Travel Tripod / Peak Design

Peak Design spent four years on the Travel Tripod to solve one problem the category had ignored: the wasted air between round legs. By reshaping the legs to pack tightly around the centre column, the folded tripod comes down to roughly the diameter of a water bottle while still reaching about 1.5 metres extended. The five-section legs release together on cam levers, and the ball head replaces the usual cluster of knobs with a single adjustment ring and a locking ring. It holds up to 9.1kg, enough for most mirrorless and DSLR setups, and hides a phone mount in the centre column. It comes in aluminium or a lighter, costlier carbon-fibre version, both fully serviceable. It suits photographers who carry a tripod reluctantly and want one that disappears into a bag.