2026-07-09 Tripod Inventory

    

I am contemplating doing some indexing of all the tripods I have acquired over the years. First I took a look at an internet review of tripods to see what information they list. I wanted to get a feel of what was really important.
They started with this:

MSRP               $250
Folded size        13" (34cm)
Maximum height     53.5" (136cm)
Height w/ column down    44.5" (113cm)
Minimum height     9" (23cm) w/ short column
Weight             3 lb. (1.36kg)
Load limit      11 lb. (5kg)
# of leg sections      5
Leg tube diameters     22 / 19 / 16 / 13 / 10mm
# of leg angles      3
Angle degrees     22 / 45 / 80°
Warranty     10 years

Obviously some decisions must be made before you even start inventorying (is that even a word?). For example in Canada all measurements are supposed to be metric. Adding a British conversion was permitted, but it had to come second. (tell that to the milk sales people in Ontario). Even in this demonstration American internet posting, they switch to metric for the leg diameters!
    Then part way into the review they start adding listed information:

Converts to monopod        ---
Carrying case     --- (optional $30 accessory)
Insulated leg grip     Yes, on all three legs
Removable feet      ---
Non-rotating center column     Yes, grooved
Short center column      Yes, grooved
Weight hook      Yes, retractable, removable
Top plate/ head platform      Metal, reversible mount screw
Ball head diameter/ max load    28mm ball, 5 kg max load
QR plate included            Yes, arca-type, 40mm long

I assume “---” means no, or maybe. If you are keeping track your spreadsheet now has 22 columns and we aren’t finished. 
The review continues with:

What we like: 

• Innovative leg angle locks
• Nice ball head and QR platform
• Compact dimensions

What we don't like:

• Weight to height ratio
• Tools required for short column
• No bag included
• Very solid build quality

    If we included these entries we are up to 29 columns, not counting the number of the tripod and the name of the tripod. If you were really on the ball—as in a museum entry system—I am sure you would add a column for the manufacturer, date of the tripod’s introduction, photos to illustrate the tripod, the head, the locks, the spider, the cranks (if any), the feet, the column, the name plate (if it has one) and for all I know you would still be missing the parts list, the type of leg hinge, the finish, the materials, the known weak parts of the design, the type of camera the tripod was designed for…I could go on for awhile, but you must have got the idea by now.
Indexing your collection needs some limitations.
    This is how I came up with my indexing attempt— 
    First I chose to start with the big tripods (because they aren’t the biggest category)
I took all of the big guys—they stand together—and piled them on my bed (there were too many, so some had to stand behind the bed against the wall). I ended up with 19 tripods
    I started with the  biggest of them.
    I gave myself some easy limitations. I wasn’t about to erect every tripod to its maximum height, start piling weights on the heads until the legs collapsed, testing the vibration levels (the American internet testers not only did the vibration tests, they told you how to do them!) or listing materials. I ended up with columns for—

1. Tripod number
2. tripod’s name
3. # of sections
4. most compact length
5. column height
6. weight

Then things got a little muddled. I started to try to add if it had a bag (only two did). If it had a different manufacturer’s head I tried to write the head’s manufacturer down (again only two did). I listed either ball or pan/tilt as head types. I tried to mark down if it had a spider (but lost track part way in). Sometimes a tripod had a special thing that made it different: like a Manfrotto tripod that had thumb controls on the head that releases all three legs to extend together.
    Now we get to choices about using a table format for the information, or other possibilities like simply writing a short listing of each tripod. Sticking with tables, do we try for a table from a word processing program or a spread sheet program? If you use a word processing program the finished table is searchable, but not reformat-able (another made-up word) so you can restructure a new table from the already entered data. The simple word processing table can be reformatted to text in columns, without all the shading and box line choices from table formatting menus.
    You had better decide some of these options before you start. There are at least as many medium sized tripods, not to mention the smaller choices like table-top, clamp-pods and the like to gather information on.
    Then there are decisions on how to use any of this information in the future. To be totally on the ball you should have some kind of unique numbering system or bar code you could affix to each tripod. You would need some kind of location system (main pile, tallest, has red painted blaze…whatever). If you had the room for individual slots like shoe storage racks or hanging them on a peg-board wall it would make things infinitely easier…but Hell will freeze over first.
Let’s try to start with the information from the first tripod–
1—Davis and Sanford Floating Action—2 section—41” closed size—31” column—Spider (Y/N)— Bag (Y/N)—12.4( weight pounds)
As a table it would look like this, with columns for—
Number—Name—sections—closed size—column size—spider—Bag—weight
You can save some real space by having contractions for the columns—
e.g.
#, Name, Sec, ClS, ColS, Spidr, Bag, Wght
    We have learned a lot so far. 
    Don’t ever use an erasable device to record information on. It took two and a half hours to gather the information on the 19 tripods. Then I blew it all away by accidentally touching the erase button while moving the tablet with the information, before I had a chance to enter it all on the computer. So I had to do it all over again.
    If you have a hand-held luggage scale, use it. I had recorded all the initial weights using two scales: one for people and one for food. For the larger tripods I had to hold the tripod and stand on the people scale, step off the scale and put the tripod down, weight just myself, subtract my weight from the weight of myself with tripod. Between tripods the digital scale would shut down. It had to be stepped on to turn it on—wait for zero to appear, and then step on and wait for the reading to be made. The smaller food scale also had to be turned on between tripods, took time to calibrate itself…     Also the room was crowded so the small food scale got kicked under things a couple of times.
    I would probably even now modify the table so the head was a separate column, the bag column was deleted, there was a comment box for the outstanding benefit of the tripod…
    The final count in the table was 72. From 57—71 they were table top or clamp style tripods. It was discovered there were two identical Velbon Victory 450 tripods, collected at separate times. There were also two Davidson Star-D tripods, but they had huge differences. 
    Manufacturers (and number of tripods from them) included—

• 9- Velbon 
• 8- Slik 
• 7- Manfrotto (two sets of legs were the same but the heads were different)
• 5- Joby style (table-top tripods with flexible articulated legs)
• 4- Star-D (by Davidson)
• 3- Linhof
• 2- Cullmann