For passionate photographers, a best travel tripod is an indispensable piece of equipment. Even with today's modern stabilization systems, longer exposures to water flow, cloud blur, or extreme depth of field require a robust tripod. The challenge is when you have to travel by plane, especially in smaller planes. This article presents the results of optimizing the size and weight of a rugged Gitzo GT4552TS tripod.

Air squeeze play

Airlines push passengers and their luggage to maximize profits. There are weight and size limits before the fees for carry-on baggage and checked baggage are imposed. To further aggravate the confusion, airlines are constantly changing the rules and each has different policies. Check with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and your airline for the latest requirements. Currently, TSA allows the production of Backpacking Tripod in checked or hand baggage, provided they meet the size criteria.

For domestic flights in the United States, 62-inch checked baggage weighing 50 pounds is allowed. Most tripods fit diagonally into a fallen pouch. However, photographers preoccupied with theft and damage prefer to take their tripods with them. Some tripods fit diagonally to an American standard of 22 x 14 x 9 inches. With modern Gitzo tripods, you can unscrew the spikes to save about 1.25 inches from the folded length. In any case, it is a good idea to remove all barbed feet from your tripod and place them in your checked baggage or personal effects before boarding.

Small dinghy airplane

We recently booked a trip to an isolated park where the final stages take place on a CRJ 200 and a Cessna 206. The CRJ is known for its waterproof trash cans. The airlines generally limit the size of the use to 18 x 14 x 7 "for 200 CRJ overhead (just below the size of the personal item of American Airlines) The author has measured overhead. 200 CRJ and found that the height of the opening, which measures 8.5 "in height, the size of 8.5" is a size limit.To be sure, get a bag of 7 or 7.5 inches thick, keeping in mind that CRJ bags on wheels Planes are regularly tested at the beginning, the soft bags are the best or the thinnest, the non-rolling suitcases can be suitable for the first boarders.

In contrast, the seaplane only contains cabin baggage or smaller bags with a total weight of 50 pounds. No larger luggage allowed. Our old Gitzo 1325 tripod does not fit in our standard luggage (the tripod is folded to a height of 26.4 inches). We wanted to find a more modern tripod that can handle heavier medium format cameras (Pentax 67II) and fit a standard size.

Related Article: Carbon Fiber vs Aluminum Tripod

Gitzo manufactures the Traveler tripod series, known for its folding technology. As ingenious as the folding design, travelers are only as strong as Series 2. The Mountaineer models go up to Series 3, but contain center columns, which are inherently less stable. The Systematic collection offers stronger pods with strong upper spiders, which in series 3, 4 and 5 do not have a central column as standard. They are ideal for heavy equipment and longer lenses. In its previous version, version 2, Gitzo offered two systematic tripods that can be folded to fit easily in carry-on luggage: the 5-piece GT4552TS (see Figure 1) and the six-piece GT5562LTS (see Table 1). ).