Enough to buy stiffness, which is the one property that matters and the one nobody publishes. The figures that stand in for it are the leg diameter, the section count and the material, all of them stated.
The honest way to set a budget here is to know which published figures stand in for the unpublished one.
What the money buys in stiffness
Stiffness, and the absence of movement it brings. Everything else — height, weight, pack size — is comfort. A support that moves under a long lens produces soft frames at any shutter speed, and no amount of stabilisation recovers them.
The four figures that indicate it
Leg diameter, larger being stiffer. Section count, fewer being stiffer — more sections pack smaller and flex more. Material, aluminium or carbon. Declared maximum load, which describes a mass at rest and is used as a rough proxy for stiffness, which is exactly what it is not.
Where the money goes first
Into the legs rather than the head, because a good head on soft legs is still soft. The head can be replaced later: it attaches through a published thread — 3/8 where legs meet a head, printed in three of this catalogue’s titles — and the camera above it through the smaller 1/4, printed in eight.
What not to buy on
Height alone. A tripod extended to its last thin section is at its least stiff, so the useful figure is the height you will actually work at rather than the maximum printed on the box.
Where this page and the maker’s own manual disagree, the manual decides. Every focal length, aperture, guide number, stop of stabilisation, load rating and sealing claim on this page is reported from the manufacturer’s own documentation, with its unit written as published, and named as such — none of it is measured here. An engraved figure is reported as the maker engraves it, and is never restated in another convention, because the two are not the same number. And for anything a camera is mounted on: a maximum load is a static figure the maker declares, and it describes nothing else. It says nothing about behaviour in wind, vibration at the moment of release, or the torque a head holds once it is tilted away from level. Legs, head and plate each publish their own rating, and the lowest of the three is the one that governs.
What people ask before they commit
Why is stiffness not published?
Because there is no agreed test for it, so makers publish a declared maximum load instead — a static mass at rest, which describes something else entirely. It says nothing about wind, nothing about the vibration of a shutter firing, and nothing about the torque a head holds when tilted.
Is carbon worth the difference over aluminium?
It is lighter for the same stiffness and it damps vibration better, and it costs more for both reasons. Six titles in this catalogue print aluminium and one carbon, which is itself a statement about which end of the shelf is crowded. For a first tripod that stays in a car, aluminium is rarely the limiting factor.
Last reviewed 12 September 2026