WEIGH UP YOUR OPTIONS

Travel tripods with swing-up legs can reduce carrying size, and some designs go further still to keep stowage size to a minimum. Naturally, a greater number of extending sections in each leg enables a decent maximum operating height while minimising the size. As such, most travel tripods have four or even five sections per leg, whereas most generalpurpose tripods have only three. The Benro, Kenro and Sirui travel tripods on test also feature dual-section telescopic centre columns, further increasing the difference between maximum operating height and folded size.

The downside is that larger numbers of leg and centre column sections require the operation of more clamps for setting up the tripod and packing it away, and when you need to swing the legs up and down as well, you can find that wrestling your tripod into position can be a time-consuming chore. By contrast, conventional tripods like the Manfrotto 190XPro4 and the Benro Mach3 are comparatively quick and easy to set up, although their folded size is quite large.

Another drawback of greater leg section numbers is that the bottom leg sections can end up being thin and spindly, and more prone to flexing. Each clamp is a potential weak point as well, so a greater number of sections can also reduce overall rigidity.

Travel tripods tend to be lighter, so less of a burden to carry around. The Benro and Sirui travel tripods on test weigh barely more than a kilogram, although the Kenro Karoo is closer to the weight of a conventional tripod at a little over 2kg. For larger, conventional tripods, the use of carbon fibre instead of aluminium