Peak Design Travel Tripod | Review with Field Use!

[Music] Peak design travel tripod today I'm going to be reviewing the peak design carbon fiber travel tripod and I'll tell you a little bit about how it performs in my tests in the field and in studio conditions unlike traditional tripods travel tripods are designed well for travel they have more leg sections so they're much smaller when not extended Peak design travel tripod is very Compact and unlike my manf FR 190 tripod it fits easily in my carry-on bag but the question is how does it stand up to real world use Peak Design's travel tripod is very well built I've handled many tripods and I can say that the latches and the legs and all the mechanisms on the tripod move very smoothly I've used the tripod in the middle of a stream and in muddy environments and so far I've had no problems with it I doubt you'd have to worry about this tripod malfunctioning in harsh environments the ball head itself is an interesting design it uses a ring around the circumference to lock and unlock the ball and it works very well it's got an ARCA Swiss compatible head with a special thin plate that fits on the bottom of your camera regular ARCA Swiss plates do fit on this tripod but you will have to remove the safety screws on the tripod head to allow bigger plates to fit additionally some Arcus withs compatible plates like this one for my Oben head also have safety screws built in so You' have to remove those as well to make sure such a plate will fit on the tripod on the other hand if you're going to only use the plate that comes with the tripod I'd recommend leaving the safety screws on the tripod because they will prevent your camera from sliding out once you unlock the head the tripod head can also be easily mounted on the bottom of the center column too if you're going for very low shots it's pretty easy to do and useful for shots that really need low angles you can also adjust the legs to different angles as well although they don't have click stops they are fairly secure and a manage to get a long exposure shot with it in the middle of a stream the tripod comes with a little tool that's actually attached to the side of the tripod and it's used to attach the plate to the bottom of the camera it's actually attached by tension it hasn't come off yet but when I'm going into a fairly rough environment I do tend to take the tool off and put it in a zippered pocket in my camera bag because at a very odd angle a sharp Rock could theoretically knock it off then we've also got a nice little attachment in the bottom of the tripod a phone holder with an ARCA Swiss base which is very useful if you want to take a phone shot this will especially appeal to people who like to take video and need some extra footage with their phone in using this tripod I immediately felt that some serious care was put into its design for example the center column has a knob that recedes into the tripod and it's magnetically held there so that there aren't any parts of the tripod sticking out I liked the ball head also it's got a single level and it's easy to adjust the only thing you should be aware of is that with some cameras with very thick bases like older dslrs the base May obscure the level so you'll need to level the head before you take your shot however with most thinner mirrorless cameras you can still see the level clearly especially if you have a pullout screen that being said for most types of shots you may not even need to be so precise with leveling except when you're extending your tripod and then you won't even have a camera on it the only downside with the ball head is that it actually doesn't have a separate panoramic bling base personally though I don't take very many panoramas even when I do landscape photography so I didn't miss this feature and I'm glad to sacrifice it to gain more compactness for those that do need to attach specialty heads though for panoramic features or for those who want to use a video fluid head it is possible if you get Peak designs Universal head adapter at some point I'm going to try my manf fro nitrotek 608 fluid head on it I also like the stability of the tripod and after using this tripod in the jungles of Brazil I can say that it's quite durable I actually also found myself using this tripod at home in studio conditions more than my bigger tripod just because it's so easy to set up and take down and so it's much easier to use than lugging a big tripod around a room say for macro photography you may have noticed that there are many other tripods on the market travel tripods like this travel tripod so what makes this one different than the other tripods out there and should you get this one over other tripods for example let's talk about weight the peak design travel tripod is 1.27 kg whereas the Oben CT 3565 is 1.45 kg also the peak Design's maximum working height is 152.4 CM whereas the working height of the gso 16.7 in travel series 1 tripod is 153 CM but its closed length is 2.5 cm longer than the peak design so I think that of all the travel tripods on the market the peak design one is certainly one of the better ones when it comes to a compromise between weight Clos length and working height the peak design travel tripod comes with a custom bag that is very snug that means it takes up minimal space in your bag which is super important for airline travel us photographers already have to deal with packing problems when we travel because gear takes up so much space so it's nice to save a little space and that's also helped by this tripod's compact ball head design which is not present on some other travel tripods I also appreciated the hook at the bottom of the tripod that can be used to hang a weight on like your bag for additional stability not all travel tripods come with this feature which can be useful for windy situations especially with lighter tripods like travel tripods one last thing I liked about Peak Design's travel tripod is that it comes with a limited lifetime warranty and that's longer than the warranties provided by Oben or gso and since a good tripod can actually last you a very long time at least 20 or 30 years that's worth thinking about conclusion after using Peak Design's travel tripod carbon fiber Edition in the middle of the dense and dangerous Brazilian tropical forest and at home for macro photography I found that the peak design travel tripod is a very fun piece of gear to use it's reliable and it's certainly become one of my favorite pieces of gear thanks for watching and I'll see you again next time

Channel: Wild Earth Photo

Views: 1,056

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Id: omXGVIYY88Q

Length: 6min 7sec (367 seconds)

Published: Mon May 20 2024