The ideal backpacker tripod
The ideal backpacker tripod
At what point are you carrying too much photography gear?
Am I a photographer who backpacks? Or a backpacker who photographs? I have been a serious photographer for much longer than I have backpacked. My recent foray into art shows and my side hustle of photography business means that I should take my photography on the trail a bit more seriously.
I have carried serious cameras for my hikes.
It was the Panasonic Lumix LX-100 for the first few hikes
The Nikon Z50 and the Nikon 16-50 for all the subsequent JMT section hikes
The Nikon Z7ii and 24-120 Z currently
The tripod I have carried with me at all times is the UltraPod. It is lightweight, very stable given it is very short and usable. Can I do better than this for my upcoming JMT section hike between Kearsarge pass and Cottwonwood pass? Here is a list of what tripods I have tried and what I think I am going to carry with me to the JMT.
In theory, a serious backpacking photographer needs three tripods.
A backpacking tripod
A travel tripod that goes in your carry on
A heavy duty tripod for car photography trips and short hikes
Can we combine all these three into one tripod? My “heavy duty tripod” over the last twenty years have been:
Feisol Carbon Fiber + Kirk BH-3
Gitzo Traveler 1 series + Kirk BH-3
Gitzo Traveler 1 series + RRS BH-55
Peak design carbon fiber travel tripod
RRS TQC-14 tripod + RRS BH-55
RRS TQC-14 tripod + RRS BH-40
The one tripod I was very excited about in this was the Peak Design CF travel tripod. I was hoping that it would be the one tripod for all three use cases. While it ticks most use cases, it was unable to handle the 200-500mm Nikkor lens and the only time I took it to a beach, I just could not get the sand out of the tripod no matter what I tried. Peak Design told me to NOT attempt to disassemble the tripod to clean since it has 48 parts per leg and I can’t put it together. Worse, they don’t offer a cleaning service as well. Looks like the Peak Design tripod is not meant to be used in wilderness or anywhere near sand or dirt. So out it went.
My last rig, the RRS TQC-14 + BH-40 handles the travel tripod and the heavy duty tripod use cases well. I can keep the tripod and ballhead in my carry on. Perhaps, I may have to remove the ball head and keep it separately if the bag is too small, but I can carry it with me in the carry on. The rig is stable enough for my 100-400 Z Nikkor, provided I don’t use the extension of the center column and I am careful with micro vibrations. Let us focus on the backpacker tripod.
I bought a Sirui T-005SK T-0S used from FredMiranda. It is 2.4 lbs. I used it primarily for my Z50 (when I took two cameras) and used it for my time lapse photography. I also carried it with me on at least one backpacking trip to Taft Point. It is stable, reasonably light and very usable, but heavy.
For my upcoming JMT trip, I wanted to do something lighter than this, but something better than my ultra pod. A friend has the SIRUI Traveler 5CX Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod which is perhaps what I was going to get. It is 1.9 lbs, very stable and folds into a short package. But can we do better?
The same friend found this very interesting tripod, the Aziak backcountry tripod and the Aziak backcountry lite ball head. A quite remarkable package for 1.5 lbs and a 20 lbs weight capacity that folds to 15.5”. I got the kit and tested it.
I really like the tripod and ball head. It is very stable. It was able to handle my Z7ii and 105mm micro nikkor quite easily. It was very stable. It is everything that is promised from a light weight tripod.
I then turned my camera to the side and used the vertical slot to test vertical orientation. Because of the way the lever is setup, it was obstructing the handle, by mistake, I was able to completely disengage it from the ball head.
The creator of the ballhead said this to me.
You are the first customer to ever have that disassembled! It is a left hand screw, so it looks like you were trying to adjust it and just kept unthreading it while trying to tighten it. Its only a 1/4 ball head so you should never pull out the clamp and reposition it past a 1/2 turn, and it appears you just unthreaded in multiple threads. To put it back on, just thread it to the left, reposition the handle, and thread left again. It shouldn't be any issue in the wilderness as long as you dont unthread it 3 full threads when it only needs 1/4 turn to lock and it locks itself in place by design since the base stops it from turning further if you dont pull out on the handle.
Definitely user error. In trying to tighten the ballhead in the vertical orientation and not by reading the fine manual, I managed to disengage it completely. This one is on me, but I didn’t feel comfortable using this in the wilderness going forward. If I get any kind of dirt into this setup in the wilderness, it will be hard to clean.
This does not mean that this exceptional ball head and tripod won’t work for you. In all likelihood, if you are not as clumsy as I am, please take a look at the Aziak backcountry tripod and lite ballhead.
So back to the drawing board. After reading about table-top tripods, I bought the Oben CTT-1000L Carbon Fiber Tabletop Tripod (Long). It is 1.1 lbs (without center column), I was torn between the short version that collapses to 10” but only goes to 15” or the long version that collapses to 15” but goes up to 28”. I went with the long version. Without the center column, this is reasonably stable with my Z7ii and 24-120, provided I am close by. At 1.1 lbs it is not too hideously heavy (sorry ultra light backpackers).
It folds to the same size as my Helinox zero chair. That is two luxury items now.
There is also a slightly different version (it seems like the same manufacturer) called the Aoka Travel Tripod, but I went with the Oben.
There it is. I am going to try the Oben CTT-100L on the JMT this year. Watch this space for reviews from the trail and how it fairs on the trail.