The Manfrotto 055 series of tripods has become somewhat legendary over the years and, for us, the MT055CXPRO3 is the pick of the bunch. Further down the pecking order, there’s an aluminum 3-section edition that you can buy as just a set of legs or as a full kit with an optional ball head or 3-way head. There’s also a 4-section carbon fiber edition that folds down somewhat smaller.
For our money though, the 3-section carbon fiber version comes up trumps for rigidity and all-round performance, along with ease of use and a reasonably lightweight construction. It’s pretty pricey though, especially considering that there’s no ‘kit’ option for the 055 CXPRO3, so you need to add the cost of a suitable head, if you don’t have one already.
