Review: Fotopro Origin Plus travel tripod

When Fotopro asked if I'd like to review their new Origin Plus travel tripod, I must admit I had to do a quick Google first, as I wasn't familiar with the Chinese company.

It turns out Fotopro has more than 20 years experience in creating tripods, and its products are sold in Australia through a number of familiar retailers, including Ted's Cameras, Camera Warehouse and others.

It even has a local Facebook page - although this has been pretty quiet for the last few years.

The company's product development on the other hand has been anything but on hiatus, and its newest product is the Origin travel tripod, a carbon fibre tripod + ballhead that supports up to a whopping 20kg of load (5kg more than the standard Origin), yet weighs only 1.33kg and folds down to a compact 499mm.

For this review, I tested the Origin+ with an Arca-Swiss ballhead, which retails for about $299 USD ($475 AUD), making it competitively priced for a fully featured carbon model.

The build

Buildwise, this is a beautifully engineered tripod with solid metal and carbon features that combine to create a really premium product.

It's well-thought out too, with nice features like a rubber sleeve around one of the tripod legs to help grip the thing, and diamond shaped tubes for the legs.

Fotopro says this shape makes the tripod more resistant to wind, as well as being stronger, with the additional benefit of making the tripod easier to hold with one hand when folded down.

All of the flip locks on the legs use the company's patented 'X-Airfly' spring-loaded system, which the company says have passed durability tests for over 5,000 open and closes.

In addition, there's a spring-loaded hook at the base of the centre column which you can hang a bag off, which I've noticed many lighter weight tripods exclude.

I also liked that the mount for the centre column has a rubber gasket, which means you won't be putting metal on metal when you remove or replace the centre column, protecting the finish of the tripod. 

Fotopro's included ballhead is similarly well-designed. It's solid and made of a nice matte metal.

All the knobs are also knurled, and move with a smooth action.

I really appreciated that the ballhead also offers a dedicated 'panoramic platform', essentially a dedicated knob that isolates movement on the ballhead to just left to right or right to left to make shooting smooth panos much easier. 

I also really liked that there are two spirit levels on the ballhead (and also one on the tripod legs), so you can always see at a glance whether the tripod is level.

Another great feature is the Origin's hidden spiked feet. Simply pull off the rubber feet, and a metal spike is revealed. It's a neat feature and a nice change from the usual situation of spiked feet being an additional purchase.

Finally, the Origin+ comes with a well made bag with waterproof zips, three spare rubber feet (another nice touch) and a couple of spare allen keys to round out the package.

In use

In use, I found the Origin+ tripod a cinch to setup. The flip locks at the base are easy to grab and to open and close, even with gloves.

In addition, each lock has an alley key mount for making finer adjustments to the tension, and I also liked that they opened and closed with a reassuring click. The allen key is shared with the tool for removing the centre column - more on that soon.

There's also a subtle visual cue to show you which direction is locked and which is open at the top set of legs, which is a nice touch. 

At full extension, I liked that the lowest section of the legs are still solidly made carbon sections, as many cheaper tripods use thin and flimsy lower leg sections.

However, I've always believed these are the parts of the tripod that see the most action, and it's important they are as robust as possible.

At the top of the legs, the locks that allow you to adjust the position of the legs are also robust and solid, and I liked the simple design of pushing them out to open and then pushing them back in to close.

The tripod legs can be adjusted to almost a full 90 degrees by lifting out these metal clips, and in all positions the ribbed section gives a handy visual cue as to where on the axis the leg is positioned, speeding up setup in the field.

Other adjustments

On the centre column there's a neatly integrated and magnetised allen key that tucks away tidily - although its a little small so be careful not to lose it, as you'll need it for the next bit.

This allen key allows for the removal of the centre column, which is a two-step process.

First, you need to loosen off a bolt that connects the bottom section of the centre column from the top section which is attached to the ballhead. 

Once this is done, you can then slide the centre column out, and reattach the ballhead section of the centre column to the tripod legs.

The downside is that because the integrated hook is, by design, slightly too large for the opening, you can't just reassemble the centre column and then slide it through the centre.

You'll have to assemble the centre column in situ - placing the top half in the legs and then attaching the bottom half to it.

The advantage is that the hook provides a final level of assurance and stops the centre column from falling out. 

So putting the little bit of work to change the tripod from centre column mode to non-centre column mode aside, the result is a very solid setup in both its standard form or without the centre column, and I liked that the design also allows you to ditch the centre column if you fancy dropping a bit of weight as well. 

And finally, as you'd expect, the centre column can be reversed to allow your camera to hand between the tripod legs as well. 

With the ballhead, I especially liked the panoramic platform and the clever design of its pull-out knob that allows for finer adjustments. After rotating the knob to the desired angle, you can release the knob and it will return to its original position - a nice touch. 

In terms of testing, I mounted my Sony A7 IV and 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 lens (about 2kg) and the setup was solid.

In fact, I think few setups would ever get close to the 20kg weight limit. Unfortunately I didn't get to test the tripod in any extreme weather, but I had little reason to doubt its robustness.

The wrap-up

A tripod is a big investment, and especially so if you're not 100% sure what your use case for it will be into the future, or you're a photographer who shoots a little bit of everything.

Buying a versatile tripod is especially important, and that's really what you get with the Fotopro Origin+.

It can carry a hefty payload, has a smart design and a solid, well made build, all while not being overly heavy. 

If you're looking for a tripod that offers plenty of features for all different kinds of photography, we can recommend the Fotopro Origin+ highly. 

You can find out more about Fotopro's tripods here.