Travel tripod / gorillapod / what else?

futureal33

futureal33

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Hi all,

Recently bought a little Fuji x30 to take with me on holidays, travel etc, and Id like a small, compact tripod that wont give me that "argh I can't be ar5ed taking that" feeling when looking at it.

The X30 weighs in at 480g. Its a fixed lens camera, so the weight will not be any more than this.

I notice the smaller gorilla pods (original) suggest max weight of 380g. The larger gorillapods (SLR ZOOM) are upto 3kg, but the size is significantly more!

Is there a more middle of the road solution, for say upto 1kg?

Ideally something small that will fit in a small shoulder bag would be ideal. The smallest tripod I've seen is 36cm, which is still fairly long - and wouldn't fit in my bag
 
I can't see the smaller gorilla pod instantly collapsing under the weight on an X30 - might move a bit if you wanted to do a 12 hour timelapse.
 
The smaller gorilla pod will be fine with that weight.

I've had a D750 and 24-70 on the smaller one and it was fine used as a "normal" tripod. I.e standing up straight.
 
I wouldn't use my GP SLR Zoom as a tripod under an SLR, only when it's wrapped around something solid! Probably OK under a compact though. Plenty of little table top tripods available as well as assorted beanbag solutions. Have to say that I rarely use any support other than available rocks, tables, lamp posts etc. when using my baby X cameras (now including an X30).
 
A slightly left field alternative is a bean bag, that is what i usually use when i go away on holiday as i'm a cheap skate and only get a measly 15kg baggage allowance, so every kg helps

Cheap, cheerful, weighs nothing and is super compact............... just a thought ;)
 
I had the same dilema, tried the mini tripods such as the gorillapod, but they didnt do it for me, read shedloads of reviews, and ended up buying a couple of the "travel" tripods. I was very dissapointed in the Manfrotto BeFree.
However, the Redged http://www.redged.com/tsc-525k.html
is pretty good. Just over a kilo, 30cms when folded, when unfolded is up to my chest height, and I have found it pretty stable for such a small tripod. It is a little fiddly to unfold due to the high number of operations it requires, but then the upside is it can squeeze into a smaller carry bag and doesnt weight much, and is carbon fibre. Its a quality piece of equipment, and everything twists and locks very smoothly. I paid £150 for it on Amazon UK a couple of months ago, but its now showing as unavailable.
Maybe worth taking a look at
 
Mefoto RoadTrip, is light, compact when collapsed, but does not exactly go high.

Personally I would take a Gorillapod, as they are far more flexible, and the ability to use them on railings makes them very useful. I've had a X-E2 + 18-55 on one of the smaller ones without any issues
 
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Try http://www.thepod.ca/ . Can be emptied for travel (reduces weight and bulk) then filled with whatever comes to hand once at the destination. The ability to screw it into the camera makes it (IMO) a better solution than a non screwable bean bag but of course a basic bean bag can be improvised using a sock filled with sand (use a plastic bag inside the sock to prevent gritty sand getting into the zoom mechanism of the camera if you go this route!)
 
I use a Tamrac Zipshot with my Canon G12, which weighs just over 400g. I bought it after trying a relative's, I don't think I would have otherwise, but for this size of camera it is extremely portable and works very well, obviously taking it's limitations into consideration. The legs have a slight spring to them, and can be slightly splayed to get some grip. I've taken night shots at low ISOs that wouldn't have been possible without it.
http://www.tamrac.com/products/zipshot/
 
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