MEFOTO ROADTRIP AIR £140/$175

It’s amazingly lightweight and compact when folded, but stands proud and has a good telephone manner

Weighing barely more than a kilogram, the MEFOTO is the lightest tripod on test, and folds down the smallest, to a length of just 28cm. Nevertheless, it stretches a decent maximum operating height of 156cm, thanks to having five sections in each leg, rather than the usual four, plus an extending centre column.

Like the Velbon tripod, there are no external locking clamps in the leg section. Instead, you simply hold the foot of each leg and progressively twist it to release successive clamps for each section. To lock the sections, you twist again but in the opposite direction. Unlike in the Velbon, however, the centre column is made from four telescopic sections that extend and lock with the same twisting action.

A bonus for taking self-portraits is that you can remove the extending centre section and connect the supplied smartphone holder instead, thus using it as a ‘selfie stick’. To add further finesse, the kit comes complete with a Bluetooth remote control that you can pair to your smartphone. For using ‘proper’ cameras, such as Canon DSLRS, the small ball head features an independent panning lock/release and an Arca-swiss type quick-release plate.

Performance

Despite its ultra-lightweight construction, the MEFOTO doesn’t feel flimsy and is reasonably resistant to flexing, although the maximum load rating of 6kg seems a little overambitious. A drawback is that the leg section clamps tend to release if you need to move the tripod around while it’s set up, as does the extending centre column clamps if the head is nudged in an anticlockwise direction.