Manfrotto and Gitzo tend to be the two most commonly found manufacturers of photographic tripods used outdoors in the hills by professional photographers. But they are not the only manufacturers making good quality lightweight tripods for photographers. Others include Velbon, Cullman and Vanguard.
This article considers tripods that may be suitable for a photographer considering purchasing a lightweight tripod to use while hillwalking or for use while photographing other similar outdoors activities. In general, these tripods are made of carbon fibre or magnesium fibre to get the best stability/weight ratio.
Lightweight Photography Tripods For Active Outdoors Use by Manfrotto
Manfrotto is one of the long-established and well-respected manufacturers of photographic tripod
Manfrotto's 055CF is under 2kg, made of carbon fibre and has a reasonable maximum height of 177cm. This tripod is reasonably sturdy even with a moderately heavy dSLR, such as a Canon 5D mk2, or Nikon D700, yet is light enough that it is not impossible to take this tripod scrambling on occasion! Photographers should ensure that they find the leg locks to their preference – they have a reputation for biting inadvertently placed fingers, but should be more resistant to grit and dust than Gitzo tripod leg-clamps!
Lightweight Photography Tripods For Active Outdoors Use by Gitzo
Gitzo is a brand favoured by many professionals - but on the whole tend to be more expensive than other manufacturers when comparing like-for-like. The Mountaineer range is roughly equivalent to Manfrottos 055 series. However, Gitzo's leg clamps can be rather similar to the boom clamps often used in windsurfing, (which were well-known for issues with jamming up when near sand or grit), but are less likely to bite fingers in use!
Lightweight Photography Tripods For Active Outdoors Use by Velbon
Velbon doesn't tend to be that well known among pros as many of its offerings are of the flimsy type only suitable for lightweight compact cameras. However their Sherpa Pro range (the carbon fibre offerings, not the aluminium ones!) are pretty good, with the 645 being a good choice for the photographer wanting a stable tripod that isn't excessively heavy. It's not easy to find online, but Amazon sometimes sell it.
Lightweight Photography Tripods For Active Outdoors Use With Lighter dSLRs by Cullmann
A fourth brand that has favour among some photographers is Cullmann, especially for the lighterweight dSLRs such as Canon's D500 or Nikon's D5000. Many of these tripods are much lighter at roughly 600grams, and as such are not suitable for the heavier dSLRs such as the Canon 5D Mk2/Nikon D700, but the Cullmann 3000 series (which is cheaper than many of those mentioned in this article, but heavier), will take dSLRs up to 3.5kg combined weight body+lens.
Lightweight Photography Tripods For Active Outdoors Use and Macro Photography by Vanguard
This manufacturer made its presence felt at the UK photographic trade show Focus in March 2010 with their new Alta Pro series. This series comes in carbon-fibre (much pricier but feeling distinctly lighter) and aluminium variants. But the big difference, and a new concept in tripod design, is the multi-angle adjustable centre column. This type of design has some roots in Manfrotto's earlier design of a horizontal option for the centre column, but to make the centre column fully adjustable over 360degrees is a novel twist, and looks like being a good tripod for macro photography.
An Alternative Extremely Lightweight Tripod For Active Outdoors Use by Manfrotto - the Modo
Many photographers will consider Manfrotto's Modo tripod to be too lightweight and unstable for normal outdoors use with a reasonably large sized dSLR such as the Canon 5Dmk2 or Nikon D700. However, with care (and preferably also a heavy weight such as a bag of rocks, or rucksac suspended beneath it), the Modo can be very useful for those who would otherwise not be able to manage the weight of a more stable tripod.
This tripod can for example be ideal while backpacking or scrambling across rough terrain on a multi-day trip. It's one of the most stable "too light to be of normal use" tripods around, and at under £100 ($150US) is also very reasonably priced.
There are many manufacturers of tripods suitable for use with larger dSLR cameras, but reasonably lightweight tripods for outdoor use in the hills tend to be made of carbon fibre to get the best stability to weight ratio. And as professional photographer Rudolf Abraham says, “As a rough rule of thumb, you really don't want the combined body/lens weight to exceed the combined tripod/head weight”. More information on factors to consider before buying a tripod is by the same author.
Chiz Dakin - A keen mountain walker, scrambler, cyclist and occasional climber and sea kayaker for several years, Chiz Dakin has carried a camera with ...
