Ease of Use

Most other tripods feature 3 or 4 leg sections, but Element tripods have 5-sections. Four twist locks makes for additional fiddling to lengthen and close off each time, but you get a tripod that packs away smaller with an impressive maximum height. 

It is possible to get a grip of all locks at the same time to loosen to then erect the tripod. You’ll need a fairly standard rotation between 90 to 135° to loosen and secure the twist locks. 

With the centre column extended, the maximum height of the Element Carbon Big tripod is 164cm. With a camera then attached to the ball head, the viewfinder sits exactly at eye-level for a 6ft 1in giant like me. No arching your back here and that is with a tripod that folds down so small. Impressive.

The centre column can be reversed if desired. You’ll need to unscrew the hook at the bottom of the column. That same hook can be used to hang a weight to increases stability, or to keep your camera bag off the floor (plus use that bag as a weight).

In addition to feeling fragile, we found three-angle leg lock quite fiddly to operate. For us it is the part of the tripod that could do with the most improvement.

As for the supplied aluminium ball head, it is a solid little unit. It features a panning lock, a large tilt lock and two bubble-levels for horizontal or vertical shooting.

The locks feature a lovely hexagonal rubber grip which is easy to grip and operate. Along the base of the head the angles are marked at 5° increments for precise panning.

The head uses a standard Arca-Swiss quick release plate that works with any other Arca-type plates.

Conclusion

Without trying to sound too harsh, the Element Carbon Big tripod is an unremarkable carbon fibre travel tripod - for good and for bad. 

Features wise, it ticks the right boxes, without offering anything that makes it stand out from the crowd. The fold up legs and removable leg that doubles up as a monopod before are great features that we have seen before in travel tripods. Perhaps five years ago we would have got more excited about this tripod. 

In its favour the Element Carbon Big can pack away really small and it is as light as a feather. Asides from the sticky and fragile three-angle lock, we have not experienced any issues with the tripod. It does what it should for the cameras it is designed to support. 

The real selling point of the Element Carbon Big is it’s price, but especially the aluminium version. At £200 and £130 respectively including the excellent and dinky ball head, the Element Big travel tripods are competitively priced.

That’s what five years has done - allowed these kinds of features in a tripod under £200.

Ultimately, we’d have no hesitation choosing the tripod as our camera support when moving around a lot or wanting to support smaller cameras. 

For more information about the Element range of supports, please visit the Manfrotto website.

Ratings (out of 5)
Design	3.5
Features	3.5
Ease-of-use	4
Value for money	4

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