Our good friends over at Peak Design is back with their 9th Kickstarter campaign. As you can see from the title and picture that their newest campaign is still photography related. The Peak Design Travel Tripod is the most portable, packable, and easy-to-setup professional tripod in the world. For years, traditional tripods have suffered a critical flaw: needless bulk and wasted space, the result of a spatially inefficient design. By redesigning the tripod from the ground up, Peak Design created the world’s most portable travel tripod—one that packs to the diameter of a water bottle—without sacrificing height, stability, or load capacity. But they didn’t stop there. Travel Tripod is radically faster to setup/takedown than traditional tripods and features more ergonomic adjustment points, built-in mobile compatibility, and thoughtful usability details at every corner. Plus, it’s built for life on the road: durable, fully serviceable, and backed by the Peak Design lifetime guarantee.
FEATURES:
Pro performance. Half the size.
- Groundbreaking architecture eliminates dead volume
- Packs down to half the size of traditional travel tripods—to the size of a water bottle
- No protruding knobs
- Quick-locking cams allow you to unlock legs in 3 swift motions
- Legs deploy without flipping over for significantly faster setup than traditional tripod designs
- Unique quick-release allows instant, secure camera attachment
- Single, ultra-smooth omnidirectional ball head adjustment ring with no bulky/confusing knobs
- Simple locking ring for total security and stiffness
- Compatible with all PD plates and most Arca-type plates
- Removable pins for use with most Arca-type L-brackets
- Omnidirectional bubble level
- 20lb weight capacity, optimized for use with full-frame DSLR + telephoto lens
- Stability and vibration dampening comparable to much larger tripods in it’s class
- Nonslip, shock absorbing rubber feet
- Built-in load hanging hook
- Low and inverted configuration modes allow camera to sit just inches off ground
- Anchor attachment points for carrying with Peak Design straps
- Built-in mobile mount magnetically stowes in center column
- Mount sets up securely and holds any phone/case
- All components are weather and impact resistant
- Slim, protective carry sleeve
- All parts are fully serviceable, cleanable, and replaceable
Available both in carbon fiber for $479 (MSRP: $599.95) and aluminum legs for $289 (MSRP: $349.95) the Travel Tripod will launch on Kickstarter for a pre-sale discount beginning May 21, 2019 at 7am PST. Kickstarter campaign ends July 18, 2019 at 5pm PST. The tripod will then be available for purchase online at peakdesign.com and through major retailers in time for the 2019 holiday season.
Continue reading for full press release.
Peak Design Unveils The Next Generation of Camera Tripods
New Travel Tripod Promises to Redefine Product Category for Years to Come
San Francisco, CA (May, 2019)–After multiple award-winning bag releases, Peak Design, the worldwide leader in crowdfunding and everyday carry solutions, is proud to disrupt yet another product category—the camera tripod. More than four years in the making, Peak Design's newest release, Travel Tripod, is a ground-up reexamination of camera tripod design to produce the world’s most portable, packable, and easy-to-setup tripod for professionals and first-time tripod owners alike.
Peak Design directly addressed their biggest rub about traditional tripods: spatial inefficiency and unnecessary bulk. Peak Design's goal was to eliminate the dead space within a tripod, an ever-present inefficiency that often doubles or triples the effective diameter of a packed tripod. Peak Design engineers reworked Travel Tripod's legs and center column to nest perfectly together in order to achieve a total packed diameter of just 3.25 inches—roughly the diameter of a water bottle. The result is a tripod that deploys to 58.5 inches tall while taking up less than half the volume of its competitors.
"During my travels in 2008 I began wondering why on Earth my tripod was so big. The thing was full of negative space and knobs, and I felt like something designed for portability could do much better," commented Peak Design CEO, Peter Dering. "I quickly realized that anything short of a complete design overhaul would fail to meet my criteria of the perfect travel tripod. It took years of development but the outcome is a camera tripod that seamlessly integrates into all aspects of travel and adventure."
Travel Tripod is among the quickest-to-deploy and most intuitive to use tripods on the market. Peak Design developed a system of non-inverted legs that rapidly deploy along an aligned system of locking cam levers. With three swift hand movements, the legs can be fully extended and ready for action.
Peak Design also optimized the Travel Tripod ball head to operate more fluidly than traditional tripod heads while still prioritizing spatial efficiency. Travel Tripod eliminates bulky and confusing knobs with a single adjustment ring for simple and smooth 360-degree adjustment. Peak Design's proprietary quick-release plate technology facilitates lightning-fast camera attachment—easily accommodating a full frame DSLR with telephoto lens—and is compatible with Peak Design carrying equipment and with Arca Swiss tripod dimensions. Furthermore, Travel Tripod’s ball head measures just 3.25 inches in diameter, keeping it aligned with the packed profile of the tripod’s legs for exceptionally compact carry.
In addition to a thorough rethinking of a tripod's architecture and user interface, carefully considered material choices and construction techniques provide the stability and vibration dampening demanded by avid photographers. A built-in universal phone mount, bubble-level, hook for counterweights, and included soft case round out a packed feature list that fans of Peak Design have come to expect.
Available both in carbon fiber and aluminum legs (MSRP: $599.95 // $349.95) the Travel Tripod will launch on Kickstarter (http://bit.ly/kckst_pdtripod) for a pre-sale discount beginning May 21, 2019. The tripod will then be available for purchase online at peakdesign.com and through major retailers in time for the 2019 holiday season.