Peak Design's Burly New Pro Tripods Are for Serious Photographic Adventures

Author

Bob Myaing

Peak Design's Burly New Pro Tripods Are for Serious Photographic Adventures

Developed with adventure photographer Jimmy Chin, the new Pro Tripods pack down small and enable video functionality with add-on accessories

Published: 11-20-2025

About the author

Bob Myaing

Bob Myaing is a Philadelphia-based fly fisher, mountain biker, and writer with an unhealthy gear obsession.

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Peak Design has built a strong reputation for developing a line of innovative, well-designed gear since it launched in 2010 with an accessory called the Capture Clip that allowed traveling photographers to secure their cameras to backpack shoulder straps. Today, the Capture Clip is almost as ubiquitous in photo kits as a camera strap—Peak Design makes those too, along with outdoor camera packs, rolling luggage, phone cases, and more. And now Peak Designs is expanding its innovative, lightweight tripod line with the release of three new models: the Pro Tripod ($900), Pro Tall Tripod ($1,000), and Pro Lite Tripod ($800).

Developed in conjunction with the renowned adventure photographer and Emmy-winning filmmaker Jimmy Chin, the Pro Tripod platform underwent prototype testing during Chin’s travels to far-flung locations around the globe. One could suppose that if it’s good enough for Jimmy, then it’ll work for you, too. And a lot of people seem to have made that conjecture—Peak Design has a history of wildly successful Kickstarter campaigns, and the Pro Tripod line made $4.6 million on the crowdfunding site earlier this year ahead of the wider release.

When Peak Design introduced the Travel Tripod back in 2019, they bestowed outdoor photographers with a lightweight, 2.8-pound carbon fiber tripod that packs down into a short 15.50-inch length and telescopes to a full 60-inch height. It was easily the most compact travel-oriented photo tripod made, and to achieve that Peak Design reimagined just about every component from leg shape to locking levers to the center column to minimize wasted space. Fitting easily into the side pocket of a photo backpack or strapped to a bike rack, the Travel Tripod was designed to fit in any adventure loadout.

Expanding from where the Travel Tripod left off, the Pro Tripods lengthen the scale of its carbon fiber legs to suit a taller profile (77.7-inch height and 22.9-inch packed length on the Pro Tall model) and increase weight capacity to 40 pounds on Pro and Pro Tall models, and 35 pounds on the Pro Lite. With increased height and capacity, all three models are perfectly travel-friendly with a modest weight of 3.7 pounds on the Pro Lite up to 4.5 pounds on the Pro Tall. Compared to the Travel Tripod’s original 20-pound weight capacity, it’s clear that Peak Design is targeting more serious users with more professional, heavy camera bodies and larger lenses weighted down by bigger glass elements.

Along with the new Pro Tripods, Peak Design also developed new accessories to address the reality that a lot of photographers today also shoot video, too. The Tilt Mod head ($150) adds fluid pan-and-tilt movement with a telescoping pan bar that saves space when packed away. And if you already own a professional video head or gimbal, the optional Pro Leveling Base ($130) lets you pair it with the Pro Tripod’s lightweight carbon legs.

Experiencing extreme climates and miles of travel with Jimmy Chin, Peak Design founder and CEO Peter Dering said, “We knew if we could fulfill Jimmy’s wish list we’d land on a tripod that meets the needs of almost every photographer and videographer on the planet.” With Jimmy’s seal of approval on this expedition-quality tripod, we’re pretty sure it’ll survive whatever we can put it through as well.

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