TRAVEL TRIPODS

Most of us like to travel light, and any photography outing is likely to be more pleasurable without a heavy tripod in tow. Conventional tripods can be unwieldy, so we often leave them at home, where they’re of no use. By contrast, travel tripods are made to be compact and light. Traditionally, though, they’ve often been relatively unstable, and too small to enable a comfortable operating height.

The new breed of travel tripods aims to offer the best of both worlds. Many have legs that swing upwards for stowage, so that the head is encircled by the feet, which reduces the folded height by around 8cm to 10cm. Some models also include as many as five sections in each leg and a two-section extending centre column, reducing the folded height even further, while still enabling a useful maximum operating height.

All of the tripods we’ve chosen for this test are sold as kits, complete with heads. Ball heads are the most common, as they offer a further space-saving advantage.

Benro Rhino 05C VX20 £199/$215

One of Benro’s newest tripod designs, the Rhino is available in a range of sizes, with a folded size of 35-49cm, a maximum operating height of around 170cm and load ratings ranging from