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 general-purpose 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. 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.