Peak Designs Travel Tripod

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So I caved in and got the carbon fibre one from Amazon. A snip at a mere £559. Madness but I work hard and can do what I want with my money. It is to replace my 15 year old Velbon carbon tripod which has been great, but is larger than I’d like for hiking and mountain biking. My requirements - a “full height” tripod as small and stable and light as possible. And anyway, the PD one looks soooo nice. The aluminium one is half the price (ish).

First thoughts on unwrapping it - exceptional. Many nice features. They have really thought things through. Integrated ball head with level, phone holder tucked into the centre column, clip-on allen keys, Easy lock and unlock. Arca swiss compatible head with low-profile clip for your camera if you want it. Invertible centre column. And of course the compactness of it. Only downside is that it only has two leg positions (angles). I’d prefer a middle intermediate one for use when you need a wider base due to windy conditions and don’t want to remove the bottom of the centre column.

I have to admit to being a bit amazed that it is so small, yet ends up the same height as the Velbon. It does feel very solid. I’ll be testing it in anger next week when I am back up in Skye and will report in. So far it is passing the fancy but functional bling test. Some pics for you.

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The Velbon appears to have the greater diameter leg sections and the PD bottom section looks quite slim, will that affect the stability that you will have been used to?
 
That sounds like an awful lot of cash for that tripod, as you rightly say its your money and I have always agreed with that view.

Hope you get what you really want from it performance wise regardless of the price tag, be interested to hear your thoughts
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Just commenting so I get a notification for further updates! I had bought one but the seller cancelled my order and relisted it for more money... :rolleyes:

Think I will wait till a business trip to the US and pick one up.
 
The price of the PD CF tripod has it competing with the Gitzo GK1545T-82TQD CF Travel tripod (£539 from Wex)
The Gitzo is a touch larger and heavier (42.5cm vs 39.1, 1.45kg vs 1.27kg), but has 4 leg sections rather than 5, and has a slightly higher max load (10kg vs 9,.1 kg)
Personally, if I had that much available for a travel tripod, I'd go with the Gitzo, as I suspect it's significantly more stable.
 
gramps said:
The Velbon appears to have the greater diameter leg sections and the PD bottom section looks quite slim, will that affect the stability that you will have been used to?
Click to expand...
Yes it does. The PD legs are slimmer, but they are like a hexagonal cross section rather than a plain circular cross section which seems to give them more rigidity. It is remarkably stable in my indoor tests so far. The winds of Skye will be a good test though - more on that later. I use lightweight cameras though, and am willing to compromise to get a tripod somewhere that it wouldn’t usually go.

tijuana taxi said:
That sounds like an awful lot of cash for that tripod, as you rightly say its your money and I have always agreed with that view.

Hope you get what you really want from it performance wise regardless of the price tag, be interested to hear your thoughts
.
Click to expand...
Yes, a lot of cash. You can get a perfectly serviceable tripod (like the Velbon) for a whole lot less. It will be very interesting to see just how it performs. I’m not expecting miracles. I am expecting ultra portability, ease of use and decent stability.
 
A mate of mine has the carbon model too, he has been really pleased with it but has contacted peak design about producing a cut down version of the column so that it can sit closer to the ground. I think his plan is to actually buy a second column and just cut it down himself since they are only cheap
 
I've had the aluminium model for about a year, although I haven't used it that much.

I love the compactness and it seems as sturdy as the other travel tripod that I have. The only thing that I do not like is that you need to raise the centre column slightly to adjust the ball head.
 
keeweeman said:
A mate of mine has the carbon model too, he has been really pleased with it but has contacted peak design about producing a cut down version of the column so that it can sit closer to the ground. I think his plan is to actually buy a second column and just cut it down himself since they are only cheap
Click to expand...
You can remove the lower section of the column to do this. It has two sections. From what I recall from the PD youtube instruction vid, you can turn the ball head on its side to reach the column securing bolt on the top of the column, undo it, and remove the lower part of the centre column.

You could just use it like that all the time, but you’d lose the hook and hidden phone holder that slot into the bottom of the column.
 
Compared with buying a tripod in the US and A, because my tripod was too big to fit in a luggage, the PD is brilliant. Plus, if you like shape and design, (which you may do if you are a photographer ;) ) the PD tripod has many bees knees...
 
Faldrax said:
The price of the PD CF tripod has it competing with the Gitzo GK1545T-82TQD CF Travel tripod (£539 from Wex)
The Gitzo is a touch larger and heavier (42.5cm vs 39.1, 1.45kg vs 1.27kg), but has 4 leg sections rather than 5, and has a slightly higher max load (10kg vs 9,.1 kg)
Personally, if I had that much available for a travel tripod, I'd go with the Gitzo, as I suspect it's significantly more stable.
Click to expand...
£490 at Speedgraphic:
 
They do look very good, very expensive though. I just got a cheap thing of Amazon for around £80. It's very light, very compact. Downsides are it's not the most stable and it's got a fixed up center column. But I use a tripod maybe 4 times a year.
 
First real use of the PD tripod this evening on a night photography outing here on Skye. Quite windy, with 2 minute exposures.

All worked very well indeed. The tripod is surprisingly stable considering how thin the legs are. Setup and takedown is a breeze and the lever locks are smooth and easy to use. You do need to raise the centre column a bit to be able to adjust the ball head angle. The ball head angle lock is also very easy to use, and the camera is itself locked solidly to the head with the inbuilt quick release.

More to come….
 
PD tripod continues to impress. 2nd serious outing involved a walk to a lovely bay (Camasunary) on the Isle of Skye, followed by sunset into nighttime photography then a walk back out again to the car. Ideal lightweight tripod territory. It didn’t disappoint.

Setup and takedown is a breeze. I’ve learnt that the mount locking ring has to be used otherwise there is some play in the head to camera connection. I guess that’s what the locking ring is for - to tighten everything down and obviously stop the camera falling off accidentally.

Winds were light to moderate. The camera remained properly in place for multiple exposures (for blending) over a 2hour period.
 
Took advantage of the Black Friday sales and picked up an Aluminium one. Got to say I’m pretty damn pleased with it!
Weighs a little more than I’d anticipated but it’s compactness more than makes up for that.
 
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