Giotto RT8150 Tripod Review

I have a lot of tripods… scratch that. I have a lot of broken tripods. Some of them are light (12-14 ounces) and broken (the plastic heads invariable break at the mounting plate) and one of them is a massive aluminum tripod that weighs several pounds (despite my having hacked away at weight by substituting pins, etc.)  The Achilles heel is always that plastic head. It breaks when I’m miles away from anywhere and need it. My only option is copious amounts of duck tape or leukotape until I get home and invest in another one. In a final desperate attempt I decided to find the lightest metal headed collapsible tripod I could find. My result was the Giotto RT8150.

Let’s look at the features:

• Maximum Height 40.6″ (103cm)
• Minimum Height 10.8″ (27.5cm)
• Folded Length 11″ (28 cm)
• Load Capacity 1.8 lbs (0.8 kg)
• Leg Sections 8
• Pullout legs
• Male Thread Size 1/4″-20
• Weight 1.1 lbs (530 g) – 18.7 ounces
• $35 on amazon

I guess I should mention my motivations. I wanted a tripod to take backpacking. I wanted something small and compact, but robust enough that it wasn’t going to break on me if I dropped it while I hiked.

Probably the most impressive part of this tripod is just how compact it is. It’s just under 11 inches, which you don’t really appreciate until you put it along side whatever tripod you currently use. It’s tiny. It does have its downsides as it only opens to 41″ tall. I get creative with my use of terrain to get fun angles for my video to make up for it being a bit short. I have a taller tripod, but it packs down to 20″ and weighs in at well over 3 lbs.

 

To make it so compact it has 8 snap-lock leg sections. This keeps weight down, but limit its carrying capacity (1.8lbs) That’ll be fine for most handycam-style video cameras and even entry level DSLRs, but might be a problem for some of the bigger and more expensive cameras on the market. The weigh limitation is in part because of the snap-lock sections and in part because the number of sections can make the legs bow a bit with weight.

My favourite part of this tripod is that it has a metal head, mount and mounting screw. All of my other tripods that have broken have broken at the head, making them completely useless. Most lightweight tripods use plastic to cut down weight, but as I’ve learned you can’t cut down on quality at the head. It uses a ball style joint which can articulate 180 degrees vertically and 90 degrees horizontally. It can handle pretty much any shot you need.

I’ve seen tripods that use trekking poles, etc. and while those projects are good for the odd DSLR shot, I can’t just chuck it down for a video angle of hiking, etc.

Conclusion

Obviously my ideal tripod would be lighter than this one, but I’ve gone that road and faced the consequences. The Giotto RT8150 is the best balance I’ve seen yet for weight, size and compactness that doesn’t compromise sturdiness. I’ll be testing it out this summer and if it survives my abuse it’ll make it onto my permanent gear list.

What do you use for a tripod on the trail? or do you? What’s your philosophy for camera gear on the trail?