decade ago, the Giotto’s company launched a series of Vitruvian tripods, named afterstowing away. The trick was that, by fully extending the centre column before swinging the legs up, the tripod head no longer extended beyond the length of the legs, making the carrying size much smaller. Another neat trick of Vitruvian tripods was that you could unscrew one of the tripod legs, detach the centre column, and join the two together for use as a monopod, complete with ball head. Both facets of the design have been adopted in many lightweight tripods.