Recently, I cut two of the three legs off my tripod and substituted trekking poles. I posted instructions on my blog for anyone interested in doing something similar.

Very smart idea, thanks for sharing! But I wonder how practical it would be for times when you want to take pictures every few minutes on a trail where you need poles for yourself in between. If you're carrying the poles primarily for setting up your tent and for negotiating just the more difficult parts of the path, or if you only want to pull out the tripod a handful of times, then certainly it's a great weight and space saver.

EDIT: I see you mean to use it as a monopod during the day and just use the trekking poles for low light situations. That makes sense! :)

Edited by berethorn on 06/27/2011 12:40:19 MDT.

Thanks for your comments, Derek. Mostly during the day, I'll be just using the monopod. But I can imagine situations where I'll set up the tripod during the day such as when I need a figure in the landscape for balance or perspective and I'm the only one around. Or maybe just after a storm when the clouds are just starting to break up and the light and landscape are so good that I want to get as sharp an image as possible. Luckily, the trekking poles screw in quickly and easily enough that it's only slightly less convenient than setting up a regular tripod.

Brilliant Dondo, well done. I need to take some notes on this one, this may be cheaper than spending a significant amount of money on a really lightweight carbon setup. I'm currently looking at picking up a new tripod, this may fill the gap perfectly.

Thanks, Eugene. It's not a Gitzo, but it's really solid at a reasonable weight (19.2 oz.).

ohhh.. pacerPoles ... they sure look like it .
you're thinking for yourself now, all on your own, this can be a dangerous undertaking, not going with the herd and all ...
DONDO ! .. be careful !
unregulated thought can have serious consequences.

Thanks for the warning, peter. I've been told that before. It can lead people to do dangerous things like wandering around the Arctic all on their own, wearing highly breathable head nets of their own design.....

How does it look from outside the box? :) Clever boy!!! I've been hashing around a clamp-type arrangement with a tripod, but was always thinking smaller diameter legs. Your idea is simple and strong.

Hi Dale, I know that you've been thinking along these lines too. It was part of my inspiration to get to work on this. Let me know what you come up with. I'm always looking for lighter and/or better ways of doing things.

Initial field test on a trip earlier this week was positive. It really does make a very solid tripod.