Tripod recommendations?

Fairyrose

Fairyrose

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Hi, travelling to the Alps and thinking of taking a tripod (never used one before). Any recommendations given that I don’t want to lug several kilos of additional weight around with me when hiking?

My camera is not all that heavy - currently Fuji xt20 but may buy a slightly larger camera soon so it should be able to hold that safely too with a decent lens, but nothing ‘extreme’...

Also, any thoughts on pods or beanbags and simply using tree stumps and rocks as tripod substitutes?

Many thanks in advance.
 
An idea of your budget might help people with their suggestions? (y) The Sirui carbon fibre travel tripod seems to get good reviews (which you should be able to find via an internet search), but it's not cheap... but that's how life is, you can't buy a new Porsche for Mini money.
 
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Thanks - budget wise I was hoping no more than £100.... is that realistic? I’m not used to shooting with a tripod and want to see if I get on with that style of photography...
 
There's is an adage that is something like............you can have two out of three of weight, cost and sturdiness, e.g. if you want light weight and sturdiness, it's gonna cost. You need to choose the two that applies to your circumstances
 
I have I have a 3LT Brian. It think they have produced even lighter weight tripods since then. One leg turns in to a monopod. For a workshop recently, I bought the biggest gorilla pod and whilst it lacks a great deal in height, it was cool being able to wrap it around a bar on the fence with my Oly EM1 Mk2 with one of the Pro zooms. Others have mentioned Manfrotto BeFree (or some such). Gitzo do. Traveller series but prepare to be shocked by the price for their stuff.

Edit: posted while you typed your budget so don’t think this helps much. Sorry!
 
Chipper said:
I have I have a 3LT Brian. It think they have produced even lighter weight tripods since then. One leg turns in to a monopod. For a workshop recently, I bought the biggest gorilla pod and whilst it lacks a great deal in height, it was cool being able to wrap it around a bar on the fence with my Oly EM1 Mk2 with one of the Pro zooms. Others have mentioned Manfrotto BeFree (or some such). Gitzo do. Traveller series but prepare to be shocked by the price for their stuff.

Edit: posted while you typed your budget so don’t think this helps much. Sorry!
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I have a Brian too. Really happy with it though I think that model is discontinued. The current range looks a bit more competitive price wise vs. Suriu and MeFoto etc than they used to be. I ended up buying a big 3LT Winston earlier this year too and like that a lot. And when I managed to lose one of the feet recently, 3LT's customer service was superb in sorting it out, not only did I get a new foot, but I got two further spares and some other associated fixings, all FOC and arrived the next day. I've had Gitzo's in the past which are undeniably another level up again but I couldn't justify the £'s.
 
Stretch your budgie (sic) to £150 and get a Sirui ET-1004. I have the c-f ET1204 but that's too far out of range, even if I could sell you mine.
 
I think they just rebooted Brian. I used it last New Year on a trip to see my brother. We waited on a backless concrete bench for 10hours for the fireworks on NYE. As the crowd swarmed, Brian’s height meant I could stand on the concrete bench and use Brian fully extended at just below my head height. It has its foibles but it will go with me on big trips rather than the GorillaPod. MPB sometimes have used tripods but I have never really clocked which ones they carry so not sure if that is a red herring.
 
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Snapsh0t said:
Stretch your budgie (sic) to £150 and get a Sirui ET-1004. I have the c-f ET1204 but that's too far out of range, even if I could sell you mine.
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That was the Sirui travel tripod I was thinking of, only the carbon fibre version (which will be well off budget). I got the Sirui N-1204X with a K10 head about 18 months ago and it seems very nicely engineered and hasn't fallen to bits on me yet - mind you, it cost enough (even though heavily discounted), so I wouldn't expect it to!
 
benro carbon slim is around £110.

I use this with a nikon d3400 and 70-300mm lens which is fine, i bought with future thinking that my next camera will most likely be a Micro four thirds.
I find it stable enough. It weighs 1kg and i have hand carried this for 8 hours around both the lakes and London. I would not want to do this with tripods weighing 2 kilo.

I would like a much taller tripod, (im 6ft2) and theoretically more stable but if its too heavy I wont carry it. My photography is based around me visiting places and taking images rather than carting a kitchen sink around as a pastime.
 
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