SUPERTEST

The latest lightweight tripods have gone from strength to strength, and can be incredi bly compact without comprom ising their operatin g height and load ra ting

THE CONTENDERS

Benro Rhino 05C VX20 £199/$215

Benro Slim Travel FSL09CN00 £125/$156

Kenro Ultimate Travel £139/$210

Manfrotto Befree 2N1 £149/$219

Manfrotto Befree 3-Way Live Advanced £187/$279

MeFOTO GlobeTrotter £180/$219

Novo Explora T10 £249/$320

Peak Design Travel Tripod £315/$350

Any outing is likely to be more pleasurable without a cumbersome tripod in tow. Conventional tripods tend to be big, heavy and unwieldy, so we often leave them at home, where they’re of no use whatsoever. By contrast, lightweight or ‘travel’ tripods are made to be compact and easily manageable. Traditionally, though, they’ve often been flimsy, relatively unstable and too small to enable a comfortable operating height.

The new breed of travel tripods aim to give you the best of both worlds. The vast majority have legs that swing upwards for stowage, so that the head is encircled by the feet. This 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 Super Test are sold as kits, complete with heads. Ball heads are by far the most common, as there’s a further space-saving advantage, without the need for multiple locking levers that stick out from the head, or need to be removed to pack the tripod away. That said, the latest Manfrotto Befree kit bucks the trend with a slimline 3-way head, while the Peak Design tripod features a novel integrated head. Either way, they’re not short on sophistication and many heads feature independent panning locks and adjustable friction dampers, in addition to the main locking knob. Let’s take a closer look.

BENRO RHINO 05C VX20 £199/$215

A new design from Benro, the Rhino is a compact but sturdy and dependable kit

The Rhino is available in a range of sizes including the 14C, 24C and 34C, with a folded size of around 49cm, a max operating height of around 170cm and varying load ratings ranging from 16kg to 20kg. They’re labelled as Series 1 through to Series 3 in the USA. The 05C (Series 0 in the States) is a more compact affair. It folds down to just 35cm, 3cm longer than the other Benro tripod on test, yet stretches 10cm higher with a max operating height of 140cm. The load rating is significantly higher at 10kg, compared with just 4kg for the Slim Travel.

Although small, the carbon fibre kit is beautifully built. It’s good value at the price but there’s no cheaper aluminium edition. Clever tricks include multi-angle legs with a simple pushbutton release mechanism. One of the legs can be unscrewed and combined with the centre column to form a monopod and, as usual, the legs are also reversible for compact stowage. The VX20 ‘dual panoramic’ ball head has a new design also, and features two independent panning mechanisms, one at the base and one at the top, so you can rotate just the camera platform, which features an Arca-Swiss type quick-release plate.

Performance

Despite featuring 5-section legs and a 2-section extending centre column, the Rhino is rigid and resistant to flexing and vibrations. It’s more solid than the older Benro Slim Travel, although it’s also about 25 per cent heavier.

FEATURES

01 The VX20 ball head has a bubble level and two panning mechanisms.

02 The compact size is enabled by 5-section legs and a 2-section centre column.

03 Pushbutton release makes altering leg angles easy.

04 One leg is removable, for monopod use when combined with the centre column.

05 The kit comes with rubber pads and metal spike.

VERDICT

FEATURES

★★★★☆

BUILD & HANDLING

★★★★☆

PERFORMANCE

★★★★☆

VALUE

★★★★☆

OVERALL

★★★★☆

HOW WE TEST

From small to tall, we check out the full range of tripod features and facilities