Peak Design Travel Tripod Review: What 15.5 Inches Is Worth

What 15.5 inches changes

Packed, the tripod is a short cylinder: 15.5 inches long, 3.25 inches across. It goes along the back of a daypack, into a bike frame bag or into the bottom of a carry-on, and the soft case in the box is a sleeve for exactly that. A tripod strapped outside a bag takes the knocks a packed one avoids, and it has to be unstrapped whenever the bag is opened.

The packed diameter is the more interesting number. A 3.25-inch tube does not force a daypack open the way a wider folded bundle of head and legs does, so the bag keeps its shape and the tripod keeps its place. That is a small, physical advantage, and the packed size is what the price pays for.

Sixty inches, twelve locks

At full height the tripod reaches 60 inches with the center column up and 51.25 inches with it down. The raised column supplies the last 8.75 inches, and a raised column is the least rigid part of the design.

Five leg sections produce twelve locks: four on each leg, since each section above the lowest has one. Photographers who set up once at a location open them once. Anyone raising and lowering the tripod through an afternoon works all twelve each time.

Low mode drops the top of the tripod to 5.5 inches, which is how ground-level shots and product work get done. The 20 lb rating comes with Peak Design's note that the tripod is optimized up to a full-frame DSLR with a telephoto lens.

One ring, one plate, one phone

The ball head locks with one adjustment ring instead of the several knobs most heads carry. That means one control to find and fewer protrusions to catch on a strap. It is also coarser: a slow, level pan is easier on a head with separate controls, which is one reason this is a stills tripod first.

The plate clamps on top and the tripod ships with one standard plate. The box also holds a soft case, a phone mount, a hex tool with a clip and a bushing removal tool. A phone mount is included, so the same tripod holds the device most people actually shoot with; the load hook under the column is part of the tripod, not an accessory, and takes a bag in wind.

0.63 lb, or 18 percent

The carbon version costs $200 more and weighs 0.63 lb less, which is 18 percent of the aluminum tripod's 3.44 lb and 22 percent of its own 2.81 lb. Both are rated to 20 lb, fold to the same dimensions and use the same head. The legs differ, anodized 6061-T6 aluminum on one and carbon fiber on the other; the ball head, hub and load hook are powder-coated aluminum, and the locking ring is polycarbonate/ABS.

Whether that saving is worth $200 hinges on how the tripod travels. On a bike or a ten-mile hike, 0.63 lb is a saving carried every mile. In a car, it is $200 spent on weight nobody carries.

Lifetime warranty, minus the wear

Peak Design's lifetime warranty extends to defects in manufacture and to failures that stop the tripod working. It does not cover cosmetic blemishes, scratches, stains, misuse or accidents. Replacements come from open-box, gently used or refurbished stock when Peak Design has it.

For a tripod that lives on a bike or in a pack, the exclusions decide what the warranty is worth. A scuffed leg is wear, not a claim; a leg bent in a fall is not covered. A failed lock or a cracked hub is, and that is the failure that could send a $400 tripod to a shelf.

When the fold is dead weight

If the tripod lives in a car or a studio, the folded size answers a problem the owner does not have. A conventional three-section tripod sets up with fewer locks and reaches similar heights, and what the price adds is compactness, not more height or load capacity. The same is true for video: a fluid head with a pan handle is the proper fit, and this ball head is not it.

Buy the Travel Tripod when it has to come with you on foot, when the camera is full-frame with a telephoto, and when the bag has room for a 15.5-inch tube. Skip it when the tripod stays near the car or when the camera is light enough that 20 lb of capacity is irrelevant.