The unique Peak Design Journey Tripod made some severe waves when it launched 5 years in the past. One signal of its success? Not lengthy after its launch, the market began to fill with fashions suspiciously impressed by its design. Extra not too long ago, Peak Design constructed on that momentum by introducing three bigger, extra strong siblings. At this time I’ll take a more in-depth have a look at the smallest of the trio — the Peak Design Professional Lite.
Tripod Legs
With the Professional line of tripods, Peak Design designed a trio of tripods geared toward photographers utilizing heavier setups who demand better stiffness and stability. And though I’ve been identified to load even my heaviest setup, a Nikon Z9 with a 500mm f/4 lens, onto my Journey Tripod, there are moments after I want I had a extra strong help.
These moments normally come after I want to completely lengthen all 5 leg sections on slippery terrain. Or any time that I additionally use the tripod for my very own help, resembling standing in flowing water. In these conditions, I’m a little bit involved in regards to the thinnest sections of the Journey Tripod.
Even the smallest of Peak Design’s new trio, the Professional Lite, dispels these considerations by having its thinnest part correspond to the third part of the Journey Tripod. The Professional and Professional Tall go even additional and begin at what was once the fourth part!
A bigger leg diameter leads to a better load capability. The Professional Lite is rated to carry 15.9 kg (35 lb), and the 2 larger fashions improve that to 18.1 kg (40 lb). Total rigidity additionally advantages from decreasing the variety of sections from 5 to 4.
Fewer sections means sooner dealing with of the tripod, as there are three fewer levers to tighten. Talking of levers, these too have been redesigned. They’re noticeably beefier and spaced farther aside on the Professional sequence. Opening and shutting them is simply as quick, possibly even sooner, than twist-lock methods. And for the absent-minded amongst us, the quick visible affirmation of what’s locked and what isn’t is a welcome bonus.
A much less apparent however very welcome enchancment to the levers is that they’ll now be simply unscrewed with the included hex key. After a troublesome session in mud or sand, it’s no downside to disassemble the tripod and clear the person sections. That is usually a key adverse with flip-lock tripods, as a result of grit within the locks over time could cause them to fail.
In comparison with the Journey Tripod, I welcome the addition of a center angle along with the 2 excessive angles of the legs. That is nothing revolutionary; nearly each tripod I can consider has three positions. So I’m relatively glad that Peak Design has blended in with the gang on this respect. On uneven floor, this tremendously reduces the prospect of the legs by accident splaying out like a contemporary gymnast.
By the best way, to keep away from these accidents completely, you should buy elective spike ft. Nevertheless, I hoped that Peak Design would provide you with some revolutionary resolution for attaching them. The heads of recessed screws are sometimes clogged with hardened mud, so changing the rubber ft with steel spikes shall be neither nice nor fast. However should you’re like me and commonly overlook your spikes at house, you won’t discover this downside anyway.
Heart Column
I keep in mind that through the Peak Design Journey Tripod Kickstarter marketing campaign, the prototype featured a carbon middle column. The manufacturing mannequin, nevertheless, shipped with an aluminum one. On this new Professional lineup, we lastly get carbon for this essential half. Not like the legs, which merely bought bigger, the middle column additionally acquired a form makeover. Its cross-section now resembles the Mercedes emblem, and it definitely ought to provide higher bending stiffness than the earlier triangular aluminum model.
As earlier than, the middle column hides a easy smartphone mount inside its core, secured by a intelligent cap that additionally doubles as a hook for hanging counterweight. Extra importantly, the column may be eliminated completely for low-to-the-ground taking pictures. Personally, I want Peak Design included a cap to screw onto the remaining “stump,” performing as a foolproof stopper to forestall the highest part from by accident sliding out.
Tripod Head
If there was one a part of the earlier Journey Tripod that didn’t win me over, it was the top. And that’s for 3 causes. One in all them isn’t completely honest, I admit. I doubt that the designers anticipated most photographers to mount large supertelephoto lenses on the Journey Tripod. I don’t contemplate ball heads to be the perfect selection for wildlife images.
The second and third points, nevertheless, are extra goal. First, the Journey Tripod’s ball head permits tilt management solely after elevating the middle column, which reduces stiffness and slows down operation. What’s worse, with out an L-plate, the top doesn’t permit unrestricted tilt adjustment when the digital camera is in portrait orientation.
The brand new ball head on the Professional line solves all of those points, together with use with lengthy telephotos.
The top’s reversed design, with the ball built-in into the middle column, stays. However now you may tilt the top even with the column absolutely retracted. It received’t tilt via the total vary, however it’s normally sufficient that you simply solely want to lift the column when it is advisable modify the digital camera place.
The top now additionally permits for fluid panning, which solves a number of issues directly. The obvious is the flexibility to independently modify the digital camera horizontally for panoramic pictures. On the identical time, this solves the largest ache level for me, the aforementioned vertical tilt when the digital camera is in portrait orientation.
And now for the most effective half — assuming you’ve bought the Tilt Mod ball-head video adapter, which works for supertelephoto wants. As soon as connected to the redesigned quick-mount system, the ball head successfully turns into an built-in leveling base. The fluid panning allows clean, exact horizontal motion, whereas the Tilt Mod’s counterbalanced joint handles vertical tilt. Past video work, it’s a implausible setup for telephoto taking pictures.
The design of the adapter required one compromise, seemingly accomplished to maintain the burden low. Particularly, the counterbalance pressure can’t be adjusted and is principally set to work with commonplace, lighter lenses. Due to this fact, don’t anticipate it to return heavy-duty telephoto lenses to a horizontal place. Nonetheless, for taking pictures with telephoto lenses, it’s an enormous leap in the fitting route.
Conclusion
With the brand new Professional sequence, Peak Design has constructed on its tripod debut and improved it in almost each approach. Setting apart the elevated dimension and robustness supposed for heavier gear, the top is with out query the largest improve.
Whereas I rapidly changed the top on my Journey Tripod with an alternate, right here the top is definitely one of many major promoting factors. I discover that it really works not only for panorama images, but in addition for wildlife and video when paired with the Tilt Mod.
Something I didn’t like? Aside from the few small issues I discussed in thisreview, like wishing the spike-foot swap was simpler, I might add only one factor. In case you choose utilizing your individual tripod head, Peak Design sells the Tripod Professional Leveling Base as an adjunct. However why they positioned the bubble degree beneath the mounted head is past me. Did the designer think about that folks would mount the top after leveling?
Pricing Information
The Peak Design Professional Lite tripod is out there on the following pages:
And the Tilt Mod Ball Head Video Adapter is out there there as nicely:
Let me know you probably have any questions!