This is a bit of an oddball question, but I thought this might be a good place to ask outside of musicians' specific forums. To skip to the good part, I'm looking for the best, shortest when collapsed, and slimmest tripod I can possibly find, comparable to my current Benro Slim TSL08AN00, but hopefully shorter and slimmer and not outrageously expensive.
The point, if you want to skip the details:
The Benro Slim TSL08AN00 is 51 cm long and 8 cm wide, when collapsed. The Benro Travel Slim FSL09AN00 is shorter, 31.5 cm when reverse folded, but wider, at 11 cm. The Benro Superslim TSSL08AN00P seems to be slimmer (Benro doesn't specify the width of this model), but slightly longer, at 52 cm collapsed.
If any one has any recommendations or ideas about other tripods that might work for this niche application, I'd really appreciate it.
Alternatively, if any knows if I could swap the five-sections legs from the Travel Slim in place of the four-section legs of the Slim, that might be ideal for me.
The sordid details:
I am trying to put together a set of travel gear for fly gigs that will include me carrying my instrument in a gig bag as cabin baggage. Although most of my travel will be by Amtrak, I want to be prepared for flights, as well.
FAA regulations require all US domestic flights to permit normal-sized instruments as cabin baggage, provided there is space for them at the time of boarding, but the instrument then counts as your (usually) one permitted piece of cabin baggage, meaning that if you don't want to check any baggage, everything else you might want to bring has to fit in a "personal item", which has to fit under the seats of the aircraft.
That leaves me with only a "flight tote" sized piece of luggage to fit everything else I might need for a long weekend gig. For a longer trip, I would pack additional clothing into a standard rollaboard suitcase that I would check, but the essential gear needs to stay with me in the cabin.
In my instrument gig bag will be: bass guitar, instrument strap, tuner pedal, instrument leads, extra strings, IEM belt pack, extra 9 V batteries, electrical tester, instrument adjustment tools
In the fight tote will be:
my small effects pedalboard and power supply
field recorder (TASCAM Portacapture X8) and in-ear monitors
personal electronics (iPad, iPhone, charger/cables, powerbank)
IK Multimedia iKlip 3 Deluxe iPad holder (attaches to tripod or mic stand)
quart baggy of toiletries and makeup
small handbag for use at the destination
my Filofax personal organizer
my towel (thank you Douglas Adams)
a change of clothing for the gig and a spare set of lingerie, possibly a swimsuit/exercise wear
in-flight snack and water bottle
I think I've got all this pretty well dialed-in to fit. If I can squeeze the space, the only other things I'd like to fit are over-the-ear headphones for hotel room practice/songwriting/demo recording and a small camera like a Fuji X100 series or smaller, but I'm fine for the moment with just the IEMs and iPhone.
I'd like to be able to bring a small tabletop tripod (possibly the IK Multimedia IKlip Grip Pro or Manfrotto Pixi type of thing) and a travel tripod that can double as a microphone stand (in a hotel room, or at a field recording location, not recording studio or performance venue, which should have conventional mic stands) with adapters (which I have). The tabletop tripod isn't much of a concern, as it's very small. But carrying a conventional travel tripod that can fit my luggage safely is a bit of a problem.
What I own is a Benro Slim TSL08AN00 tripod (the aluminium one, not the carbon fiber one), which I got used in mint condition for a song on eBay. I'm very happy with this tripod, except that it's too long to fit into an underseat flight tote, so the only other option would be to try to fit it into my instrument gig bag along with my instrument, and while I can kind of sort of do this, the fit is a bit tight, and I'm worried about both my instrument and the tripod being damaged/dented in transport.
One solution to this might be a new instrument gig bag, which I plan to buy anyway, but I'm not sure if the gig bag I have in mind will be able to do this without first buying it, so what I'm looking for is a tripod of comparable quality that would hopefully be shorter and slimmer when collapsed, without being heavier. Hopefully, that way, I could tuck it into my instrument gig bag alongside the neck of my instrument without worry, or even fit it into the flight tote.
I've you've read this far, I hope you found it entertaining, at least.
