The best tripod for the Canon EOS M?

With today’s digital cameras now better than ever at producing clean images at high ISO settings, few photographers want to be burdened with a substandard tripod. The Traverse attempts to secure a place in your kit bag with its compact folded size allied to high-quality components and efficient design.

A side effect of the quest for outright portability can be lighter, but less durable, parts. Thankfully, with the Traverse, Davis & Sanford have avoided this pitfall.

Plastic is almost entirely banished in favour of precisely machined aluminium for the five-piece legs, crown and hinges. Chunky rubberised quick-twist leg locks are easy to grip and hold securely, with foam leg pads further enhancing the ergonomics.

Innovative leg hinges keep things as compact as possible and these are capable of folding through 180° to rest alongside the head, bringing the tripod’s total folded length down to just 40cm.

Fully extended, the maximum operating height reaches 145cm, making this a comfortable tripod even for users over 6ft, although some rival designs extend significantly higher than this.

The included BHQ11 ball head doesn’t let the side down either. It will hold 5kg comfortably, and thanks to precision engineering and fluid-damping, motion is kept silky-smooth in every direction.

There’s little to find fault with in this tripod. It may not quite be the smallest or lightest option, and it’s not really cut out for heavyweight full-frame set-ups.

However, quality components, good design and slick operation make it a great compromise for most users, and in our opinion it’s the best tripod for the newly announced Canon EOS M compact system camera.

Price: £192, from www.tiffen.com

SCORE: 5/5

This entry was posted on Friday, August 3rd, 2012 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Camera & Gear Tests, Photography Kit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.