Yes, hate is a strong word, but it would be accurate in this instance. In the words of the great Dion DiMucci, "Here's my story, it's sad but true, about a tripod that I once knew." I think that was how the song went.
First, A Little Rant
It all started many moons ago when I decided—foolishly, in hindsight—to It all started many moons ago when I decided—foolishly, in hindsight—to believe the expression "buy once, cry once." So off I trot and spend around $1,000 on a Gitzo travel tripod and ballhead. They were supposed to be the best, so I figured I'd spend the money, have a quick cry over it, and then enjoy many years of using the best money can buy. How wrong I was.
That tripod fell apart. First, the ballhead failed me, and a piece fell off while hiking somewhere in a forest in Northern Ontario. And next, the bolts holding the legs on decided to work themselves free and fall out. I travel a lot to foreign countries, hence the need for a "travel tripod." You would expect a tripod designed for travel would be able to handle being carried around without bits constantly falling off. One day I travelled to do a shoot, and when I went to open the tripod, a leg came off in my hand. The bolt had gone AWOL, and I had to hold the leg in place with a piece of wire coat hanger and hope the client didn't notice. "Buy twice, cry twice" became my new mantra.
More Ranting, Almost Done Though!
So I went through a few more cheaper ones, including a very light and pretty-looking model from K&F Concept—and the legs broke off on that too. Although it did last longer than the Gitzo, and was only one-tenth of the price.
In recent years, I've either lugged my 30-year-old indestructible Manfrotto aluminum studio tripod with me, or bought cheap, crappy tripods and used them like one uses a paper cup at a picnic.
"Tripod" became a swear word, and a necessary evil. I've been offered a few in recent years to review, and have either got them, looked at them, and decided it was best not to say or write anything rather than say or write something negative. Or simply decline the offer to test them.
Reviewing The Freewell Real Multi 5-in-1 Tripod (Finally!)
One day a YouTuber who I know mentioned how impressed he was with the new Freewell Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1. Coincidentally, that same week, the lovely folks at Freewell reached out to me and asked if they could send me the tripod. If it wasn't for my YouTube buddy—and the fact that I really like Freewell's filters and own quite a few—I would have declined it, if I'm honest.
It arrived in a nice padded bag. First impressions were that it was very well made, and everything felt high quality and reassuringly solid, including the little details like alloy knobs. It weighs 3.64 lbs, so not the lightest tripod, despite its carbon fiber legs. But this isn't a travel tripod per se; it's a general tripod designed to adapt to a multitude of photographic scenarios.
I've had this tripod for quite a few months now. The last thing I want to do when testing gear is rush to get an article published without putting it through its paces and giving it some abuse. Particularly when it comes to tripods!
The Freewell Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1 is rather unique, because you can completely disassemble it and rebuild it to address a particular photography or videography situation. It's like a Meccano set. For example, this tripod comes with a set of mini legs, so you can quickly screw off the main legs and use the mini legs if you want a tabletop set-up, or need to place your camera at ground level for something like macro photography in the forest. Very useful. You can use one of the full-size legs connected to the ballhead and have a monopod. Okay, a few tripods let you do this, but this one goes a step further and allows you to build a monopod with a fairly stable hands-free base using the mini legs. This is extremely useful for event photography and videography.
If hiking is your thing, you can use the legs as hiking poles and put the rest of the components in your backpack. The substantial rubber feet unscrew to reveal metal spikes that give you more grip while navigating slippery terrain.
The centre column can be completely removed, and you can inverse it to get your camera low to the ground. The ballhead that comes with the tripod is all-metal and very well made. It tightens easily with one big metal lever.
The tripod itself weighs 2.8 lbs, and the ballhead is 0.84 lbs. For travelling, you could reduce weight by taking out the centre column and using a lighter, smaller ballhead if you don't have a big, heavy camera set-up, but I actually didn't have a huge problem carrying around the 3.64 lbs total weight. On occasion, I've left the larger legs at home and just taken out the smaller leg setup.
The Freewell Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1 can handle up to 44 lbs of payload and extends to give you a working height of around 62 inches. The supplied Arca-type quick-release camera mounting plate converts to a phone mounting plate, which some vloggers may find useful. There is a small hook on the centre column to hang a bag from to provide extra stability. If I'm going to nit-pick, this is a little on the small side to hang a bag from unless you use a carabiner—although it is beautifully engineered and unscrews to reveal an Allen key that is used for taking the centre column apart for removal.
Conclusion
So to wrap things up, Freewell have made a really impressive and incredibly versatile tripod, which I like a lot. After living with it and playing with it for a while now, it's proven to be very stable and well made. And it's well priced. I think they could have come up with a better name for it though.
It's the best general-purpose tripod I've ever used, to date. I'm going to rate it 9/10. The only thing holding it back from a 10/10 is the weight. If it was lighter, it would be perfect, and tick all the boxes for me, because I do travel a lot. Admittedly though, there's no such thing as one tripod that does everything. Freewell do make a dedicated lightweight travel tripod that weighs only 2 lb. If weight is your only concern, and you don't need the versatility of the 5-in-1, that might be worth checking out. Maybe I can get one to review in the future.
The Freewell Real Multi Tripod 5-in-1 retails for $300.
1 Comment
I feel like I have seen it all with tripods but this is a pretty innovative concept.