Want to know how serious a photographer is about their art? Look at their tripod. Whether you’re shooting a wedding, hiking up Annapurna, or sledding down Everest, the right tripod will offer a stable base for your work and serve as an indispensable part of your travel kit.
“While I’ve by no means perfected my craft, what a lot of the honing of it has boiled down to … is carrying the smallest amount of gear I need to get the job done,” photographer Kyle Cassidy told me. “Anything that lightens the load by a few ounces is a big deal.”
I tested three high-end carbon fiber travel tripod and ball-head kits that claim to offer the best of both worlds, combining portability and flexibility with rigidity. The models were from Feisol (the $499 CT-3441 tripod and CB-40D head), Really Right Stuff (aka RRS, the $1,340 TVC-33S tripod and BH-55 LR head) and Benro (the $459 C2682TV2 Travel Angel II kit).
The primary job of a tripod is to not just hold a camera, but to hold it steady whatever else happens to be going on around it. Your photos are going to depend on that strength and rigidity when everything else around you is falling apart. Of the three, the Really Right Stuff TVC-33S impressed us the most. Thanks to its strong, simple construction and large rubberized feet, it held a heavy SLR and lens combo tightly and firmly, but without transmitting ground shakes to the camera. Both the Benro 2682T and the Feisol CT-3441 were also rigid, but picked up some vibrations from the ground and nearby objects. They were also more prone to wobbling in a strong breeze.
Standing Steady
The rigidity of the RRS is partly due to its lack of a central column. While this means the others have an elevation advantage — the maximum height of the Feisol is 72 inches, and the Benro can go up to 65 inches — the downside of using a central column is that the camera shakes much more when you use it. Basically, the column magnifies the shake.
A good tripod will also help you get closer to the action by providing a steady platform for macro shots. All of the units I reviewed have adjustable clamps on the legs that allow them to splay to get you to within a few inches of the ground — just under 8 inches for the RRS and the Benro. The Feisol has a nifty trick up its sleeve though: A screw on the bottom of the central column lets you to mount the ball head underneath the tripod, which puts your camera about 2 inches above the ground (albeit upside down). This could be an awesome feature if you are shooting small insects or the like. It does, however, leave the tripod looming over the subject, which could scare the more skittish of creatures.
If you don’t need the full tripod, one of the legs of the Benro C2682T can be removed and turned into a combination of monopod/walking stick. That’s much stealthier than a full tripod, and it’s great for getting better shots in locations that don’t allow for tripods (or for helping you hobble out of the wilderness if you break your leg while shooting).
Swapping cameras out on all these tripods was a cinch. They all offer quick release plates that screw into the bottom of the camera. This plate and camera combo can then slide quickly off the tripod head. The action takes only a couple of seconds, and all of the tripods held the camera firmly in place when the clamps were tightened. To stop fleet-fingered thieves from doing the same thing, the plates include restraining pins. The Feisol would be the easiest to steal though, as a button on the tripod head releases the pin. The Benro and RRS head on the other hand require a small hex key to release the plate and camera when they are locked in place. That could be a curse or a blessing depending on how you look at it. While it might delay a thief long enough to give you time to whack them with one of your cheaper long zoom lenses, you are going to have to waste time unscrewing the camera if you lose the hex key.
Smooth Movement
Turning the camera while it’s mounted on a tripod is also important. And here again the RRS shone. A slight twist of the main lock knob allows you to move the camera around on the ball head smoothly, with no hint of sticking or the stop-start jerky motion of cheaper models. The Feisol is also smooth to move (and locks tightly). But I found the Benro to be a little sticky, with some resistance when the locking knob is just a little loosened that made the movement jumpy. That can be annoying if you’re looking to do some precise framing or are using a longer zoom. Panorama shooters in particular will love the angle scale marked on the outside edge of the Feisol and RRS head as they make measurements for taking multiple shots at different angles very easy.
As the stability king, it’s no surprise that the Really Right Stuff TVC-33S is also the heavyweight of the bunch. At just a whisker under 6 pounds, this is the largest and heaviest tripod of the group. The Feisol is about half the weight (at 3.6 pounds), and the Benro weighs in at 4.1 pounds. Weight also translates into bulk and the RRS clearly needs the most space, with the folded tripod measuring 29.5 inches long. That’s about 4 inches longer than the others.
Still, none of this changes the fact that the Really Right Stuff TVC-33S is a fantastic performer. It’s rock steady, tough (you stun a charging Rhino with this thing and still get a picture afterwards), and flexible. But it’s also big, heavy, and stupidly expensive — particularly for anyone who isn’t a pro. For those who can’t afford the bulk or price, the Feisol CT-3441 is the next best choice. It’s not as stable as the RRS, but it is strong, easy to use and a lot lighter. It’s also more than $800 cheaper, which means you’ll have more money to invest elsewhere in your camera kit.
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