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Freewall Real Carbon Fiber Travel Tripod Review 900g, Fluid plus Ball Head
Feb 8, 2024
Photographer Dustin Abbott shares a review of the unique new Freewell Real Travel Tripod - less than two pounds in weight but with a combo fluid (for video) and ball head (for photography). Is it worth buying? | Purchase the Freewell Real Travel Tripod @ Freewell https://www.freewellgear.com/en/tripod/1228-the-real-travel-tripod.html?affp=47986 | Amazon https://amzn.to/42lbzXo | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK https://amzn.to/42g8O9P | Amazon Germany https://amzn.to/3OmIzIR
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Table of Contents:
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0:00 - Basic Design
1:00 - Specs and Comparisons
2:40 - Sub Tripod?
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
Typically, travel tripods come in one of two flavors
0:13
We have with a ball head for photography or we have with a fluid head for videography
0:21
But the company Freewell, who we've known mostly in the past for doing filters, has
0:26
come up with their new real travel tripod that blends elements of both
0:31
Imagine having both a ball head and a fluid head. Well, that's exactly what they've done in this tiny, lightweight travel tripod
0:39
Freewell's new take on the compact travel tripod is, as you can see, extremely compact
0:45
and extremely lightweight. In fact, this is the lightest of any of the travel tripods that I've tested to this point
0:53
This weighs less than one kilo, about 900 grams, under two pounds in weight
0:58
And so it truly feels extremely lightweight, not toy-like, but very, very lightweight in
1:04
the hand. Now, as pointed out in our intro, we have a combination of having both a fluid head
1:09
along with having a ball head with separate tension knobs for both of those things
1:17
Now the head itself will support a payload of up to five kilograms, that's 11 pounds
1:22
which, as you can see here, that does support my heaviest combination that I currently have
1:27
And that will do it both in horizontal shooting, but also when things are set over into the
1:32
vertical or portrait orientation. Now one thing that they do have added as a feature here is that there is a total of three
1:39
different quarter inch expansion ports there. They are threaded holes, and so that you can add on, whether it's something to hold your
1:48
phone while you're filming with something else for simultaneous filming, or a monitor
1:53
some other device. And so that's a smart feature for those that are going to be thinking about particularly
1:59
doing video where you tend to have extra accessories outside of just the camera itself
2:03
And so that's a nice feature there. Another really unique feature is that one of the legs can be quickly unthreaded and
2:11
become a monopod. And as you can see here, it's easy to thread off the head itself and to convert all of
2:17
that into a monopod that has the full flexibility of the ball head or the fluid head for that
2:24
matter attached to it. And then converting it back is really just a matter of less than a minute, just popping
2:31
that head back off, threading this back on, threading the head back on, and you're back
2:35
to having a tripod. So a really interesting thing there. Another interesting feature here is that the included quick release plate does have fold
2:44
out flaps and can be used as a holder for your phone if you want to film with that
2:50
And it has an Arca Swiss design on the bottom that will allow it to go right onto the actual
2:56
head of the tripod and you can screw that down and voila, you've got the ability to
3:01
film with your phone. If you maybe forgot to bring your camera along or maybe filming or shooting video via your
3:08
phone is something you use to augment your photos, we have the ability to do that quickly
3:12
as well. Now obviously this is a carbon fiber tripod, which means that the legs themselves, not
3:18
the center column, but the legs are made out of carbon fiber
3:22
The design of this is maybe the fastest of the quick releases that I've seen in that
3:26
there is a rotation you can do at the bottom and you can just that quickly can extend it
3:31
out or lock it back in. Now obviously you don't want to always have to be adjusting from the bottom
3:36
And so the thing also designed is you can grab the section you want to adjust and you
3:41
can make adjustments at any point here and then just rotate there
3:45
So going left will allow you to loosen it, going right will allow you to lock it into
3:50
place and that allows you to set from any of these, you can set your actual desired
3:55
height and so it gives you some flexibility for how you approach that. The quickest way to retract everything is still doing it from the very back where you
4:02
can very quickly do that and get them all out, deploy or retract very, very quickly
4:08
It's a useful design. I hope that it holds up well over the long term, but you know, so far so good, seems
4:14
to be fine. The center column itself is easily removable if you so desire
4:20
So you can pop that right out and by taking off this threaded portion here at the bottom
4:26
and once you thread that out, which also is the hook that you can hang your bag off of
4:31
you can take that right out. And in fact, it's actually a tool here as well
4:36
And you can use that to loosen a couple of sections here and you can actually take the
4:41
bottom of this off and leave only this about two inch section here at the top
4:46
Now if you remove that lower portion of the center column, it allows you to bring everything
4:50
way down. As you can see here, this is a very, very low shooting height and so you can get it
4:56
as low as 16 centimeters and you can go up as tall as about 150 centimeters
5:02
So that gives you the overall kind of basic specifications. Let's look at a few of the tests that I've used
5:09
And so one of the things that obviously you want to test with a fluid head is how fluid
5:13
can you actually go in terms of your shots up and down
5:17
Obviously with any kind of new tripod, it takes some practice to get a feel for it and
5:21
to kind of get some muscle memory to get your best out of it. So I suspect I will get better as time passes
5:27
And so my initial reaction, however, in early test was that I could get fairly fluid shots
5:33
However, I wouldn't say they're as smooth as full size equipment. It feels like you have to do a little bit more in terms of your own muscle memory and
5:42
a little bit less the actual head doing the work for you. And so, you know, it does work and it's certainly better than just trying to do that with a
5:50
ball head, but not as good as full size gear. Likewise, in the smoothness of panning test, it takes some practice
5:57
And again, you have to just kind of be finite with your control. It is possible to get some decent panning shots
6:02
And of course you can combine both the panning and the tilting as a part of your shots if
6:07
you want to do that as well. I tested for the stability
6:11
And one of the things that I like to do is I like to test the distance between the legs
6:16
at their maximum extension because the wider the base is, the more steady things are going
6:21
to be up top. And so what I found in measuring the free well in between the outside legs, I measured
6:26
about 31 inches. And so to give you a comparison with some others, my Hapey W28, I measured that at about
6:34
32 inches. So very close, but just a little bit larger spread on the Hapey tripod I have right now
6:40
and I'm testing a newer Lightrip 35, and that's just a little bit more, 32 and a half inches actually
6:46
The winner still remains as it has all along the Peak Design travel tripod
6:51
It measures a full 37 inches between the legs, which gives a lot of stability
6:56
And so as you can see height wise, the Freewell tripod is about as tall as what the Peak Design
7:04
is, but it's not quite as stable because the base doesn't go as wide
7:09
Now I did travel with this. I did a photography weekend and I found that it was lightweight enough to not add any kind
7:17
of serious consideration to weight. This thing is extremely lightweight and if you move that, you want to travel even lighter
7:23
you don't need the center column, you take that off, it shaves off a few more grams
7:27
This is, as I said, the most lightweight that I've used of any of them. I also used it for just videoing some of either teaching episodes or these type episodes
7:38
It works fine for that obviously. So let's talk about some things I like and some things I don't like so much
7:44
So first of all, things that I like. This is next level in terms of being compact and lightweight
7:49
900 grams, that's under two pounds. That undercuts anything else that I have compared it to
7:55
To give you some comparisons, the Hapey W28 is 1.35 kilograms, so over 435 grams heavier
8:03
The Peak Design carbon fiber travel tripod is 1.29 kilograms and so it is about 300 kilograms heavier
8:13
The TOUR LT35 weighs in at 1.13 kilograms and so about 230 grams heavier than this
8:23
It is, I mean, it's next level lightweight. It is lighter than any of the others that I have tested to this point
8:29
It also is short enough. It's right under 43 centimeters or 16.85 inches, so it's short enough that I can actually store
8:38
inside my camera bag that I'm currently using. I always like that
8:42
In some situations, if I don't have as much outside or gear that I need to pack inside
8:47
being able to throw a lightweight travel tripod in there is very interesting without adding
8:51
any bulk on the outside. But if I need to carry it on the outside, it is definitely still short enough to where
8:58
it's not really sticking up above my camera bag, whether I'm doing it in its own protective
9:04
travel bag or the actual tripod itself. It fits very, very naturally there
9:09
So again, I appreciate that. It's kind of no fuss, no muss, and so I really like that
9:15
Overall, to give you an idea, so if this is right under 17 inches, the Hape Travel Tripod
9:22
is 17.7 inches. The newer is 19.3 inches, so it's the longest
9:28
The winner is still the Peak Design Carbon Fiber Tripod. It's 15.4 inches, but that's largely also because there are some limitations to the
9:37
head design. It makes it extremely lightweight or compact, I should say, when you have it all retracted
9:43
but you have to actually extend that up to even use it. As noted, you can either expand or retract these legs really, really quickly, and so
9:53
I do appreciate that design. It can be very useful if you're wanting to get set up in a hurry
9:59
The fact that you have the ability to get both the fluid aspect for video and then also
10:07
the ball head for photo means that you, you know, this really is a hybrid tripod that
10:14
really is a nice match for the hybrid nature of many modern mirrorless cameras, so I appreciate that
10:20
I also appreciate the fact that unlike, for example, I'm filming right now on another
10:26
video travel tripod from Ulanzi, and what I find is that I actually need to remove the
10:34
arm for the fluid head to actually store it in its pouch
10:38
That's not the case with the Freewell here. Everything fits right down into the bag without any kind of issue, and so I can store it that way
10:48
I don't have to actually remove that arm, so I do appreciate that. It's just one of those little features that makes life easier because you can quickly
10:54
store it or remove it without any kind of breakdown. Obviously, having that innovative design in the quick release plate where you can have
11:04
a backup if you need something to hold your phone, that is appreciated
11:08
Just another kind of innovative design. Also, the ability to quickly convert into that monopod and to have, you know, a built-in
11:16
monopod as a part of that is also attractive. You could pull that monopod off, and very obviously, you could throw that into a small
11:24
camera bag, not taking up a whole lot of space, and obviously, that would be very, very valuable
11:30
And of course, the other option there is the fact that even if you didn't want to use the
11:34
head and just wanted to go very basic, you probably could just use a little conversion
11:38
here and go to the threading for going just right into the bottom of your camera itself
11:44
if all you're wanting is just that quick ability to get some stability
11:48
That's going to be a very handy thing there as well. Lots of things that I like
11:53
How about some things that I don't like? Having both the fluid and the ball head means that there are a lot of different adjustment
12:02
controls going on here. Even your tension knob for your quick-release plate, which you tighten here, it also has
12:08
a secondary control here that you can tighten up or loosen to allow you to rotate it in
12:13
that vertical filming or shooting mode. And so then also having, you know, the control here for the fluid head, having a ball head
12:21
control here and then having another control down here to allow for your panning technique
12:28
It means that there are a lot of different adjustments and sometimes, depending on them
12:32
they can interfere a little bit with each other, be in the way. Now all of them that are just a tension knob like this, they have the ability to pull it
12:40
out and to put it into a new position, allows everything to work, you know, in a compact space
12:46
But I do find it can get a little bit fidgety in there. I also find that sometimes when I think I've locked everything down, there's another adjustment
12:53
knob elsewhere that's a little bit loose and things will start to sag
12:57
So I have to come back and make sure that all of these different adjustments are tightened up
13:01
So I don't love that. I also find that while I love the quick nature of this, it also to me is just a little bit
13:08
more fidgety if I'm trying to control a specific section. Now typically where you have a lock on each one of these sections individually, say I
13:16
could target this section right here and make an adjustment there. I can do that if I am very careful with doing it with my hand, but sometimes in the process
13:26
of trying to get something loose enough to adjust, I end up controlling multiple of them
13:31
at a time. So while I do love the ability to quickly unlock it for storing it, I do find that making
13:37
fine adjustments can sometimes be a little bit frustrating. So something I don't love as well
13:43
Now the tension knob for the quick release plate for kind of tamping down on that, when
13:48
you've got a camera mounted on there, there's often not a lot of clearance that is left
13:53
And so I find that it can be a little bit of a pain to reach under there to tighten
13:56
this down. And obviously it takes longer to either tighten or loosen compared to the quick lock systems
14:03
that are in some competing system or competing tripods. And so I do prefer the quick lock style on some of the alternatives
14:10
The final thing that I don't love is that because it is so lightweight in all of its
14:15
design, it does sometimes feel just a little bit flimsier than some of my other regular
14:20
tripod travel tripods, like the Hapey or the Peak design. Now those are more expensive, more premium options, but they do feel a little bit more
14:28
stable than what this does. Though at the same time, I will note this is stable enough for the various applications
14:34
that I've used. So in conclusion, if you want to travel light and you want to do both photos and video
14:40
then the Freewell Real Travel Tripod brings next level lightness. It's the first travel tripod under one kilogram that I've ever tested, along with some additional
14:51
versatility compared to a lot of the competitors. It does a lot of things, but its weaknesses are kind of connected to its strengths
14:59
Namely that in some cases it's almost too lightweight and it has so many adjustments
15:04
that sometimes those can get a little bit complex. But I will say that Freewell has gotten far more right than wrong here, and I think that
15:11
a lot of modern content creators will love having one extremely lightweight travel tripod
15:17
that can pretty much do everything and for a reasonable price. Full Pop MSRP is right under $300 for this, but at the moment their introductory price
15:27
is more like $250, which is an extreme value for a carbon fiber travel tripod that does
15:34
so many things. If you want more information, you can look in the description down below, and I've got
15:39
linkage there to either purchase or to get more information. As always, thanks for watching
15:45
Have a great day, and let the light in
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