I’ve tried a few different tripods over the years and there are very few that I’m actually happy enough with to keep. When it comes to tripods, I want to know that it’s going to fit into my workflow. I also have to have complete confidence in a tripod because if I can’t trust it to hold my gear that cost thousands of dollars, then what good is it? This is why I really do not do tripod reviews. If it’s not worth keeping, then it’s usually not worth reviewing.
I’ve been using the same tripod for many years. I’ve found a setup that fits the bill and this setup consists of the Manfrotto MT190CXPRO4 legs and the Manfrotto MH055 ball head (discontinued, check out the MH057M0-Q5). This is my photography setup. I’ve had this since the beginning of my career and I really do not see it stopping anytime soon. For doing photography, this is the perfect setup for me.
But recently, I’ve been doing a lot of videos where I need to record myself doing photography with this tripod setup, so I need a tripod for a second camera. A second camera that’s typically smaller and requires a more portable setup than what my photography tripod setup can give me. In short, I needed a travel tripod. I’ve been on the hunt for this second tripod for awhile but I think the hunt is finally over with the Sirui A1205.
When I was looking for a new travel tripod, I was looking for one that folds up small, is lightweight and holds a decent payload. You may think that these requirements are fairly simple but I actually found it difficult to find a tripod that had all of these things. It’s easy to find a really small tripod, but it’ll probably not hold enough weight for it to be functional/useful. Then you have other tripods that are marketed as travel tripods and can hold a decent payload but when considering it’s dimensions, it’s not really a small tripod at all. In contrast, the Sirui A1205 provides the best of all worlds.
In terms of specs, this tripod seems too good to be true. Thanks to its 5 section inverted leg design, the Sirui A1205 can fold down to 14.6” but can expand to a maximum working height of 55.1”. Its carbon fiber construction allows it to have a maximum load capacity of 22 lbs while only weighing 2.2 lbs. Getting all of this in a package that only weighs 2.2 lbs is insane! My Manfrotto MH055 ball head alone weighs 2.2 lbs!
Another notable thing about this tripod is that you can actually remove one of the legs and when combined with the center column, you actually get a functioning monopod.
Now this setup comes as a combo meaning that the head and legs are sold together, in combination. From my experience, the problem with most combos is that they are never really perfect. The legs may be nice, but the head may not be or vice versa. With something like my Manfrotto setup, you buy the legs and head separately and are able to build something that works for you. With a combo, you kind of get what you get. You may be thinking that you can just get the combo and part it out later. Maybe change the legs or the head with something better, but this is a bit difficult with something like a travel tripod because of the way that it folds up. These tripods are generally designed in a certain way for everything to fold down to a compact package. If you were to throw another head on the legs, they may not be able to fold up correctly and end up taking up more space, so what’s the point? So with a compact travel tripod, you really just have to live with whatever drawbacks it has.
With that, let’s get into some of the drawbacks that I feel this tripod has.
First, this is completely personal, but for me the biggest drawback of this tripod is the twist lock legs. I personally prefer flip locks because with flip locks, you have a confirmation of the locks being locked. You can look at the locks and know right away if it’s locked or unlocked. There’s no in-between unless there’s something wrong with your tripod. With twist lock, there is an in-between and even after years of using them, I still find myself occasionally not locking them down fully and they move during travel or even worst, in use and I see my tripod start to lean/fall and that’s just the scariest thing. That being said, I have not had a problem with this tripod and its twist locks yet. Spend the time to make sure that everything is locked properly and it’ll hold your gear just fine.
The second and only other drawback that I can think of with this tripod is the maximum payload. Although Sirui advertises it as 22 lbs, there’s no way that this tripod can hold 22 lbs. The legs may be able to but not the head. I’ve used this tripod with about 10 lbs of gear and there is definitely some movement in the head. I often take multiple exposures of a scene, wether it’s for bracketing or focus stacking and in between my images, I can see that the composition is not the same in the pictures. I kind of knew that this would be a problem with this tripod even before buying it because tripod manufacturers really like to over estimate their max payloads. When a manufacturer says something like a 22 lbs max payload, you should really be expecting about half of that unless you’re really spending money on your tripod setup. Even though this is a well built tripod, at the end of the day it retails for about $240. You’re not making the biggest investment in the grand scheme of things. This is a rather cheap tripod in comparison to some of the other travel tripods that have similar specs. With that in mind, it’s really hard to fault this tripod considering everything else that you’re getting, an extremely small when folded tripod that is also lightweight and hold a decent amount of weight. I’m really, really enjoying this tripod and if you are looking for something similar, I’d highly recommend you check this Sirui A1205 out for yourself.
Sirui A1205 https://amzn.to/2U6I33p
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