TechRadar Verdict
The Peak Design Travel Tripod is well-made, stable, compact and lightweight, so it provides all of the key attributes photographers typically look for in travel tripods. If you can get beyond the high price and the slightly peculiar head that takes a little getting used to, the unique design and stability can’t be faulted.
Incredibly compact
Lightweight
Considered design
Expensive
Snap leg locks rather than twist locks
Head takes getting used to
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Editor’s Note
• Original review date: June 2019• Still available new, and still unique• Launch price: $599 / £559 / AU$1,170• Official price now: $599 / £559 / AU$1,170 (carbon fiber)
Update: February 2024.We first looked at the Peak Design Travel tripod during ahands-on review in 2019, and many years later there’s still no design quite like it, which is a little surprising given how considered and successful the design concept has been delivered to create a super-compact tripod for your travels and one of thebest travel tripodsperiod. It remains available from retailers with a largely similar list price that goes all the way back to launch.
Two-minute review
A tripod’s a tripod – three legs and a head to secure a camera – pretty simple really. So how do you improve on a tried and tested design? The Peak Design Travel Tripod undoubtedly follows this fundamental construction, but four years of research and development has delivered a unique travel tripod as well as being incredibly compact and lightweight; its folded footprint when compared to similar-sized travel tripods, is about half in terms of diameter.
The Peak Design’s legs fold in neatly thanks to their shape, which drastically reduces the profile of the tripod when folded making the diameter similar to that of a can of soda; it may not sound exciting, but it’s impressive and makes the Peak Design a highly portable travel tripod if you’re willing to pay the premium price the tripod commands.
The Peak Design Travel Tripod is available in two flavors with the carbon fibre leg option costing $600 / £560 / AU$1170, and the aluminum alternative coming in at a slightly more modest $380 / £350 / AU$670. But that’s still a high price for an aluminum travel tripod. To be fair, it certainly isn’t cheap, but the overall design is what you’re paying for and as well as looking pretty smart and, indeed unique, the Peak Design provides impressive stability despite the legs being made up of five sections.
Cost aside, the main difference between the carbon fibre and aluminum options is weight. The former comes in at just 2.81lbs / 1.27kg, while the latter is slightly heavier at 3.44lbs / 1.56kg. The aluminum model is still lightweight despite the legs being made of heavier material, so this remains an option worth considering if you can’t afford the carbon fiber version. All other aspects of the tripods are the same, including the folded length of 15.4in / 39.1cm with a 3.1in / 7.9cm diameter.
With such a lightweight and compact folded size, you may be thinking that this tripod is short and flimsy, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. These were my initial expectations, but I was hugely impressed with the overall sturdiness and the ability to shoot low to the ground with the center column inserted upside down into the legs or as high as 60in / 152.4cm with the center column fully extended. The center column also offers a hook for adding weight and there’s an integrated phone mount that stows away in the bottom of the center column above the bag hook for adding weight to the tripod to increase stability when required.
This is a tripod that’s intended for professional use and offers a maximum payload of 20lbs / 9.1kg, so it can handle a wide variety of camera and lens combinations. With this, you could get away with using some long telephoto lenses for wildlife photography, and the head can support the weight, but the design of the head wouldn’t provide the most efficient and comfortable shooting experience for this type of photography. Plus, the head isn’t interchangeable so you couldn’t swap it out for a gimbal head instead.
Ultimately, this is no big deal because it’s clearly not a tripod that’s designed for this type of photography, but something to bear in mind if this would be an intended use. The head itself is low profile, which helps to reduce the overall bulkiness of the tripod and employs a novel design that takes getting used to if you’ve only experienced what you might call standard tripod heads in the past.
The head itself fulfils the clear desire to create something that’s compact and in keeping with the overall design of the tripod, but being a fixed head means that you have to be 100% sure that it’s something that you can get on with. What makes it different is that despite being a ball head, is that it provides two locking/adjustment rings; one for the ball mechanism and another for the tripod plate. Once you get used to which is which and you’ve used them a few times they do become intuitive, but they are undoubtedly a break from the norm.
The tripod plate uses the Arca Swiss design so it’s compatible with L brackets, which is great. And even if you don’t use an L bracket, the head and plate can be set vertically to the side for portrait format shooting with the notches of the socket providing additional stability. This is a clever design that mirrors that of the tripod as a whole.
When it comes to operation, the Peak Design is quick and easy to set up. And when I say quick, I really do mean quick because it simply needs to be extended rather than unfolded and then extended like many travel tripods. The leg locks are the older style clip locks rather than twist locks, but with the unique leg shape that facilitates the compact folding of the tripod, this is clearly the only option. It certainly doesn’t impact usability and these can be easily dismantled for cleaning and maintenance which is always useful.
Should I buy the Peak Design Travel Tripod?
Buy it if…
You want the most compact travel tripodDespite offering a maximum height of 60in / 152.4cm, this tripod folds down to an incredibly small size making it one of the most portable travel tripods available.
You value great designThe Peak Design Travel Tripod may follow the fundamental design of tripods, but the way the legs have been built alongside the ultra-lightweight make it a unique option.
You use an L bracketL brackets typically use the Arca Swiss style attachment and although the Peak Design head can’t be changed, it does use an Arca Swiss style plate for connecting cameras.
Don’t buy it if…
You’re on a budgetThis is an expensive tripod whichever option you go for, so if you’re on a tighter budget there are many alternatives available that follow a more traditional travel tripod design.
You require additional featuresThe Peak Design Travel Tripod undoubtedly offers some unique features such as the integrated phone holder, but apart from the unique overall design it’s a fairly basic tripod.
You need a heavier tripodTravel tripods are typically lightweight but some are, of course, heavier than others and some photographers prefer a little extra weight to increase stability in windy conditions.
How I tested the Peak Design Travel Tripod
The Peak Design Travel Tripod was tested over a period of time using several different camera and lens combinations to test how the tripod stood up to standard use in travel-oriented scenarios. Cameras used included a premium compact, an APS-C mirrorless camera and a full-frame mirrorless camera. The tripod was also carried around with other photographic kit in my ‘f-stop’ brand backpack to evaluate performance over longer shoots such as landscapes.
With nearly 30 years of photographic experience and 15 years working as a photography journalist, I’ve been covering photographic accessories such as tripods for many years. As a professional photographer I frequently use a range of accessories to enhance my photography and bring my working experience of using these to reviews where I can consider how effective photographic accessories are from both a professional and enthusiast point of view.
First reviewed February 2024
James Abbott is a professional photographer and freelance photography journalist. He contributes articles about photography, cameras and drones to a wide range of magazines and websites where he applies a wealth of experience to testing the latest photographic tech. James is also the author of ‘The Digital Darkroom: The Definitive Guide to Photo Editing’.
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