A mass at rest, declared by the maker for one part of the support. It says nothing about wind, nothing about the vibration of a shutter firing, and nothing about the torque a head holds when it is tilted rather than level.
The figure is static and declared. It describes a mass the part will hold without failing, in the maker’s own test, and it is published because it is easy to publish.
What is not inside it
Wind. A tripod at the coast with a long lens on it is loaded dynamically, and no published figure describes that.
Shutter and mirror vibration. A camera firing puts a brief impulse into the support. Damping is what absorbs it, and damping is not published.
Torque on a tilted head. A declared load assumes the mass sits over the centre. Tilt the head forward with a long lens and the same mass becomes a moment, which is a different demand entirely.
The figures that do describe stiffness
None of them directly, and that is the honest answer. What exists is indirect: tube diameter, the number of leg sections, whether the material is aluminium or carbon — six titles in this catalogue’s own survey print aluminium — and the design of the locks. More sections pack smaller and flex more, and makers publish the section count while leaving the consequence unstated.
Underneath all of it
The joint itself is one of two published screw threads: 1/4 on the camera side, printed in eight of this catalogue’s titles, and 3/8 where legs meet a head, printed in three. Both are standardised as tripod connections, and neither carries any load rating at all.
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
Is the figure for the legs or for the head?
For whichever part the listing describes, and the two are rated separately. A head bought alone carries its own figure; a kit may publish one number for the pair without saying which part it belongs to. Where a listing does not say, that is what this site records.
Should I buy well above the weight of my camera?
Buying above it is sensible, and the reason is not the number: a support loaded near its declared maximum is a support at its least stiff, and stiffness is what keeps a long lens still. Stiffness is not published, so the declared load is used as a rough proxy for it — which is exactly what it is not.
Last reviewed 12 September 2026