Thoughts about the Peak Design Travel Tripod?

[PeterN]

I have been looking for a while now to a sturdy yet lightweight travel tripod. A tripod that interested me was the Peak Design Travel tripod. It looks pretty neat and compact and also gets pretty good ratings from thecentercolumn.com (according to a kickstarter mail).

I am curious what your thoughts are!

Thank you.

[pluton]

I saw the promo material on it.  Nice idea, but stability and durability questions remain. I will examine one with interest, if/when it becomes available to examine. If you buy it without seeing a copy in person first, make sure it can be returned!

[PeterN]

I saw the promo material on it.  Nice idea, but stability and durability questions remain. I will examine one with interest, if/when it becomes available to examine. If you buy it without seeing a copy in person first, make sure it can be returned!

Thank you. According to thecentercolumn testing, it’s stiffness is comparable to the gitzo gt1555t and Sirui t-2205x.
Only 4 hours to go and more than $10million raider!

[Frank Fremerey]

Thank you. According to thecentercolumn testing, it’s stiffness is comparable to the gitzo gt1555t and Sirui t-2205x.
Only 4 hours to go and more than $10million raider!

if you are convinced, do not ask ... my opinion since 1984 is the light and flexible way, a Manfrotto 190 with a great ball head, which could easily cost more than the legs

[PeterN]

if you are convinced, do not ask ... my opinion since 1984 is the light and flexible way, a Manfrotto 190 with a great ball head, which could easily cost more than the legs

Did I say that I was/am convinced? I don’t think so.

BTW: I also have the Manfrotto 190FM3 leg’s but with a pretty heavy Gitzo ball head. The size of the total package made me look to alternatives

[Airy]

So far I've carried their (pd) messenger bag and, more recently, their 5l sling bag on a near-daily basis.
These guys could easily convince me to take a tripod along, so I'll close my eyes.
My current tripod (Manfrotto 190CXpro 3 + 410 geared tripod head) is not the kind I would carry with me all the time.

[CS]

So far I've carried their (pd) messenger bag and, more recently, their 5l sling bag on a near-daily basis.
These guys cold easily convince me to take a tripod along, so I'll close my eyes.
My current tripod (Manfrotto 190CXpro 3 + 410 geared tripod head) is not the kind I would carry with me all the time.

That will not improve as you get to my age. 

[Akira]

Personally, I'm not really a fan of lever-lock style tripods.  The lever mechanism will become loose over time.  I'm not sure if the tripod in question has the mechanism the allow "the users" to tighten the lock.  I do understand that the twist-lock system that I always prefer require round pipes for the legs which makes it difficult to make the entire tripod any slimmer without compromise the sturdiness.

In addition, I don't really like a tripod head with the tightening rings on the camera base instead of the base of the head.  Arca-Swiss P series and Gitzo Systematic Ballhead come to my mind.  It is very tricky to lock the ball without inadvertently altering camera angle, which frustrates me.  The same could go with the Peak Design.

I would look for the twist-lock style tripods with the conventional ballheads like Gitzo Traveler series (yes, they are expensive!) or Leofoto LX series (yes, they could be sued by Gitzo!).

[Airy]

That will not improve as you get to my age. 

I'll try to get there with, or without, tripod

[PeterN]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. The PD kickstarter campaign is over and I did not sign-up. But many others did. PD raised $12million. Pfew.  Good for them. They indeed have some interesting products.
I did not like the deadline pressure (you could also say I should have started looking sooner ;-) ).
In a way, it is fun to start a quest for the "best for the buck" and learn about stiffness, damping,  etc.
Regarding lever vs twist locks: I did not like the twist lock system of the travel tripod I used to use. It was far less reliable than the lever lock. However, that might have been an issue of that model so I will definitely not exclude twist locks.
Leofoto seems to offer some excellent tripods, especially considering the price but I do not like their blatant tendency to copy others (RRS, Gitzo). But I will look into the LX series (and compare it to the LS series).

[MFloyd]

Finally, I didn't subscribe. Although I did for some of their other Kickstarter projects. Probably it doesn't suit my needs. BTW, I stil didn't made up my thoughts for a decent tripod... 😊