap tripod, cheap performance

Anything can be bought cheap if you’re in the right place at the right time, of course. When I say cheap, I mean cheaply made. You know, the kind of unbranded tripod you can pick up from Amazon or a department store or comes bundled with your camera. These kinds of tripods might look inviting enough, but they are usually an absolute nightmare to use.

I’m talking about being hard to adjust and refine: knobs that never seem tight enough, axes that stutter as you try to tilt or pan to refine your composition. Weak legs that wobble or don’t even splay wide enough for secure outdoor use. Legs that catch when you try to extend or collapse them. And light payloads that are entirely inadequate for longer zoom lenses or bigger cameras when it comes time to upgrade.

Tripod red flags

Let’s talk about how you identify a cheap tripod.

• Plastic components: The main thing I’d advise you to look out for is an abundance of plastic components, particularly plastic threads. In my experience, plastic threads simply cannot be tightened enough to prevent slippage, and on top of that, they can easily wear or even break over time.
• Leg braces/struts: Another giveaway is plastic struts between the legs. A quality tripod doesn’t need any extra stability; it will stand firm with the legs splayed out. If a cheap tripod has plastic struts, assume that the legs aren’t particularly sturdy to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, some expensive heavy-duty video tripods do feature struts, but they’re designed to be as stable and heavy as possible.
• A poor quality head: Do not ignore the tripod head. A tripod is only as good as its head. You can have a sturdy trio of legs, but if the head is plasticky and cheap and suffers from many of the problems I listed earlier, you’re in for a frustrating ride, and your photography will suffer.

A quality tripod, on the other hand, will just feel effortlessly sturdy. Threads boast good friction to prevent overtightening, joints move smoothly and intentionally, legs can be splayed to varying degrees and are stable, setting up and collapsing the device feels effortless, and it features a quality head.

Is cost the compromise?

You’re probably thinking, great Mike, but what about the cost? I’m not suggesting that you pay hundreds of bucks for a tripod, but I am suggesting that you reframe the way you think about budgeting for kit. A lot of photographers will pay around $100 / £100 for a lens and consider it a bargain. You can pick up a quality tripod for a similar price.

The Manfrotto Element MII Aluminium Tripod is selling for $132.95 at B&H Photo and £99 at Wex Photo Video. This is a tripod I used for years. As long as you don’t exceed the 8-kg payload and are using lenses up to 200mm, it will serve beginner photographers very well indeed. And trust me, the difference between a tripod like the Element MII from a reputable brand and a cheap tripod is huge.

The only reason to spend more is if you’ve reached a point where you have identified specialist needs. For example, general tripod usage tends to favor portability over stability, but a serious macro photographer may wish to invest in a larger, sturdier tripod since the effects of camera shake are more prevalent at higher magnifications. A travel photographer or landscape photographer who hikes may be happy to pay more for a lighter carbon fiber tripod. And so on.

You may also wish to turn to the used market. Most tripods don’t tend to hold their value in the same way that cameras and lenses do, so you could end up with a real bargain on used marketplaces. So, there you have it. Tripods aren’t the most exciting bits of photography kit in the world, but a good tripod is worth its payload in gold.

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Check out the best tripods for photography and the best ball heads for tripods. On the subject of tripod heads: Are you using the right tripod head for landscape photography?

Tripods tend to be purpose-built for different shoots, which means some photographers will own more than one – one for travel, one for maximum stability, one for tabletop shooting, and maybe even a separate monopod. But 3 Legged Things' latest invention is a build-your-own modular tripod system that replaces several purpose-built supports in one.

The new 3 Legged Thing James and Jason is a tripod system with swappable parts. While most tripods can swap out for different heads or feet, the two new modular systems can swap out legs, canopies, flat plates, rings – along with heads and feet.

The idea is that by building a modular system, creators don’t need to own several tripods for different purposes. The James and Jason are full-sized tripods, but they can convert to travel tripods or studio tripods, and the swappable legs can also double as monopods and boom poles.

The heart of the system is the canopy. Both options can handle up to 30 kgs / 66 lbs, but one is built for portability, and the other is built for strength and features.

James uses a smaller, slimmer profile that creates a tripod that can still fit in the water bottle pocket of a camera bag. Jason, on the other hand, is a bit larger, but has a ballast hook and is built for strength. Both canopies have an extra accessory mount for attaching arms for adding lighting or a mic.

With those two canopies come three different swappable leg types, all built with carbon fiber. The five-section legs are the most compact, folding down to 42.5 cm / 16.7 inches and reaching a maximum height of 123 cm / 48.4 inches. The three-section legs are built for maximum height and stability, reaching 154 cm / 60.6 inches – but probably won’t fit in carry-on luggage. The four-section legs are the happy medium between the two.

Those legs can be adjusted to different angles for a wider stance and lower shots using a new trigger-pull design that the company says is easy to use even when wearing gloves.

Along with the swappable legs, the tripods launch with three options for feet to accommodate different terrain – and the tripods can also be used with the canopy and feet (no legs) to replace a mini tabletop tripod. The legs can also be used without the canopy as a monopod or light boom.

The modular tripod series also launches with a newly designed head that 3 Legged Thing has dubbed the Airhed Orbit. The ball-style head uses one main control to level, adjust, and lock the camera in position.

Beyond the versatility, the modular design also means that creators can break apart the tripods for upkeep and cleaning.

With multiple different setups possible, 3 Legged Thing has built several different bundles for the tactical tripods, including some basic setups with the canopy and feet to bundles with multiple pieces.

3 Legged Thing is bringing James and Jason to creators using Kickstarter, where the campaign has already surpassed its original funding goal. Pledges take as much as 20 to 25 percent off the expected retail price, starting at £269 (about $365 / AU$506) for a canopy and legs, £669 (about $907 / AU$1,257) for a kit with all three leg variations, with the new Airhed Orbit head a £152 ($207 / AU$286) add-on.

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Early video tripods used a series of loud gears, but then in 1946, a father and son in Australia patented a new design: the fluid tripod head. The company behind that game-changing invention, Miller Camera Support Equipment, has announced that it is shutting down next month.

In a letter, small business owners Mark and Diane Celementson announced their retirement, which will bring Miller Tripods to a close on September 30.

Eric Miller, working with his son Bob, introduced the first fluid tripod head in the 1940s. The design solved a key problem with early tripod systems: noise. Before the fluid head, tripod heads used gears that introduced noise into the footage. Panning was difficult before the fluid head, and Miller Tripods says that diagonal camera movements were “virtually impossible.”

The arrival of the fluid tripod head in the 1940s is made all the more impressive considering where video technology was at the time. The earliest videos used stationary cameras, with the first panning shots arriving in filmmaking in the early 1900s.

Camera movement like panning didn’t become mainstream until the 1920s, but when audio arrived on the scene in the 1930s, camera movement halted again – the loud cameras needed to be locked in soundproof boxes too large to move.

As video camera technology shrank down, cinematic camera movement re-entered the scene, but there was still a problem – the typical video tripods used noisy gears.

Eric and Bob Miller patented the first fluid head in 1946, later creating the company in 1954 to sell those tripod heads, and eventually the first fluid head tripod made its way to Hollywood in 1958.

Rather than gears, the fluid head uses a liquid-filled chamber to allow videographers to create smooth camera movements. Miller’s first fluid head had a fixed resistance, but the format would move on to introduce adjustable resistance and counter-balance systems for handling heavy cameras.

While Miller got its start from tripod heads, the company also developed full tripod sets shortly after. The first tripod from Miller Tripods looked quite a bit different than today’s design, including wooden legs.

By the 1970s, Miller Tripods’ specialty shifted to creating camera support systems for news and broadcast. According to the company’s website, the tripods are used by more than 265 television networks. The company's camera support systems are used in more than 65 countries.

“From those early beginnings, Miller grew into an internationally respected manufacturer, supporting broadcasters, cinematographers, filmmakers, and content creators across the world,” Mark and Diane Clementson, owners of the company for the last 55 years, wrote in a letter announcing the decision. “Through changing technologies, evolving production environments, and generations of industry professionals, our commitment to innovation, quality, and customer service has remained central to who we are.”

The Australia-based company says that operations will cease on September 30.

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It’s been about five years since I discovered 3 Legged Thing, a British company specializing in tripods and other supports. My first encounter was with the Winston 2.0 and AirHed Pro kit. I instantly fell for Winston, and it’s still my favorite full-sized tripod to this day. Even so, a lot has happened in the last five years, and 3 Legged Thing has branched out in all sorts of different directions, currently catering to photographers and videographers, as well as ramping up its endeavors for field sports and birding, plus shooting and target sports. I’ve reviewed many 3 Legged Thing tripods and heads, desk mounts, window mounts, phone mounts, microphone arms, light stands, L-brackets, camera straps, and other items along the way, being highly impressed by pretty much all of them.

Bringing things up to date, there’s a dynamic duo of new 3 Legged Thing video tripods in town, going by the names of Ridley and Wes. They’re both similar in many ways and are named after master movie directors. Ridley (Scott) is the larger three-section tripod of the two, whereas Wes (Anderson) is the smaller sibling, with a travel-friendly, fold-down-small five-section leg design. Both carbon fiber tripods are available as sets of legs on their own, or as full kits with the same fluid head. They aim to be among the best carbon fiber tripods and the best video tripods, while the Wes that I’m reviewing here also eyes up a spot as one of the best travel tripods for videographers.

3 Legged Thing Wes: Specifications

3 Legged Thing Wes: Price

Quality seldom comes cheap, and sure enough, a set of the premium Wes travel tripod legs will set you back $399 / £379 (AU$ TBA). Go for the complete kit with the addition of a high-performance fluid head, and you can expect to pay $599 / £569. They’re both fairly substantial chunks of money, but the features, design and build quality make them well worth the outlay, especially as both options feature a built-in leveling base, smart padded soft case and handy little extras. All in all, they’re very competitively priced.

3 Legged Thing Wes: Design & Handling

Wes Anderson has proved himself as an ingenious, stylistic, and very versatile movie director over the last 30 years, so Wes is an inspirational and aspirational name for this new video travel tripod from 3 Legged Thing. Available in gray and black with orange accents or in all-black, the legs are made from premium Japanese eight-layer carbon fiber with an aerospace-grade magnesium alloy canopy. But when shooting a video narrative, I feel that legs are only half the tripod story, so I went for the full kit that adds a fluid head. More on the head later, but I’ll begin with the legs.

The small stowage size of the Wes tripod legs equates to just 44cm / 17.3in in length, or 54.8cm / 21.6in with the fluid head fitted. To my mind, that makes the kit small enough to take on pretty much every journey to any location, whether I’m pounding around local city streets or jetting off to the other side of the world. For the latter, the tripod is small enough to fit within the cabin baggage regulations of most airlines.

Fully extending all five sections of each leg reveals ever-decreasing circles, in terms of the relative diameters. Even so, the thinnest bottom sections have a perfectly respectable 14mm diameter. Not only is that significantly greater than in many travel tripods that I’ve seen and used, but it also enables a strong payload rating of 14kg / 30lb, even when the tripod is at full stretch.

There are a couple of potential drawbacks to five-section legs that can outweigh the allure of compact stowage. First up, each joint is a possible point of weakness, where flexing and wobbling might be introduced. The second is that you end up with no less than 12 separate leg section locks to contend with when fully extending and contracting the tripod. That can equate to a lot of time and effort.

Thankfully, the twist-action section locks featured in the Wes only require minimal rotation to unlock and relock them. You can easily grab the full set of them for each leg when the sections are contracted, and tighten or loosen them with a single flick of the wrist. Ultimately, they’re surprisingly quick and easy to use, while maintaining super-solid locking that avoids any unwanted flexing or movement when the tripod is in use.

While the twist-locks for the leg sections are a brilliant piece of design that’s thoroughly well executed, the same applies to the locks for the three alternative leg angles. The leg angles themselves measure 23, 55, and 80 degrees from the vertical, so there’s plenty of room for maneuver. Moreover, the simple yet highly effective spring-loaded, push-lever locks ensure maximum speed and ease when playing all the angles. Unlike many travel tripods, including the more stills-centric 3 Legged Thing Leo 2.0 + AirHead Pro, there’s no time wasted swinging the legs up around the center column for compact stowage, as the Wes has no center column anyway.

One place you generally don’t want any angles coming into play is in the platform on which the head is mounted. If you try to compensate by adjusting the level of the head itself, you’ll find that your horizons go wonky as soon as you start panning. One method is to meticulously adjust the overall height of each leg, so that the tripod canopy is level. However, this tends to be an arduous, time-consuming process, especially if you’re working on uneven ground.

To make things quick, simple, and highly effective, the Wes features a built-in leveling base that is an absolute doddle to use. It has a single locking screw with a spring-loaded handle mounted on a six-sided shaft, so you can pull out the handle and rotate it for your favored orientation. Another aid to leveling up is that the base features a bubble level, which can be rotated through a full 360 degrees for easy viewing from any angle.

With the opposite of a soft underbelly, Wes has a pair of solid, robust weight hooks extending from the bottom of its magnesium alloy leveling base. They’re ideal for adding ballast to avoid the tripod swaying in the breeze if you’re shooting outdoors in windy conditions.

Intent as ever to cram as many crafty design flourishes into a tripod as possible, 3 Legged Thing has doubled up the usefulness of the weight hooks. The hooks also form the T-section of an Allen key that mounts to the underside of the leveling base via a QD (Quick Detach) mechanism. A simple press of a button is all that’s required to release the Allen key, which you can then use for securing your camera to the head’s quick-release plate, or for anything else that uses the same-size Allen key.

I’ve written a full, standalone review of the revamped and updated 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC fluid head, and as part of the complete kit, it’s an ideal match for the Wes tripod legs. It ensures wonderfully smooth tilt and pan operation and excellent all-around performance. The favorable feature set includes an adjustable, telescopic panning arm that can mount on either side for left-handed or right-handed use, and an extra-long XP100 Ultra Plate quick-release plate, which is Arca-Swiss compatible.

Another bonus is that you can use that QD-mounted Allen key that I mentioned just now to remove four screws and rotate the orientation of the head’s camera platform through 90-degree increments. The upshot is that the long QR plate can run from side to side instead of just from front to back. The sideways orientation can be more ideal if you’re using a cage, and definitely if you’re using an L-bracket like one of 3 Legged Thing’s camera-specific L-brackets or the universal 3 Legged Thing Lexie.

Going from top to bottom, or rather from head to foot, the legs are fitted with rubber pads that give a very firm and stable footing on most surfaces. There’s also a variety of alternative footwear on offer from 3 Legged Thing as optional extras. These include Heelz (metal spikes), Stilettoz (elevated metal spikes), Clawz (metal ice/rock grips) and Vanz (dual metal spikes and rubber pads).

There are many and varied tripods on the market, in which you can unscrew one of the legs and use it as a monopod instead. It’s a good idea in that it saves carrying two separate bits of support kit. With the Wes, however, you can remove all three legs if you wish, which adds even greater versatility.

A neat trick is that if you remove all three legs, you can use the canopy of the Wes with the optional Vanz footwear that I mentioned just now. These dual metal spikes with rubber pads can screw directly into the canopy, effectively transforming the Wes into a tabletop tripod.

There’s a handy multi-function tool supplied with the tripod kit, aptly named the 3 Legged Thing Toolz2. It has a keyring attachment and includes two different sizes of hex keys, a coin/flat blade key, a bottle opener, and a carabiner. It comes in useful for a whole range of tripod/photographic tasks, as well as for popping the tops off bottles when all that videography makes you work up a thirst.

Attention to detail in both design and manufacture is carried over from the tripod itself to the high-quality padded soft case that it’s supplied in. The case features a pair of internal securing straps for the tripod and an internal mesh pocket, all with Velcro fasteners. There’s also a side pocket for additional storage complete with a zippered three-section organizer (the zippers have comfy pullers for easy opening and closing). There’s a detachable, adjustable shoulder strap, a carrying handle, plus a carabiner-style hook. The hook is ideal for attaching the bag to one of the weight hooks on the tripod after popping a few weighty objects inside.

3 Legged Thing Wes: Performance

Travel tripods sometimes get a bad press, not least from me. Sure, I like that they tend to be lightweight to carry and fold down to unfeasibly small dimensions, but I feel that the lack of rigidity and meagre maximum operating height often makes them somewhat unfit for their intended purpose. I’m happy to report that while the maximum operating height of the 3 Legged Thing Wes kit isn’t exactly towering, it’s definitely tall enough for the vast majority of videography shooting scenarios, equating to 134.5cm / 53in complete with its fluid head. That’s actually pretty generous for a videocentric travel tripod that omits a center column.

Just as important, or maybe more so, is the fact that the Wes supplies firm, solid, and stable support even at its maximum operating height, with all of the leg sections fully extended. That’s no mean feat for a relatively lightweight tripod with 5-section legs.

Another factor that I’m happy to include under the ‘performance’ umbrella is that I like a tripod to enable ultra-low-level shooting without too much fuss and bother, or the need to invert the center column and shoot with the camera upside down, which is a bit of a non-starter for videography anyway. With its head in place, the Wes can shoot down to nearly ground level for creative effect, with a minimum operating height of just 21cm / 8.3in.

I found that the multiple leg angles made it easy to work around obstacles like low walls and staircases, as well as catering to rough terrain. Another bonus is that the middle leg angle setting enables a firmer footing when shooting from fairly low operating heights, adding stability and making the tripod less at risk of being knocked over accidentally or falling foul of very windy conditions.

I’m tall at 6ft 5in and found that the Wes was a little short for me in regular monopod mode, at least when using the viewfinder of a camera. Even so, I didn’t have to crouch very much, and like many of us, I’m much more likely to shoot video using the rear screen of a camera rather than putting my eye to the viewfinder. In this configuration, the monopod proved tall enough for me at its maximum height with the head fitted. And if you hanker after a taller monopod, you could connect two or even three legs, top to toe, after removing the feet from two or three of the legs, respectively.

3 Legged Thing Wes: Verdict

The 3 Legged Thing Wes ticks all of the boxes on my wish list for a video travel tripod. It folds down small and is very lightweight to carry, yet reaches a decent maximum operating height while being sturdy and resistant to flexing and vibrations. I’m generally wary of tripods with five-section legs because the bottom leg sections are often very thin and spindly, resulting in a drop in rigidity and stability when they’re extended. There was no hint of this when using the Wes, and I found it gave solid support throughout its entire operating range, from just above ground level to its maximum height.

The premium carbon fiber legs with their aerospace-grade magnesium alloy canopy are a great buy on their own. However, the recently updated 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC fluid head is such a great match for the legs that I feel the complete kit is the best option. As a complete travel tripod for videographers, it’s hard to beat.

Alternatives

I’ve been reviewing 3 Legged Thing gear for five years and counting, since first encountering the rather epic Winston 2.0 and AirHed Pro kit from the Pro 2.0 range. Indeed, it’s been my go-to full-sized tripod ever since, and I’m no stranger to the company’s supersized video tripods either, like the 3 Legged Thing Legends Tommy. Over the ensuing years, I’ve also tested and reviewed a bunch of other 3 Legged Thing tripods great and small, desk mounts, window mounts, phone mounts, microphone arms, light stands, L-brackets, camera straps, and other paraphernalia. The company’s product catalog is nothing if not diverse, ranging from photography and videography kit, through field sports and birding, to shooting and target sports supports and accessories.

One constant is that I’ve always been impressed by 3 Legged Things’ design flair and the company’s ability to turn its clever design concepts into expertly engineered and beautifully finished products. The set of Ethan 4 tripod legs that I’m reviewing here is a mighty, super-strong set of carbon fiber legs that aims to stick with that tradition, billed as a professional hybrid photography and tactical tripod system for photo, video, shooting, and tactical pursuits. Let’s see if it lives up to its claims, not just as one of the best carbon fiber tripods, best video tripods, and best tripods for photographers, but for a variety of other duties as well.

3 Legged Thing Ethan 4: Specifications

3 Legged Thing Ethan 4: Price

A full-sized tripod with a mighty 60kg / 132lb payload rating and built from premium Japanese carbon fiber and aerospace-grade magnesium alloy, the Ethan 4 doesn’t come cheap. The legs list at $499 / £429 (AU$ TBA), and bear in mind that you’ll have to factor in a head and maybe a leveling base, if you don’t have them already, which will add to the cost. Even so, I think the legs are set at a very fair price, considering their specifications, so long as the build quality and performance stack up. That’s what I’m here to test.

3 Legged Thing Ethan 4: Design & Handling

Designed as a ‘tactical’ tripod for shooting and target sports as well as photography and videography, Ethan 4 takes its name from Ethan Hunt of Mission: Impossible. As such, it’s ‘engineered for chaos, built for legends’, as 3 Legged Thing likes to say. It’s certainly very tough and endlessly adaptable. In the realm of shooting pictures, I’d say that pro-grade videography is its best fit.

Suitably hard as nails, Ethan 4 is made from premium 3K weave Japanese carbon fiber with an oversized outer leg section diameter of 32mm. Metal parts are constructed in aerospace-grade magnesium alloy, and fixings are made from corrosion-resistant stainless steel. For the style-conscious, the tripod is available in Darkness (black), Olive Drab Green, and Lava colorways; the last of these with orange accents.

With four telescoping sections in each leg, a bonus of the chunky 32mm outer is that even the narrowest bottom sections have an impressive girth to them. The upshot is that the tripod has a super-sturdy payload rating of 60kg / 132lb. Naturally, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a camera and lens combination that weighs anywhere near that much, but the Ethan 4 can also support additional accessories, as I’ll come to later.

There’s an endless debate over whether twist-locks or flip-locks are better for tripod legs. Personally, I generally prefer twist-locks, especially if they’re the kind featured in this tripod, labelled as ‘Oversized Helical Strake’ leg locks. As such, they’re quick and easy to use with minimal rotation required to loosen or lock each section. As with other elements of the tripod, they have a top-quality look and feel, and are fitted with grippy rubber pads. They’re also designed for quick and easy strip-down and reassembly if and when they need cleaning.

While the twist-locks are pretty standard fare, the three-position leg-angle locks have a new patented trigger-pull design. The idea is that you can pull out the mechanism in the more time-honored fashion, or simply squeeze a trigger-action release with your finger.

As I mentioned at the outset, the Ethan 4 is sold as a set of legs, rather than as a complete kit. Especially for videography, to which the tripod legs are ideally suited, you’re best off adding either of 3 Legged Thing’s LevelHed Leveling Base or 75mm Half Bowl, as well as a fluid head. The tripod is supplied with a flat plate for the former, and there’s an optional 75mm bowl mount that you can swap to if you buy it separately.

Naturally, you can attach your camera or whatever else you’re shooting with to the flat plate itself, without using a leveling aid or tripod head. With that in mind, the plate features a dual 1/4in mount with a 3/8in adapter sleeve, catering to both industry-standard threaded sockets.

Keeping moving parts to a minimum, the bubble level is fixed on the side of the chassis, rather than having a rotating base. Being positioned off to the side, it’s easy to keep an eye on and is large enough to see clearly when leveling the tripod.

The Ethan 4 can support more than just its primary load. A threaded socket on the side of the chassis enables the attachment of a magic arm, LED lamp, microphone mount, monitor screen or just about anything else you might want to add on.

Going one better than the standard threaded accessory mount, the tripod chassis also includes a QD (Quick-Detach) socket. Compatible with 3 Legged Thing Axis QD straps and all sorts of other gadgets that use this kind of mount, it enables ultra-quick-and-easy mounting and detachment with a simple pushbutton mechanism.

A ballast hook is featured under the flat mounting plate and also serves as the grab handle for tightening or loosening the main dual 1/4in and 3/8in threaded mounting screw with sleeve. Using the ballast hook enables you to hang a weight off the tripod, again taking advantage of its hefty payload rating and adding stability if you’re shooting in windy conditions.

When it comes to tripod heads, you can naturally fit pretty much anything that takes your fancy. One that works particularly well for videography with the Ethan 4 is the revamped and revitalized 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC fluid head, which I’ve reviewed separately and very favorably in the past. The head has a list price of $249 / £229 and is available in black or grey colorways.

The tripod comes with chunky rubber feet, which give a very firm and stable footing while also doing a good job of absorbing vibrations. They’re not the only choice, however, as alternative footwear is available as optional extras from 3 Legged Thing. Choices include smaller Little Bootz (rubber pads), Heelz (metal spikes), Stilettoz (elevated metal spikes), Clawz (metal ice/rock grips), and Vanz (dual metal spikes and rubber pads).

In keeping with the multi-talented nature of Ethan 4, you can remove one, two, or all three of the legs. Each of the legs can work independently for monopod duty, and leaving two of the legs attached to the chassis enables use as a bipod. Removing all three legs might sound counterproductive, but I’ll come back to that in a moment.

Getting back to the optional Vanz footwear that I mentioned just now, these dual metal spikes with rubber pads can serve up a neat trick. If you unscrew all three legs from the chassis and then screw the Vanz into the empty sockets that are revealed, you can effectively transform the Ethan 4 into a tabletop tripod, stretching its versatility even further.

The tripod comes with a 3 Legged Thing Toolz2. It’s a neat multi-function tool, with a keyring. It acts as two different sizes of hex keys, a coin/flat blade key, a bottle opener, and a carabiner. It’s handy for a whole range of tripod/photographic tasks as well as for grabbing a quick drink when the going gets thirsty.

It annoys me when some of the most famous tripod manufacturers sell very expensive tripods and don’t bother to bundle a carrying bag of any sort. The situation here is quite the reverse. The Ethan 4 comes with a very high-quality padded soft case and, typical of 3 Legged Thing, it’s not short of crafty design flourishes. There’s an internal mesh pocket and two securing straps, both with Velcro fasteners. You also get a side pocket with additional room and a zippered three-section organizer. The zippers themselves have comfy pullers for easy operation. There’s also a detachable, adjustable shoulder strap, a carrying handle, plus a carabiner-style hook. I’d use the last of these for attaching the bag to the ballast hook on the tripod, after popping a weighty object or two inside.

3 Legged Thing Ethan 4: Performance

Let’s cut to the chase. Performance of the Ethan 4 is exemplary in every respect. It gives rock-solid support for even the heaviest of cameras and accessories, right up to and including its maximum operating height of 162cm / 64in (without head). The legs and rubber feet combine to give excellent resistance against unwanted flexing and vibrations, even when the leg sections are fully extended.

As with most video-friendly tripods, there’s no center column, but an upside of this is that when the legs are splayed to their widest locking angle, you can shoot from ultra-low levels for creative effect, without the center column getting in the way. Again, without an attached head, the minimum operating height is a mere 14cm / 5.5in. The 4-section legs also enable a fairly compact carrying length of 61cm / 24in.

While the maximum payload rating is a huge 60kg / 132lb, the tripod itself is easy on the back for carrying around, weighing in at 2.4kg / 5.3lb. It’s also very easy to live with from an operational perspective. The twist locks work with simple efficiency, requiring minimal rotation to lock and unlock the leg sections. The trigger-action leg angle locks are similarly simple and intuitive. As well as enabling ultra-low-level shooting and working on uneven terrain or around obstacles, the multi-angle legs add stability at their intermediate setting when shooting at low to middling heights.

Not just a tripod, the Ethan 4 works equally well in bipod mode or with any of the three legs removed for monopod duty. You can attach a camera or anything else to the mounting screw in the flat base, but the addition of a head makes monopod shooting more refined.

3 Legged Thing Ethan 4: Verdict

Ethan Hunt is a very ingenious, versatile, and action-packed (if fictitious) character, giving his namesake tripod, the Ethan 4, a lot to live up to. True to the role, however, this 3 Legged Thing tripod can take on a barrage of different scenarios and win out against seemingly impossible odds, delivering a sure-fire success rate.

I love that the Ethan 4 tripod is so rock-solid and utterly dependable, and so resistant to any unwanted flexing or vibration. The twist-locks for the leg sections work impeccably, and the new trigger-action leg angle locks are a pleasure to use. Ultimately, this tripod offers wide-ranging versatility while also being entirely intuitive and simple to use, so you can concentrate on your creative flow rather than wrestling with a finicky tripod.

The fact that it also works flawlessly as a bipod or monopod reinforces its credentials as a ‘tactical’ tripod for photography, videography, shooting, and target sports. Just add a head, and you’re good to go.

Alternatives

3 Legged Thing is a British company that’s earned a really solid reputation over the years, mostly for making really solid tripods and other supports. The current catalog caters to photography and videography, field sports and birding, and shooting and target sports, covering a very wide remit. I’ve reviewed many 3 Legged Thing tripods, desk mounts, window mounts, phone mounts, microphone arms, light stands, L-brackets, camera straps and other bits and pieces over the years, generally being so impressed that I’ve bought a few myself, and the Winston 2.0 and AirHed Pro kit that I first encountered five years ago remains my personal full-sized tripod of choice.

The Ridley I’m reviewing here is from a dynamic duo of new videocentric tripods that take their names from movie directors; this one is named after Ridley Scott, while the smaller sidekick Wes is named after Wes Anderson. There’s also a simultaneously launched set of hybrid photography and tactical tripod legs by the name of Ethan 4, after Mission: Impossible’s Ethan Hunt. The Ridley and Wes are both carbon fiber tripods that are available as legs-only or as full kits with a fluid head. Ridley is the larger of the two, with 3-section legs, whereas the Wes is a more travel-friendly option with 5-section legs. Both aim to be among the best carbon fiber tripods and the best video tripods, while the Wes is also a contender as one of the best travel tripods for videographers on the move.

3 Legged Thing Ridley: Specifications

3 Legged Thing Ridley: Price

Pay your money and take your choice. The complete Ridley kit with fluid video head costs $649 / £619 (AU$ TBA). If you’d rather bring your own head or have one already, you can buy just the Ridley legs with built-in leveling base and padded soft case for $449 / £429. Neither is a cheap option, but I feel that the prices represent great value considering the features, design, and build quality. Ultimately, of course, it all comes down to performance, which I’ll get to later.

3 Legged Thing Ridley: Design & Handling

The sci-fi sensations Alien and Blade Runner absolutely blew me away when they first came out, and have definitely stood the test of time, so the 3 Legged Thing Ridley has a lot to live up to, being named after the movies’ director, Ridley Scott. The tripod is available in gray and black, or all black, the latter looking suitably dark and menacing – that’s the one that I went for. I also went for the complete kit that includes not only the set of legs made from premium Japanese carbon fiber with an aerospace-grade magnesium alloy canopy, but also the fittingly epic 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC fluid head, which I’ve recently reviewed as a revamped video head in its own right. But let’s kick off with the legs, which seems only logical.

There’s a lot to be said for tripods with four or even five sections in each leg, at least in terms of compactness for stowage. I personally don’t mind tripods being a bit longer when carrying them around, and generally prefer three-section legs for ease and speed of setup, with fewer section clamps to contend with. Another bonus is that the bottom section of each leg tends to have a wider diameter and is thus sturdier.

Another factor in the speed and ease of setup and takedown is the efficiency of the section clamps. Some like twist-locks; others prefer flip-locks. I’m in the twist camp, so long as they release smoothly and lock firmly with minimal rotation. That’s certainly the case here, and adjusting the leg sections is a very speedy, smooth, and simple operation. I also like the grippy rubber pads on each twist-lock, making them feel nice to the touch.

Another potential pitfall is that leg angle locks often seem to be more fiddly than they need to be. Again, the Ridley wins out with simple, spring-loaded catches that have a push-to-release action. Like the twist-locks, they have non-slip textured rubber pads for an extra feel-good factor. Three lockable leg angles are available: 23, 55, or 80 degrees from the vertical. The upshot is that it’s easy to adapt to tricky terrain or work around obstacles when you’re setting up the tripod.

A key element of setting up a video tripod is that you level the platform on which the head sits, rather than making leveling adjustments via the head itself. The latter will result in your horizon going on the slant as soon as you start panning. To ensure accuracy with fast and simple setup, the tripod features a built-in leveling base. A single lock/release screw has a handle that’s mounted on a six-sided shaft, so you can pull it out and reposition it for your preferred fit.

To further enhance leveling up, the adjustable base comes complete with a bubble level that’s large enough for a clear view. It’s also mounted on a rotating platform, so you can swing it around to whatever angle works best for you, through an entire 360 degrees.

Down below, the leveling base has two weight hooks. These are ideal for adding ballast to steady the tripod if you’re shooting outdoors in windy conditions. Adding some ballast to the soft case that’s supplied with the tripod is a handy option, but more on that later.

A clever design flourish is that the weight hooks aren’t just weight hooks. They also form the T-section grip of an Allen key that mounts to the bottom of the leveling base via a QD (Quick Detach) mechanism. As such, you can push the QD button and simply pull out the Allen key to secure your camera to the head’s Arca-Swiss-compatible quick-release plate, or for anything else that uses the same size Allen key.

I won’t talk too much about the 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC fluid head that’s part of the complete kit, as I’ve already created a full, standalone review of it. Suffice it to say that it’s an ideal match for the Ridley, offering wonderfully smooth tilt and pan with excellent all-round performance. The head features an adjustable, telescopic panning arm that can mount on either side for left-handed or right-handed use, plus an extra-long XP100 Ultra Plate quick-release plate, which is Arca-Swiss compatible.

Another nice touch is that you can use the QD Allen key that I just mentioned to remove four screws and rotate the orientation of the head’s camera platform through 90 degrees. This enables the long QR plate to run from side to side instead of from front to back. It can be a more ideal orientation if you’re using a cage, and definitely if you’re using an L-bracket like the universal 3 Legged Thing Lexie, or one of the camera-specific options in the line-up.

Dropping down from head to toe, the legs feature removable feet. The supplied feet are chunky rubber pads that give a very firm and stable footing while also doing a good job of absorbing vibrations. However, they’re certainly not the only choice. As alternative footwear, 3 Legged Thing offers a range of optional extras. These include smaller Little Bootz (rubber pads), Heelz (metal spikes), Stilettoz (elevated metal spikes), Clawz (metal ice/rock grips) and Vanz (dual metal spikes and rubber pads).

I’ve often seen tripods in which one leg can be unscrewed and used on its own as a monopod, either with or without attaching it to the center column. Typical of video tripods, the Ridley doesn’t actually have a center column, but you can use any leg as a monopod, unscrewing it from the canopy and attaching the head directly to it. Moreover, you can unscrew all three legs from the canopy if you wish, but why would you want to? Let’s see…

Unscrewing a single leg gives the option of using the tripod as a bipod, or the removed leg as a monopod. However, if you remove all three legs, you can use the canopy with the optional Vanz footwear that I mentioned just now. These dual metal spikes with rubber pads can screw directly into the canopy, effectively transforming the Ridley into a tabletop tripod and adding yet more versatility.

A nice little extra included with the tripod is the 3 Legged Thing Toolz2. It’s a smart multi-function tool, with a keyring attachment. It includes two different sizes of hex keys, a coin/flat blade key, a bottle opener, and a carabiner. It’s handy for a whole range of tripod/photographic tasks as well as for grabbing a quick drink during thirsty work.

3 Legged Thing generally goes the extra mile, and that’s certainly the case (so to speak) with the Ridley. It comes complete with a high-quality padded soft case that packs plenty of design flourishes, as well as the tripod kit itself. There’s a pair of internal securing straps for the tripod and an internal mesh pocket, all with Velcro fasteners. A separate zippered side pocket gives additional storage complete with an internal zippered three-section organizer. There’s a detachable and adjustable shoulder strap as well as a carrying handle, plus a carabiner-style hook. I’d use the last of these for attaching the bag to one of the weight hooks on the tripod, after popping a suitably weighty object inside.

3 Legged Thing Ridley: Performance

The sheer quality of the 3 Legged Thing Ridley is so impressive that I’m happy to just sit and look at it, or play with its cleverly designed features. But naturally, the kit’s performance as a tripod is what really counts. There’s good news all around, as it gives really solid support for even heavyweight cameras, boasting a payload rating of 14kg / 30lb. The tripod retains excellent resistance to unwanted flexing and vibrations, all the way up to its maximum operating height of 164cm / 64.6in (including head). That’s pretty lofty for a three-section tripod, considering that there’s no center column, as is the case for most video tripods.

Although the built-in leveling base precludes the addition of a center column, a bonus of this is that when the legs are splayed to their widest locking angle, you can shoot from ultra-low levels for creative effect, without a center column getting in the way. With the fluid head in the mix, the minimum operating height gives you the literal lowdown at just 24.5cm / 9.6in. And despite having 3-section legs, the folded length of the complete kit for stowage is reasonably compact at 79cm / 31.1in.

The complete kit (including fluid head) weighs in at 2.4kg / 5.3lb, so Ridley is easy to take along for the journey. From a performance standpoint, it’s also very quick and easy to use. The twist locks only require minimal rotation for locking and unlocking the leg sections, and the leg angle locks are similarly simple and intuitive. The multiple leg angles also make it easy to work around obstacles or on very uneven terrain, as well as enabling ultra-low-level shooting.

Remove a leg, and Ridley works well as a monopod with the head attached. I’m 6ft 5in tall and didn’t think that a 3-section leg would extend to a sufficient height for my personal monopod use, without a center column to add into the mix. However, full extension in monopod mode worked out just fine for me. If you’re a complete giant, you could always remove two legs and one of the feet, then screw the top of one leg into the bottom of the other to double the available height.

3 Legged Thing Ridley: Verdict

I just love the 3 Legged Thing Ridley tripod. It’s a first-class, fully pro-grade set of legs that’s easy to live with and genuinely fun to use. The built-in leveling base works a treat for videography and for shooting sequences of stills for stitching into panoramas. The twist-clamps for the extending leg sections and the pushbutton leg angle locks couldn’t be any quicker or easier to use, and everything’s cleverly designed, expertly engineered and immaculately finished.

So yes, the Ridley is a great set of legs, but I’d definitely go for the complete kit that includes the similarly fabulous 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC fluid head. Not only is the head a perfect match in terms of design, features, and performance, it’s also available in the same choice of colorways, satisfying my sense of style (if I actually had one). Sure, neither the legs on their own nor the complete kit come cheap, but they’re both worth every cent of their asking prices and more besides, if you’re in the market for some pro-grade support.

Alternatives

I hate carrying things. I try to keep my photography kit as light and minimal as possible, but sometimes (well, a lot of the time) I need a tripod.

Travel tripods are usually an exercise in deciding which compromise will annoy me least. The lightest models can feel flimsy, the reassuringly solid ones are too heavy to carry all day, and the clever designs that balance both often come with a price that makes me reconsider whether I really need a tripod at all.

So when I got a chance to test the Heipi 3-in-1 W28S Travel Tripod, I jumped at it. A lightweight carbon fiber tripod with all the bells and whistles, but for half the price of Peak Design’s version – sounds great!

Its defining feature is the unusual three-pillar center column. Pull it out and it becomes a second, aluminum mini tripod, complete with adjustable leg angles and accessory threads.

The supplied low-profile ball head reveals a spring-loaded smartphone holder hidden beneath its Arca-type plate. And at 1.4kg, it is light enough to travel; it folds to 45cm long and just 7.5cm across, yet reaches 152cm and carries a quoted 20kg payload.

In our review, my colleague Matthew Richards called it “very good value for a tricked-up carbon fiber travel tripod,” and that is where the W28S really wins me over.

It costs $399 / £349, compared with $599 / £599 for Peak Design’s carbon fiber Travel Tripod and $900 / £800 for the newer Peak Design Pro Tripod. Peak Design’s models remain beautifully engineered and more polished, but the Heipi offers an enormous amount of functionality for considerably less.

It is not flawless. The 12 fliplocks on the legs are stiff and slower to open individually, while the 5-section legs taper to fairly spindly 14mm lower sections.

Our tests found some flex and vibration near maximum height, although Matthew still judged it “more sturdy and rigid than many travel tripods on the market.” The mini tripod can also flex when its legs are spread especially wide.

However, in my endless quest for something light enough to pack, solid enough to trust and more reasonably priced, the W28S balances all three better than almost anything else I have seen. My travel tripod search might finally be over.

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Take a look at the best travel tripods and see how they compare to the best tripods for photography across all categories.

I’ve been using tripods for about 50 years but just when I thought I knew them inside out, something new has taken me by surprise. Based in Shenzhen, China, Heipi isn’t a company that’s really been on my radar but they’re now celebrating their 7^th anniversary. The brand is the brainchild of an engineer who’s also a passionate wildlife photographer. Combining these two facets of his skills set, he launched his first tripod launch in 2019, and the company made a big splash three years later with a 3-in-1 travel tripod, based on a Kickstarter campaign that raised a million dollars in a mere 30 days, from 3,000 backers.

The new Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S that I’m reviewing here is the company’s new, updated and upgraded flagship tripod kit, joining the other tripods, tripod heads, clamps, mounts, magic arms and accessories already in the Heipi catalog. Innovative, cleverly designed and nicely built with impressive attention to detail, the W28S aims to be one of the best travel tripods on the market, or perhaps I should say that it aims to be two of the best travel tripods plus a selfie stick, all rolled into one travel-friendly package.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Specifications

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Price

What price a pair of travel tripods plus a selfie stick and a low-profile ball head, all bundled into a single product and wrapped up in a stylish travel bag? The Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S lists at $399 / £349 / AU$649, which is very reasonable for just one carbon fiber tripod (the smaller one in the dual-tripod design is actually aluminum), especially considering that it’s such a comprehensive kit with such a rich feature set.

A comparably compact carbon tripod is available in the space-saving shape of the Peak Design Travel Tripod carbon fiber, which costs $599 / £599 / AU$1,169, and the newer Peak Design Pro Tripod which is even pricier at $900 / £800 / AU$1,500. On the face of it, the Heipi looks a proper bargain.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Design & Handling

The 2-in-1 or even 3-in-1 design, depending on which way you look at it, isn’t the only crafty concept behind the Heipi’s build. When I said I thought it was reminiscent of the Peak Design Travel Tripod carbon fiber, it’s not just because both are made from carbon fiber, but because they both have a similar space-saving design element.

For a while now, the travel tripod trend has been to have swing-up legs, which save space if you fully extend the center column and then invert the legs so that the feet encompass the head. It takes a bit off the stowage height but makes setup and takedown more of a time-consuming chore. Like the Peak Design, the Heipi doesn’t have swing-up legs but does have center column that uses the space between the legs, but in a different way. The Peak Design has a triangular section center column and specially shaped legs that wrap around it, thus filling the gaps.

The Heipi doesn’t really have a center column as such. Instead of a central column that sits between the tripod legs, it has three triangular profile blades (for want of a better term), that take up the spaces between the legs, but on the outside. The net results is pretty much the same, in that all of the available space is used and nothing goes to waste in the pursuit of compactness.

From an operational perspective, the 3-pillar column works like any other center column, in that you can loosen a locking mechanism (this time a rotary dial at the top) and extend the column upwards. Just pay attention to the warning line at the bottom of each mini tripod leg, indicating the maximum safe extension height. Go beyond this and you can pull the center column out altogether and transform it into a mini tripod, complete with adjustable leg angle locks and a 1/4-inch threaded socket on each leg for attaching a accessories or a magic arm (Heipi can sell you one of those as well).

Not just for doubling up on tripods, removing the 3-pillar column has the advantage that you can invert it and slide it back in to the main tripod again, from underneath. This enables shooting right down to ground level, with the usual caveat that the camera is inverted. More on low-level shooting later but for now, I’ll reiterate that while the main tripod has carbon fiber legs, those of the 3-pillar column / mini tripod are made from aluminum.

Some like to twist, others prefer to flip. Again like the Peak Design travel tripod, the Heipi has slim profile flip locks which take up very little space and only stick out from the legs by a tiny amount, thanks to the way they’re shaped. A key difference is that they’re quite stiff to operate and it’s a real struggle to grasp them all in one hand and open them with a single gesture. You’re more likely to settle on working them one by one, which can take a while as there are no less than 12 of them altogether.

An upgrade to Heipi’s original flip lock design is that the new and improved version gives a stronger locking force with uniform pressure applied around the entire circumference of the leg sections. The new locks are also easier to detach for cleaning and maintenance. The leg sections themselves start with a reasonably sizeable 26mm diameter at the top, working downwards in 3mm increments to a relatively spindly 14mm at the bottom. The bottom sections do look and feel a little flimsy but that’s the price you usually pay for space-saving 5-section legs, compared with 3-section or 4-section legs. To be fair, I’ve seen thinner bottom leg sections on some up-market travel tripods.

Most tripods have three separate locking angles for each leg, which can help if you’re working around obstacles or setting up on tricky terrain. Many of them use spring-loaded locking mechanisms that you either pull out or press in. The Heipi adopts a mix and match approach, with locks that pull out for the main tripod and push in for the mini tripod. It makes sense as you can’t have anything that sticks out in the mini tripod legs, or they wouldn’t be able to slide all the way into the platform on the main tripod.

Many tripods feature a weight hook, which is useful for hanging ballast and reducing the risk of them swaying in a breeze. The Heipi has a variation on the theme in that it has a loop of weight rope instead. That’s all well and good if you’ve got a carabiner or some other method of attaching a weight but is arguably less convenient than just having a simple hook to hang something on. Naturally, the normal practice of fixing a weight hook on the bottom of a tripod’s center column wouldn’t work with the Heipi’s 3-pillar design.

Switching from top to bottom, the feet are formed from removable rubber pads. Unscrewing the feet reveals 30mm metal spikes which you can again unscrew and invert, so that they stick out from the bottom of the foot instead of from the top. This effectively transforms the feet from pads to spikes, the latter giving a firmer footing on loose ground.

The metal hooks have eyelets in them for inserting a tool and twisting them around to unscrew them from the top or bottom of the feet and reinsert them in the other.

Enough talk of legs, let’s move onto the head. It’s a rather clever one, after all. It can attach directly to either the main legs or small legs but in the normal configuration of the tripod, it’ll fit to the small legs which are then inserted into the main legs to form the 3-pillar column. Naturally, the only thing you can’t do is to attach the head to both sets of legs at the same time, as you only get one head in the kit and not two, unless you buy a second one separately. That said, pretty much any tripod head should be compatible with the kit, so long as it has a standard 3/8in threaded socket and its mounting disk fits within the 60mm diameter of the center column locking ring.

The low-profile ball head looks right at home when fitted to either tripod, as well as to the smaller when used in center column mode. In case you’re wondering, the platform of the main tripod has a spring-loaded, retractable mounting screw that neatly moves out of the way when the 3-pillar column is inserted.

The lock/release mechanism for the Arca type quick-release plate relies on twisting the upper section of the head. A protrusion on either side helps to enable a firm grip but there’s no additional security lock to avoid accidental release. The camera platform of the head also features a bubble level, to aid accurate leveling.

The underside of the QR plate reveals the attachment screw for the camera. It can be tightened or released with a hex key (supplied) or a coin, but there’s no D-ring for fastening it or undoing it with just a finger and thumb.

Another hidden gem of the design is that the ball head features a pull-out smartphone mount. Like other elements of the tripod, it’s spring-loaded for convenience. One thing that’s less convenient about it is that if you have even a thin cover on the back of your phone, you might need to remove it as there’s only a narrow gap to push it through. Even so, it adds credibility to the Heipi’s claim of working as a selfie stick.

The main ball action of the head relies on a single twist-clamp lever for loosening and locking it. The usual cutout in the ball socket enables 90-degree rotation of the camera for portrait orientation shooting, in the absence of an L-bracket. Slight negative points are that there’s no independent friction adjuster to tailor the action to alternative lightweight and heavy camera combos, and the locking lever needs to be fairly precisely positioned. You might well find that you need to pull it out, slip it over its splines and re-engage it again to avoid it fouling on other parts of the head.

One thing that I always like to see, and that’s present and correct in the Heipi ball head, is a separate pan-only lock. Not only does it have one, but it comes complete with a 360-degree scale marked in 5-degree increments. What’s more, a secondary screw with a hex head enables you to swap between smooth panning and high-precision 10-degree click steps. It’s a bit like using the aperture control ring on a lens that has a click/de-click switch.

One of my pet hates is instruction leaflets for all manner of gadgets, that have such tiny print that you can’t actually read them. I’m happy that the guide supplied with the Heipi is not only entirely legible, but includes color photos of various parts, functions and facilities, enabling a better understanding of the various features and facilities on offer.

The tools supplied with the tripod comprise hex keys in three different sizes, as shown below. That’s really all you need for any operational or maintenance task.

Everything wraps up safe and sound in a weather-proofed bag that’s supplied with the tripod. It’s a snug fit, so there’s no wasted space and the carrying size is as small as possible. It also has an adjustable, detachable shoulder strap that fastens to loops at either end of the bag with Velco strips.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Performance

I like my tripods to be big and small in equal measure. I want them to be tall enough at their maximum height for comfortable shooting (and I’m 6ft 5in), but nice and small when folded down so that they’re compact travelling companions. The Heipi serves mostly well on both counts. The maximum operating height with the 3-pillar center column fully extended is a fairly modest 152cm / 59.8in, but that’s still taller than a number of travel tripods that I can think of. Meanwhile, the folded height of just 45cm / 17.7in enables it to stow away in tight spaces, as does the 7.5cm / 3.0in diameter, courtesy of the space-saving leg/3-pillar column design.

A key performance benefit is the whole ‘dual tripods’ thing. The main tripod works well as a regular, go-to tripod for all sorts of shooting scenarios, while the mini tripod is great for tabletop use, ultra-low-level shooting (without inverting the center column) and for selfie stick action. In its regular configuration as one complete tripod with a 3-pillar center column, the Heipi has a hefty payload rating of 20kg / 44lb. That seems a bit ‘optimistic’ to my mind, given the relatively thin bottom leg sections, but I’m never likely to put that much load on it anyway.

The maximum height of a tripod is one consideration, but the minimum shooting height can be equally important from a creative perspective. Both of the main and mini tripods that make up the kit can shoot very close to the ground, with a minimum operating height of just 6cm / 2.4in. That’s thanks to the adjustable locking leg angles and the removable nature of the center column / mini tripod. However, I found that the mini tripod was quite prone to unwanted flexing and sagging when the legs were splayed to wider operating angles.

The head (or heads if you buy and use an extra one) can attach to both the main and mini tripods. The platform in the main tripod features a large bubble level to aid with leveling, and it’s a lot more useful than the miniscule bubble levels featured in some tripods. Correctly leveling the legs ensures that panning will also be on the level, rather than the camera going on the slant during the panning process. That’s an important consideration when shooting video, or a sequence of stills to stitch into a panorama.

The only slight issue with the large bubble level is that you have to raise the 3-pillar column a little to get a really clear view of it. Back on the plus side, both platforms in the main and mini tripods feature a grub screw for firmly locking the head in place. This can be very useful as it effectively guards against the head coming unscrewed on its main mounting screw if and when you’re panning in an anti-clockwise direction.

I’ve saved arguably the most crucial performance factor until last, and that’s the rigidity of the tripod and its resistance to unwanted flexing and vibrations. I’ve touched on this for the small mini tripod, which is made from aluminum, but the main carbon fiber legs have their own story to tell. And that story is that they’re made from a mix of T700 high-tensile fibers and T400 impact-resistant fibers, designed to enhance stability and weight loss. However, there’s no getting away from the fact that 5-section legs result in spindly bottom sections and I found that at or near its maximum operating height, the tripod was a little prone to flexing and vibration. However, it’s still more sturdy and rigid than many travel tripods on the market.

Heipi 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S: Verdict

There’s a lot to love about the Heipe 3-in-1 Travel Tripod W28S, and top of the list is that there’s not a lot of it. I like that it folds down nice and small, making it an ideal travel companion for the journey, which is mainly what travel tripods are all about. Thanks to the 5-section legs, it reaches a decent if modest maximum operating height, in conjunction with the 3-pillar extending center column, which itself is what sets the Heipe apart from the crowd of its 3-legged cronies. I’m so impressed that you can remove the center column and use it as a whole other mini tripod or selfie stick, that I’m frankly amazed the design isn’t featured far and wide in other tripods.

I’m not going to give the Heipe a completely glowing report, however. Little niggles include spindly bottom leg sections that impair rigidity at or near maximum operating height. Those 5-section legs also equate to a lot of flip locks to contend with, each of which is surprisingly stiff and unyielding. The Heipe also doesn’t conveniently convert into a monopod, although that’s certainly not unusual amongst travel tripods rather than full-sized sticks. All in all, this tripod, or perhaps collection of tripods, is a crafty design that’s very well implemented, and very good value at the price.

Alternatives

Think Peak Design and you’re probably thinking photo bags and backpacks, and those clever Peak Design Slide camera straps with their quick-release mechanisms. However, the company also makes general travel luggage, outdoor gear, phone cases, wallets, and even gadget mounts for cars and motorcycles. The California-based outfit was founded in 2010 with a mission to ‘build happy and meaningful lives for the people that work there', and, hopefully, some of that meaningful happiness will spill over to people who buy their products.

Fast-forward to 2020, and the company launched its first and so far only tripod, in the somewhat revolutionary shape of a very distinctive travel tripod. We’ve reviewed it very favorably in both of its Peak Design Travel Tripod (Aluminum) and Peak Design Travel Tripod (Carbon Fiber) editions. The company designed and launched its first tripod off the back of a crowdfunding campaign, which is its go-to business method, and the result is undeniably one of the best travel tripods on the market.

The new Peak Design Pro Tripods inherit the innovative design and features of the original Travel Tripod and build them into a (mostly) full-sized range of kits. As such, the new models are available in Pro, Pro Lite, and Pro Tall versions, each of them aiming to be among the best tripods for photography, as well as being among the best carbon fiber tripods. As you’ve probably guessed, though, the Pro Lite is relatively lightweight and downsized, compared with the other two more full-sized sticks.

Peak Design Pro Tripod: Specifications

Peak Design Pro Tripod: Price

Full-sized, heavy-duty, carbon fiber tripod kits that are also reasonably lightweight and fold down small for the journey don’t come cheap. One of my all-time favorites is the 3 Legged Winston Pro 2.0 kit, complete with AirHed Pro Ball Head, which will set you back around $500 / £400 / AU$750. Then there’s the somewhat legendary Manfrotto MT055CXPRO3 Carbon Fiber Tripod (legs only) for around $500 / £399 / AU$850, but it’s also available in kit options with various heads.

In that context, the Peak Design Pro Tripod kit looks pretty pricey at $900 / £800 / AU$1,500, whereas the Pro Tall is understandably even more expensive at $1,000 / £900 / AU$1,700, as there’s simply more of it, and the least expensive Pro Lite is still very dear at $800 / £700 / AU$1,400. On the face of it, none of these three tripods looks like they’re going to win any ‘Great Value’ awards, but considering the innovative, no-compromise designs, they could still be very well worth the money.

Peak Design Pro Tripod: Design & Handling

After decades of being a keen photographer, it’s very rare that a tripod walks into my studio and really grabs my attention. The Peak Design Travel Tripod did exactly that a few years ago, with sufficient wow-factor to make me actually open my mouth and say ‘wow’. Looking as super-skinny as a catwalk model, the tripod was designed with oval-profile legs that wrap around a triangular center column.

The net result is that the tripod is incredibly slim when folded, while also avoiding the time-consuming chore that you get with the vast majority of travel tripods. That’s because with the Peak Design and its integral head, you don’t need to fully extend the center column and swing the legs up to achieve a compact stowage size. All of these design facets in regard to the legs, center column, and head are inherited by the next-gen ‘Pro’ tripod range.

One notable difference is that the Pro tripods have four sections in each leg rather than five, which makes setup and takedown quicker and easier, as there are fewer leg section clamps to contend with. The leg sections themselves are made from the good stuff. Like anything else, carbon fiber isn’t all created equal, but this tripod is constructed from premium-grade 3k weave, 2x2 twill carbon fiber, along with CNC-machined and anodized 6061-T6 recycled aluminum for the ball head, hub, load hook and leg locks, rather than using any die-cast parts.

As with most tripods great and small nowadays, it’s not just the height of the legs that you can adjust, but also the angle from vertical. True to form, the Pro has three lockable leg angles when unfolded for use. The wider angles enable greater stability and resistance to the tripod toppling over when it’s set to a short operating height. Multiple angles also make it easier to work on uneven terrain and around obstacles.

The ball head is equally innovative as the tripod legs, and a crafty bit of design in its own right. The compact, integrated design helps to keep stowage size to a minimum, but it’s nevertheless full of clever tricks. A twist-action lock at the base of the head allows for super-fast release and locking of the ball and socket clamp. The only slight downside is that you have to raise the center column slightly to enable anything more than a slight range of tilting movement of the ball head, and to enable shooting at extreme angles and vertically upwards or downwards, as well as for swapping from landscape to portrait orientation shooting, unless you’re using an L-bracket.

While the ball head has a good range of adjustment if you raise the center column a smidge, there’s also a full 360-degree of independent lateral rotation, thanks to a separate panning lock. The panning mechanism has a marked scale and a lovely fluid feel, making the head well-suited to shooting video as well as stills.

One particularly nice touch is the bubble level. It protrudes from the outer circumference of the camera platform and also acts as the lock/release catch for the Arca-Swiss type quick-release plate. And to avoid any expensive accidents if you inadvertently knock the bubble assembly, there’s also a sliding safety lock with marked open and closed positions.

The QR plate itself is a fairly small, square affair, but you can use other plates if you feel the need. My only complaint about the supplied plate is that it can’t be fastened to your camera without the use of a hex key, but at least one is supplied with the tripod, as pictured below. If you'd prefer a more 'hands-on', tool-free QR plate, the Peak Design Field Plate is available as an optional extra.

There’s more trickery down below. A weight hook is featured at the bottom of the center column and, unlike those that need endless twisting on a thread to fit or remove them, this one secures or releases with a spring-loaded lock and a one-third twist.

What’s more, with the weight-hook removed, the dual-sized hex wrench tool that’s stowed inside the center column pops halfway out by a further spring-loaded mechanism, while the use of magnets stops it from falling all the way out unless you actually tug on it. If my memory serves me rightly (and I’m pretty sure it does), the Peak Design Travel Tripod comes with an additional Mobile Phone Mount, but you can buy that separately for use with the Pro, at a cost of around $20 / £20 / AU$55.

Moving further down, right to the bottom of the tripod, sturdy rubber pads are the footwear of choice. Made from non-slip TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethane), they’re extremely durable and work well on most surfaces. For very soft or loose ground, you might be better off with metal spikes, and these are available as an optional extra, costing around $50 / £45 / AU$80.

Finishing with a flourish, the tripod kit is all wrapped up in a very nicely tailored and padded soft case with a single zippered opening and an adjustable shoulder strap.

Peak Design Pro Tripod: Performance

Peak Design points out that it developed the Pro range of tripods in collaboration with the renowned photographer and filmmaker, Jimmy Chin. It also says that they’re based on the groundbreaking architecture of Peak Design’s original Travel Tripod, but scaled up to offer significantly greater stiffness and maximum operating height. I’d say these comments are bang on and that, as I’d expect from a tripod co-developed by a photographer and filmmaker, it works well as a hybrid stick for both photography and videography. That’s mostly thanks to its clever head, which enables fluid panning as well as quick and easy ball and socket adjustments.

I’d also agree that one of the most crucial aspects of the Pro tripods is that you can shoot from a higher maximum height, as I found the Travel Tripod quite restrictive in this regard. Even so, the maximum height of the Pro tripod isn’t exactly towering at 168.4cm / 66.3 inches.

Being quite tall and liking to keep my shooting options as open as possible, I went for the Pro Tall version of the tripod, which extends to a more impressive 197.4cm / 77.7 inches.

The Pro Lite edition is certainly smaller and more lightweight for the journey, but only rises to a maximum height of 162.5cm / 64.0 inches, and has a lower payload rating of 15.9kg / 35lb, compared with the 18.1kg / 40lb of its heftier siblings.

It’s not just height that I’m interested in. I also like to shoot from really low angles sometimes, for creative effect. In time-honored tradition, the Pro tripods enable you to remove and invert the center column, thus shooting out from between two of the legs with the camera inverted, right down to ground level. That’s all well and good, provided that you don’t mind shooting with your camera upside down, which definitely isn’t preferable for videography.

A more convenient but more long-winded approach to ultra-low-level shooting is that you can tilt the ball head through 90 degrees, loosen a screw, and remove all but the very top of the center column. This enables you to shoot from as little as 15.9cm / 6.3in, 17.3cm / 6.8in, or 15.8cm / 6.2in above ground level, with the Pro, Pro Tall, and Pro Lite versions of the tripod, respectively.

Those specializing in videography rather than stills photography might like to go a little further with filmmaking features. Catering to these needs, Peak Design offers a Leveling Base for an additional $120 / £110 / AU$220. This enables you to level the head even if the tripod legs aren’t precisely leveled, so that your horizon doesn’t go on the slant when you start panning. And if you want to add a fluid tilt action to the head’s existing fluid pan abilities, there’s an optional Tilt Mod for $150 / £135 / AU$300.

Peak Design Pro Tripod: Verdict

I’ve tried many and varied Peak Design products, and they always give me a real feel-good factor. The company makes bold claims regarding the design, features, build quality, and performance of its Peak Design Pro Tripod range. I love it when products live up to and even surpass their billing, and that’s my experience of the Pro Tall tripod kit that I tested and immediately fell for.

Highlights for me are that the design neatly cuts out any wasted space, the specially profiled legs snugly wrapping around the center column for incredibly slimline stowage. The integral head also helps to keep packing size to a minimum, so everything’s neat and tidy. Better still, the tripod has super-fast setup and take-down times, apart from its fiddly tool-driven quick-release plate. Best of all, the kit gives rock-solid support for stills and video shooting, with a nice fluid panning feel for the latter, and remains really steady and stable even at its maximum height with all of the leg sections and center column fully extended.

The only catch, as far as I’m concerned, is the price. It’s a very expensive tripod by any standards, but I feel that Peak Design has really gone the extra mile with its no-compromise design and build, making the Pro range of tripods well worth the money.

Alternatives

Hawlowe, a brand arguably best known for its retro-styled camera lights, has unveiled a new tripod – and the company says it weighs only about as much as a water bottle. The Harlowe Rocket Air is a carbon fiber travel tripod with a fluid head that weighs about 2.2 lbs / 1 kg yet can accommodate up to ten times that weight in camera gear.

But, beyond the more compact size, what caught my eye about the Harlowe Rocket Air is that it’s also designed to hold multiple devices at once. The tripod supports up to two accessory arms, which can hold things like a smartphone to record behind-the-scenes content, lights, or other accessories.

Folded, the tripod’s four leg sections allow it to stow away at 19.7 inches / 50 cm, but at full height can reach 58.7 inches / 149cm. The center column can be reversed to hold the camera upside-down for extreme low angles, while three leg positions also allow for a range of different working heights.

Much of the tripod’s lightweight design comes from its carbon fiber build. A counterweight hook on the bottom of the center column allows creators to add a weight for more stabilization.

The tripod legs can support up to 22.05 pounds / 10 kg, but the fluid head has a lower weight rating at 6.61 lbs / 3 kg.

Those legs use twist-style locks, a design that the company says allows creators to deploy to full height in around three seconds.

The tripod includes a fluid head that has a ten-degree leveling adjustment for uneven terrain, as well as supporting smooth pan and tilt movement.

While Harlowe is perhaps best known for its retro-styled lights, the Rocket Air follows last year’s Rocket, a multi-purpose stand that can be used as a light stand as well as a modular tripod and monopod.

The Harlowe Rocket Air retails at $399 / £303 / CA$576. That includes the tripod and detachable fluid head along with a carrying bag and allen wrench; accessory arms are not included with the standard ¼”-20 thread type arms supported. The tripod is available from Harlowe, as well as select retailers.

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It’s been two and a half years since I reviewed the original 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine, and I was very impressed at the time. It was everything I’d come to expect from the company behind it – an innovative design that packs an array of useful features, with excellent build quality and an impeccable finish.

Enough said? Well, while I’ve been steadily adding to my personal collection of 3 Legged Thing photo and video equipment over the years, the new and improved AirHed Cine CC is destined for a place on my shopping list, with its ability to turn pretty much any set of legs into one of the best video tripods. It certainly looks and feels right at home on my prized 3 Legged Thing Winston 2.0 sturdy carbon tripod.

3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC: Specifications

3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC: Price

Specialist video heads are often big, heavy, unwieldy, and very expensive to buy. The 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC is ideal in my books (and those of my accountant), in that it’s relatively compact, lightweight, and reasonably priced, at $249 / £229 / AU$799. Considering the feature set and quality of construction, it’s a bit of a bargain.

3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC: Design & Handling

I didn’t find much of anything wrong with the original version of the 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine fluid, video head, but the updated ‘CC’ adds some neat new tricks. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, though, and start with the basics. The head is designed primarily with videography in mind, but it works just fine for shooting stills as well, especially if panning is the name of the game for tracking sports or wildlife subjects. It’s also a good fit for a large spotting scope.

A key feature of any video head is that it enables smooth pan and tilt movements, and, just like the original, the CC has a lovely fluid feel to it, based on a quality design and spring-loaded counterbalance mechanism. That said, the counterbalance is not adjustable to accommodate different sizes and weights of camera, but the omission is what I’d expect from a relatively compact, lightweight, and affordable video head, such as this one.

Crucial to panning and tilting is the panning handle itself, as your primary point of physical contact with the head. The handle is completely revamped in the new version, the main difference being that it has a retractable design. Not only does it enable you to choose the length that feels most comfortable and natural in use, but it also makes it less likely that you’ll need to remove it and stash it separately when stowing the head. The images above and below show the panning handle in its retracted and fully extended states.

True to type, the panning handle is mounted on splines, which enable a wide range of rotational adjustment as well as ensuring a secure fitment that avoids any slippage or wobbling. The arm release knob can be pulled out and rotated on a six-sided head to ensure it doesn’t stick out in the wrong direction and get in the way when fastened.

Also, as I’d hope for in a video head, the panning handle can be attached to the left or right side, catering not only to left-handed and right-handed users but also to individual preference. Some right-handers will prefer to use the panning handle with their left hand, to leave their right hand free for operating the mounted camera.

At the center of the left side of the head is the main tilt-action lock and release knob. It operates with smooth simplicity and can lock off the tilt very securely for fixed position shooting. Only minimal turning is required to lock or release the head’s tilt mechanism. A generous 165 degrees of tilt is on offer, from 90 degrees forward to 75 degrees backward.

Above and to the front of the tilt knob on the side of the head is a mounting socket with a standard 1/4-inch thread. You can use this to attach accessories like a microphone, LED lamp, or video monitor. 3 Legged Thing offers two sizes of optional ‘Pivot Magic Arms’ for the task.

Down at the bottom of the left-hand side is the panning lock/release knob. Like the release knob for the panning handle, this one is spring-loaded and sits on a six-sided head, so you can pull it out and rotate it to your preferred position. Loosening the lever enables a full 360-degree panning rotation. To help keep tabs on movement, there’s a 360-degree scale on the base, numbered in 15-degree intervals and marked with lines at smaller 2.5-degree increments.

To help with leveling your tripod legs, which in turn helps to ensure that everything stays on the level when you’re panning, there’s a bubble level built into the lower section of the head. A secondary bubble level is fitted to the main clamp at the top, for assistance with leveling the tilt mechanism.

Another upgrade over the original version of the head is that the clamp up on top can be removed by undoing four hex screws, and rotated laterally through 90-degree intervals. The bonus here is that you can change the orientation of the QR plate from running front-to-back to side-to-side. This can be a big advantage if you’re using a camera with an L-bracket or a cage.

The Arca-Swiss compatible quick-release plate is also redesigned. For starters, it’s longer at 100mm instead of 90mm, giving more scope for centering the weight of your camera on the head. It also features a sliding camera screw sled and spring-loaded locator pin, plus a cable management hook at the front. The QR plate also adds compatibility for 3 Legged Thing’s growing range of ‘Xpand’ accessories, cheese plates, and risers, and features multiple 1/4-inch and 3/8-inch threaded screw holes.

The images above and below show the top and bottom of the ‘XP 100 Ultra Plate’, 3 Legged Thing’s redesigned Arca-Swiss compatible quick-release plate that’s supplied with the head.

Last but not least, the head is supplied complete with 3 Legged Thing’s handy ‘Toolz’ multi-tool, which features hex keys, a flat-blade coin key, a keyring clip, and a carabiner for attaching it to whatever you see fit. It even works as a bottle opener if things get really tough.

3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC: Performance

I’m impressed that despite having a compact size and weighing in at just 690g / 1.5lb, the AirHed Cine CC has a beefy maximum payload rating of 10kg / 22lb. As I’ve mentioned, it doesn’t feature an adjustable counterbalance system, but I found it worked well with everything from small, lightweight cameras to big, hefty outfits comprising large camera bodies with super-telephoto lenses.

Any video head lives or dies by the smoothness of its pan and tilt mechanisms, and the AirHed Cine CC has a really nice fluid feel to it. The new extending panning handle is a joy to use, and all the controls feel smooth, precise, and intuitive. Suffice it to say, you can devote your entire attention to shooting rather than wrestling with the head to get what you want out of it.

It can be a bit tricky to level the legs of your tripod, which can be essential to ensure your camera stays on the level during panning. One elegant solution is to add a 3 Legged Thing LevelHed Levelling Base into the mix, but it’s pretty pricey at an additional $140 / £130 / AU$259. Something I’ve seen in some video and hybrid heads, like the Benro FS20PRO Video & Foto Head, is a secondary panning plate on top of the head, which enables you to just level the head for panning rather than the legs or a leveling base as well, but this is omitted in the AirHed Cine CC.

3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC: Verdict

The 3 Legged Thing AirHed Cine CC is a great fit for me and my gear. It’s conveniently compact and lightweight, so I can stash it away in my photo backpack and grab it whenever I need to swap from shooting stills to video. It actually works really well as a pan-and-tilt head for shooting stills in addition to video, especially if you add in an L-bracket for portrait orientation shots. The laterally rotatable clamp makes the new CC version of the head all the more ideal for this, as you can use the QR plate or slot in an Arca-Swiss compatible L-bracket running sideways instead of just front-to-back.

I also like the redesigned, retractable panning handle, as it enables me to select the length that I want to use, as well as saving on storage space without feeling the need to remove the handle every time I pack the head away. The tricked-up replacement ‘XP 100 Ultra Plate’ is yet another improvement, and I like the way that I don’t even have to use the QR plate at all if I’m shooting with big, heavy telephoto lenses that have an Arca-Swiss profile mounting foot in their tripod mounting collars. All in all, the ‘CC’ is a worthy upgrade over the original. With its clever design, rich feature list, excellent build quality, and stylish finish, this one’s a keeper.

Alternatives

Keychain cameras like the Kodak Charmera have gone viral – but that’s not the only photo gear shrinking down to fit on a key ring. Joby, the same brand behind the flexible GorillaPod, has launched a mini tripod that clips onto a belt loop or a bag that weighs just 106g / 3.7 oz.

The Joby HandyPod Clip Extend is a mini tripod built for smartphones, compact cameras, and action cameras. While the compact tripod itself is only around six inches, the built-in extending selfie stick can also be used to extend the tabletop tripod to a height of 33.5 cm / 13.19 inches.

One of the tripod’s legs has a built-in carabiner, allowing creators to clip the tripod to a belt loop or backpack. The mini tripod’s folded length under 16mm / 6.5 inches makes it larger than a keychain camera, but still fairly portable for a tripod.

I can see the new mini tripod attracting creators on the go who want to pack light. The carabiner will also allow the tripod to be attached to lanyards or camera straps.

The HandyPod Clip Extend uses a standard 1/4-inch tripod thread, allowing it to accommodate a variety of different types of cameras. Those cameras should be under 1 kg / 2.2 lbs, but that still allows the tripod to support smartphones, compact cameras, action cameras, and even some lighter travel mirrorless cameras with lightweight lenses.

True to Joby’s roots, the tripod isn’t meant to spend its life on a tabletop. The legs have clips that allow the camera to enter what the company calls “mantis mode” and cling on to the side of railings and chain link fences.

A ball head allows creators to further adjust the camera’s angle, including supporting both horizontal and vertical positions.

The tripod also has an integrated cold shoe to add a light, mic, or another accessory.

The tripod also doubles as a selfie stick and handheld grip.

Last year, Videndum – the same brand that owns Manfrotto and Lowepro – sold the Joby brand to the Chinese manufacturer Vijim. At the time, Videndum said the move would help them narrow their focus on more pro-oriented gear.

Since then, Joby, who is still based in California, has continued to launch portable camera accessories. The June 09 launch of the HandyPod Clip Extend follows a GripTight Cold Shoe mount that allows smartphones to be held from a shoe mount, also announced in June.

The new launch isn’t Joby’s first tripod with a carabiner, but the June 2026 launch takes on a different design and adds an extension selfie stick compared to earlier options like the HandyPod Clip and HandyPod Clip Action.

The Joby HandyPod Clip Extend sells for about $35 / £31 / AU$58 / CA$57. Some retailers have already opened orders, including B&H in the US and Joby's online store.

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Benro is renowned for offering solid support to photographers and videographers. The Chinese manufacturer has been going for 30 years and counting, creating a diverse range of products. I’ve been impressed by many and varied bits of Benro kit, including the Benro Cyanbird Carbon FS30 travel tripod kit, Benro SupaDupa Pro MSDPL46C monopod, Benro FS20PRO Video & Foto Head, Benro GH5C gimbal head, and the Benro QRB95DUAL Quick Rotation Lens Bracket, to name but a few.

The Benro A572LLKH Lightning Lock Aluminum Video Tripod Kit that I’m reviewing this time around is from a new series of video tripods, their main claim to fame being the ‘lightning lock’ leg system. As its name suggests, the design aims to be super-fast for setting up the tripod and packing it away again after a take. Available in both aluminum and carbon fiber versions and with different heads, it aims to be one of the best video tripod kits on the market. I put the aluminum kit with the KH fluid head to the test.

Benro A572LLKH Lightning Lock: Specifications

Benro A572LLKH Lightning Lock: Price

The current range of Lightning Lock-series legs and complete kits starts at a very competitive price and stays very reasonable through to the top end. Kicking off the selection is the set of aluminum legs on their own, priced at $175 / £220. Adding the KH fluid head for a complete kit brings the price up to $280 / £330. The carbon fiber legs on their own are slightly pricier than the complete aluminum kit, priced at $300 / £340, while the range-topping carbon kit with head sells for $380 / £450. Even that’s very affordable for a pro-grade video tripod.

Benro A572LLKH Lightning Lock: Design & Handling

Following something of a time-honored tradition for video tripods, the legs are constructed from twin-tube sections. The idea is to maximize the overall stability while reducing the risk of tortional flexing and twisting while you’re panning. As such, the top and middle sections of the 3-section legs have double tubes, and the bottom section has the usual single tube.

When folded out, the legs have the usual look of five tubes in a row. At least, that’s how things look when the tripod is set to its minimum height. As you extend the legs for loftier operation, the top two sections extend in pairs of tubes, and the single bottom tube of each leg also extends.

Another bit of video tradition is that the Benro features a spreader between the legs. Again, this is to enhance stability and to make sure that the legs stay evenly and securely positioned while the tripod is in use. The spreader is typically hinged so that it folds out automatically as you pull the legs out from their folded position. As such, the tripod doesn’t feature alternative locking leg angles for operational use, and clips are included for holding the legs together when the tripod is folded down.

Getting on to the hotter news about extending and contracting the legs to alter the height, the tripod features Benro’s new ‘lightning locks’. I’m a fan, liking that each leg has just a single lock/release lever for height adjustment, making them very quick and easy to adjust. You simply pull each lever outwards from the leg to release all three sections, make the necessary height adjustment, then push it back in again. As well as speeding up the process of height adjustments, the system also makes it easier to level the legs.

While the lightning locks enable quick and broadly accurate leveling, you still need the platform that supports the head to be perfectly leveled if panning is on the cards. That’s so that the horizon doesn’t start to tip over at an angle during panning. As such, the tripod features a 60mm leveling bowl and a simple lock/release knob underneath the main platform. Again, it’s a quick and easy system to use, as you just have to loosen the knob, make the leveling adjustment, then tighten it back up to lock the platform in place.

As an aid to leveling, there’s a bubble level on the platform, and I’m pleased that it’s comparatively large and easy to see, unlike the tiny bubble levels of some tripods. Naturally, most cameras these days feature an artificial horizon that can be more accurate than using a bubble level, but every little helps.

I’ve found that some video heads have a panning action that’s a little too loose for my liking, whereas others feel a bit tight and stiff. A neat feature of the Benro is that, as well as the pan lock/release knob, there’s an adjustable fluid drag control. This has a twist action that enables you to set just the right amount of fluid drag that you’re most comfortable with, for the job at hand.

The tilt mechanism is relatively straightforward, with a simple lock/release knob. This gives some control over the amount of drag for front-to-back tilting, but not so much as with the panning adjuster. As I’d expect, there’s a spring-loaded counterbalance system but, again, this is quite a simple affair and the head doesn’t feature an adjustable counterbalance mechanism for tailoring it to different weights of camera.

To further enhance the feel of the tilt and panning action, the head features a generously long panning handle. It has the usual elbow that angles its shaft, and is mounted on splines that avoid any risk of slippage or wobbling. The grippy rubberized hand grip area of the panning handle is also comfortably large and feels good to the touch.