Today we will be taking a look at the latest travel tripod developed by Falcam with a number of useful features and several interesting design changes – let’s review the Falcam TreeRoot Quick Lock Travel Tripod.
Concept
The Falcam TreeRoot Quick Lock Travel Tripod is carving out new space among elite travel tripods, a niche that has been defined for a few years now by the Peak Design’s $600 carbon fiber model and a few other options in between $500 and $600, but what do you get when you lay out the extra cash for an elite travel tripod? How much-added cost is it worth having these features, and can the TreeRoot offer similar performance to the Peak Design for a lower cost? Let’s find out.
Falcam TreeRoot Quick Lock Travel Tripod
In the Box
The tripod comes in a gray, tightly woven fabric carrying case with an adjustable strap and slightly inconspicuous branding on a small sewn-in tag. In the bag are some tools and replacement gaskets for the legs. Falcam also supplied us with the Threaded Center Column Module (A130) and an F22 Quick Release 7-inch Extension Magic Arm Kit (2974), which were helpful in seeing how this tripod could handle various tasks we threw at it.
Build and Design
As far as we can tell, the TreeRoot is one of the first travel tripods to use M40 high-modulus carbon fiber. This industry standard rating typically indicates more elasticity, and on the official website, Falcam claims 60% more stiffness in M40 carbon fiber than in the T300 variety. Falcam rates the ballhead at 5kg/11lbs, the triangular center column at 20kg/44lbs, and 10kg/22lbs when raised. The legs by themselves are rated to hold up to 50kg/110lbs.
Alone, the legs weigh 1.3kg/2.87 lbs, and the entire kit is 1.5kg/3.3 lbs when combined with Falcam’s F38 Pro Ball Head 320P. I wanted to use more of the load-bearing potential of the center column, so I replaced the F38 ballhead with my Arca-Swiss Monoball, which is capable of supporting up to 66 lbs. Deploying the legs in a wide stance with three of the four leg segments extended, the new combined kit was able to firmly hold my 200-600 super-telephoto lens and Sony A7IV at a combined weight of 2774g/6.11lbs, and in the field it did even better when using the spiked feet. The legs did bow inwards a bit under the weight, and this is where I wanted to see if the M40 carbon fiber made a noticeable difference.
When I collapsed the legs to put it away, there was a slight amount of friction caused by the legs warping, but it turned out this was temporary. Ten minutes later after I had collapsed the tripod, I opened it up again and observed that the legs had straightened back to their original shape. In the end, I can’t be sure the M40 carbon fiber is increasing the load capacity of the legs as much as it is increasing the legs’ ability to retain their original shape, thereby keeping them from permanently warping and enabling smooth operation for a longer lifespan. This new material may pay off over time, but we’ll have to wait a year or two to really see. Ultimately, in addition to general photography use, I would also use this setup for basic wildlife photography, so it’s ideal for creators who want a fast-deploying kit to capture some fauna along with their flora.
A side F22 QR
The length of the kit folded for storage is 473mm/18½in, and its minimum height is 168mm/6½in. Maximum height with the ball head in the lowest position is 1305mm/51½in and 1552mm/61in with the ball head fully raised. Just like in the Peak Design tripod, these legs are engineered to be comfortable to hold in the hand. The textures are smooth, and most importantly, there are no sharp edges anywhere. The round within anisotropic leg tube design, what Falcam calls a “Reuleaux triangle tube”, is what minimizes the size of the tripod while providing a comfortable shape to grip.
Here they made a design decision that led them away from Peak Design with only the top stage of the legs having this Reuleaux shape and the rest of the stages being round. This combines the advantages of both round and non-round legs for different purposes: strength when deployed and less volume when packed away. The leg angle can be adjusted to three positions, with one hand tilting a button located at the usual place at the top of each leg.
There’s a tool for changing the leg angle tension and one for opening the legs for maintenance. O-ring seals (spares included) reduce the ingress of water and debris. Rotating quick-locks release or grab each leg stage with only ⅓ of a turn. There’s a hard limit at either end of this short turn, a much-needed new feature meant to protect the tripod from accidental disassembly in the field. There’s also more resistance felt as you get close to that hard limit, which altogether enables blind setup. It’s just more reassuring than other leg lock designs for travel tripods.
Features
The TreeRoot comes with the F38 Pro Ballhead and the second version of the F38 Quick Release Plate, which adds a simple anti-twist design to the original plate, but there are other new features in this ballhead. The plate now snaps into place via a spring-loaded quick-release mechanism, and there are adaptive limit columns and limit slots built into where Arca-Swiss compatible plates mount to prevent the camera from sliding off. There is a leveling control or locking control trigger similar to what is on the Ulanzi Zero. It’s surprising how little force is required to use it.
A clicked damping adjustment knob controls how much force is required to move the head around when the locking control trigger is closed, and it provided useful adjustment for my heavier Sony A7IV with a monitor mounted on top, but the least resistance wasn’t as useful when I only had my lighter A6600 mounted; it was still a bit too tough. That said, using the control level alone is perfectly fine for me. The panning control twist lever is conventionally sized, shaped, and placed. The bubble level is perfectly positioned at the top rear so it’s visible directly beneath the camera’s LCD screen. The ball itself can achieve a full 180 degrees of motion, including vertical orientation, but like with Peak Design, it must be slightly raised on the center column to move that freely – a small sacrifice that helps achieve the kit’s compact shape for transport.
The long center coulmn
The design of the center column seems focused on improving the stability challenges normally associated with travel tripod heads. Visible when the ball head is removed, tiny rubber pads at the top of the column give additional support to the ball head so it doesn’t shift in its resting position. The column’s adjustment knob has a gasket so you know how tight you’ve turned it, and a few inches below the head on the column itself is a new quick-release mechanism for rapidly switching the head. This is also more stable than having the head attached to the tripod with only one screw.
The multi-function ballast hook at the bottom of the center column is for hanging your bag or weight, and it also has a gasket so it won’t come unscrewed so easily. Falcam says the hook’s built-in hex wrench and flathead screwdriver are meant to disassemble and maintain some parts, but I couldn’t get the tool to do anything except almost strip the H4 leg adjustment.
The round twist leg locks
The F22 attachment point between two of the legs, below the head, is so recessed in a snug position that it was tricky for me to use at first, but I got a little better with practice. The barely visible hole to tie a lanyard to requires tiny fingers or a tool. Detachable rubber feet cover multi-prong spikes or “tridents” that are great at gripping but are also dull enough to use safely on the carpet and without fear of puncturing yourself. I would prefer if the feet were screwed up to reveal spikes so that there’s no risk of misplacing the feet.
Falcam also sent us their F22 Quick Release 7-inch Extension Magic Arm Kit, which I tried out a bunch of times with my 5.5-inch monitor. It’s different from conventional magic arms since the main adjustment knob doesn’t increase stiffness in a linear way but instead has three positions: adjustable, locked down, and adjustable. It feels significantly stiffer in the locked-down position and because of the tiny quick-release plates of the F22 system, it’s quick to set up. The Strap Classic 3144 was nicer than the strap that came with my camera, and without the annoyingly obvious branding, but even for carrying a tripod my neck prefers a wider pad to distribute the weight more, like on Falcam’s Strap Pro 3145.
Conclusion
The TreeRoot does a great job at being the one travel tripod to rule them all, and it is sturdy enough to use in some studio setups as well. For a hundred dollars less than the Peak Design, you get virtually all the same features plus one or two new ones, including the option to use the F22 Quick Release Magic Arm for attaching accessories.
My experience using this tripod was so satisfying. I’d recommend it to anyone who is tired of using weak, flawed travel tripods and wants to keep their large camera safer while also getting the job done faster. Setting aside unusual tripods designed for more niche photography workflows, this is possibly the best, all-purpose, photography travel tripod ever made. It’s still not cheap, but Falcam has aggressively lowered the price point of elite travel tripods, and we think the competition has only just begun.
Low level position
Pricing
The Falcam TreeRoot Quick Lock Travel Tripod can be found on Amazon for $500.
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