Folded length, maximum height and a load figure that is static · review

Amazon Basics WT3130T, 127 cm, 560 g, 2 kg ceiling review

The cheapest support here at 13 €, weighing 560 g, with a 3-way head and a bag — and a page that names what must not go on it: nothing over 2 kg, no heavy reflex, no long lens.

By Jean-Benoit Buisson

The bottom line Thirteen euros for 560 g, a 3-way head, a bubble level, a quick-release plate and a bag is more hardware than the price suggests, and the listing is unusually honest about its limits. What it cannot do is carry a serious camera, reach eye level, or tell you how steady it is with the column down.

On the listing

Seven bullets, and the last one is the most useful. A tripod with a zipped storage bag; height adjustable from 40.9 to 127 cm on three-section legs with lever locks; quick to fold, made of light aluminium and weighing only 0.56 kg, named for travel, hiking and camping; a 3-way head allowing tilt and pan with portrait or landscape options and an integrated bubble level; a quick-release plate for fast changes between shots; packed dimensions of 8.4 by 7.4 by 42.8 cm, extending to 127 cm; and a closing note that it is not recommended for heavy high-end reflex cameras, cameras with long lenses or large telescopes, with total equipment weight not to exceed 2 kg.

Five hundred and sixty grams, and where that leads

The lightest support here, and the 2 kg ceiling is its consequence. An aluminium tripod that weighs little cannot hold much: the two figures are the same fact written twice. For a phone, a compact or a light mirrorless body that is the right trade at 13 €.

A ceiling is not a load

The hub above treats declared load as a static figure describing what a tripod holds without collapsing. This page gives something else — an upper limit on the whole assembly, with three examples of what exceeds it. It cannot be compared with the 4 kg, 5 kg and 6.35 kg figures on the shelf above, because it is a different kind of statement, and it is more candid than any of them.

Three sections, forty-two centimetres

Short legs fold short. Three sections keep the bottom tube thicker than a five-section design would, which is where the rigidity of a cheap tripod lives, and the packed length is the shortest of the five here.

The height the page does not give

One hundred and twenty-seven centimetres is the column-up figure. The buying advice for this shelf says to compare heights with the column down, and no page here publishes that number — so on all five, the working height is lower than the headline.

Availability

Between 12 € and 17 € on the German, French, Italian and Spanish Amazon stores when this page was last checked.

The American and British Amazon stores carry it too, priced in local currency. Those amounts are deliberately absent from the range above, which reads euro stores only.

Everything in this section is the figure Keepa carried on the day of the last update to this page. Availability and prices shift without notice.

Prices quoted in this text were read on 13 September 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.

What it does well, and what it gives up

Strengths

560 g and 42.8 cm folded, with all three packed dimensions published
A 3-way head with a bubble level and a quick-release plate, and a zipped bag, at 13 €
The seventh bullet names what the tripod is not for, which almost no listing does

Compromises

A 2 kg equipment ceiling, which rules out a reflex with any substantial lens
127 cm maximum, and the height with the column down is not published
Lever locks with no mention of how they are retensioned

Specifications

Heights with and without the column	40.9 to 127 cm, in the title and the second bullet, and the page never separates the two configurations. The hub above says the figure worth comparing is the height with the centre column DOWN, because a raised column is the least stable arrangement there is — and none of the five pages here publishes it. What can be said is that 127 cm is well below eye level for a standing adult
Folded length	42.8 cm, published in the sixth bullet as part of a full packed dimension: 8.4 by 7.4 by 42.8 cm. It is the shortest folded figure of the five here, and the only page to give all three dimensions rather than a length alone
Sections	Three, in the second bullet. Fewer sections mean a thicker bottom leg and a longer packed length; three is the count that keeps this one rigid for its price, and the folded length is short because the legs are short to begin with
Lock type	Lever locks, named in the second bullet as allowing easy adjustment. Levers are faster than twist collars and can loosen over time — they adjust with a tool, which the page does not mention
Declared load	Not published as a load. The seventh bullet does something more useful and more unusual: it states an equipment CEILING of 2 kg and names what the tripod is not for — heavy high-end reflex bodies, cameras with long lenses, large telescopes. A ceiling is not a measurement of what the tripod holds; it is the maker saying where the limit is, and it is the clearest warning on this shelf
Material	Aluminium, in the third bullet, with a published weight of 560 g — the lightest of the five here by a wide margin, and the reason the 2 kg ceiling exists
Head included	Yes, a 3-way head allowing tilt and pan with portrait or landscape options, with an integrated bubble level in the fourth bullet and a quick-release plate in the fifth. On this shelf the head is always included, which the hub above notes is not the rule for tripods generally
Amazon reference	B00XI87KV8 (same reference on 6 Amazon marketplaces)
EAN	0848719099355

What people ask before they commit

What does the 2 kg ceiling actually exclude?

More than it sounds. A mid-range mirrorless body with a standard zoom sits around 1 kg, so it fits; the same body with the 650-1300mm telephoto elsewhere in this catalogue does not. The seventh bullet names heavy reflex bodies, long lenses and large telescopes explicitly. It is a limit on the whole assembly, not on the camera alone.

Why does the height with the column down matter?

Because a centre column is a single tube holding the camera above the point where three legs meet, and it amplifies every vibration reaching it. The hub above calls a raised column the least stable configuration there is. A tripod quoted at 127 cm with the column up may stand at barely a metre with it down — and that lower figure is the honest working height.

Is a 3-way head better than a ball head at this price?

It is different rather than better. A 3-way head separates the axes, so levelling a horizon does not disturb the framing — useful for architecture and for anything on a level surface. A ball head moves in one action and locks with one knob, which is faster for handheld-style framing. At 13 € the 3-way head here also carries the bubble level, which is the part that makes separating the axes worth having.