Starting today, Peak Design is no longer a bag company, it is also a tripod company. They just announced a new travel tripod that goes by the simple name: Travel Tripod.
If you are a fan of how Peak Design does their bags and clips, there is a good chance you will connect with their tripod as well.
The travel tripod has some features that set it apart from other tripods. (I have yet to try one, so I am trusting Peak Design’s press release on this).
Fully extended the Travel Tripod extends to 58.5 inches tall (148cm), which is what you’d expect from a tripod in aimed to fit in a bag. And in a bag, it will fold down to 15.25 inches (38.7cm)
If you look at the legs of the tripod, they are not perfectly round as in usual tripods, they are a bit curved and wrap around the base. (Kinda like the Flowtech video tripod from Sachtler). This reduces the tripod overall folded diameter to be as small as possible. (Other companies tried shrinking the center column to save space. This method tough feels more organic). At any case, the Travel Tripod folds down to 3.25 inches cylinder. Think water bottle. (My Manfrotto Befree video tripod is just shy of four inches in diameter if you are looking for something to compare to).
Actually, here is the full set of specs:
- Weight: Alloy: 1.56 kg (3.44 lbs), Carbon: 1.27 kg (2.81 lbs)
- Weight Capacity: 9.1 kg (20 lbs)*
- Collapsed Dimensions: Length: 39.4 cm (15.5”), Max Diameter: 8.3 cm (3.25”)
- Deployed Dimensions: Max height (center column raised): 152.4 cm (60″), Max height (center column down): 130.2 cm (51.25″)
- Min height (low mode): 14 cm (5.5”)
- Leg sections: 5
- Leg locks: aluminum cams
Materials: Ball head, hub, load hook: Powdercoated A380 aluminum; Legs: Anodized 6061-T6 aluminum (Alloy), Carbon F’n fiber (Carbon)
OK, moving on.
The ball head is quite a bit unorthodox as well. It uses a ring around the head to lock and unlock the head from moving. It seems like an interesting idea and time will tell if this method is adopted by the market. What it does for sure is eliminates knobs. This is good for size and good for reducing the tripod-to-things-in-the-bag entanglement ratio.
If you already own any of Peak Design’s straps or clips, you’d be happy to know that the tripod place is “just” a standard Peak Design plate, so you are already good to go.
The kit weighs 2.81lbs (carbon fiber) or 3.44lbs (aluminum alloy), in metrics that comes up to 1.2 Kg for the carbon fiber version which is lighter than my laptop.
You can get the Travel Tripod over at Kickstarter for $599 (Carbon fiber) or $349 (aluminum) starting today and ending on July 18th.
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