I Found a Travel Tripod
About a month ago, I found out that I'm going to be speaking in Kenya early next year. Of course, the first thing I began thinking about is what kind of gear I'm going to bring and how I can keep it as light as possible while still fitting and carrying everything in my GORUCK GR1 while we are out and about. While that won't be a big problem with the gear I already have there was one thing that I didn't own and that was a lightweight and travel ready tripod.
The first thing I did was throw out the question to Twitter to start my research. I got a lot of great suggestions from photographers that I respect.
But, as I began looking up the suggestions, I quickly realized that this was one of those items that you really must hold in your hands to determine what you like and want in a product. Since I knew I wanted it to be carbon based to make it light, I knew I'd be spending around $300 and wanted to make sure that I got the right one the first time.
They all read good online, but there are so many little things that make a tripod what it is that I decided to wait until I could try them out in person.
Thankfully, last week I made a one day trip to New York City to speak at AOL and I had just enough time to swing by B&H Photo & Video to before hand to pick up my tripod.
Now, if you've never been to B&H it is utopia for anyone into anything related to photo or video. Thankfully I knew what I wanted and could head right to the tripods and talk to one of the helpful staff about what might be a good option for me based on what I needed it for.
I tried out a bunch of them and a couple that were front runners based on my online research and recommendations didn't make the final cut because of the way the clasps worked or how it felt in my hand.
After a lot of playing in the aisles, I bought the following combination (both are affiliate links):
It is small, lightweight and based on some testing around the house is going to work perfect for my trip to Africa and beyond. Of course I'll share more thoughts on how it performs when I get back from the trip.
Thank you to everyone who chimed in with suggestions. I love all the friends I have out there who are always willing to help.
