Tripods with the hook certainly exist Charles - a number of the carbon fibre ones have these hooks. But whether that makes them anymore stable I don't know. I'm still lugging round a very stable but very heavy manfrotto 144b birder model!

I have a number of tripods but none of them seem to meet all my criteria.

At Birdfair 2012 I purchased

Giotto VGRN Vitruvian Tripod Kits - Aluminium
It is lightweight, it folds up into a very compact size and it also converts to a monopod. It cost me around 180 quid

http://www.giottos-tripods.co.uk/index.php?page=productpage&cat=4e0ae5b2ba971&product=518a72bc14f32

However it hasn't stood up to wear and tear very well, several of the knobs fell off and the plastic things inside one of the legs broke, meaning that only 2 of the 3 legs extend fully. It is also a bit too light-weight to stand up to the sort of winds we have had recently. It has also proved difficult getting it repaired.

I then went for this model

Manfrotto MKC3-H01 Compact Tripod - less than 50 quid from Argos

Its light-weight and reasonably compact meaning that I can squeeze it inside a rucksack alongside my Opticron scope. However it is not quite sturdy enough to stand up to high winds either. :(

So personally I wouldn't recommend either.

I would quite like a light-weight tripod which would remain stable in high winds and which had a hook below the central section from which a heavy item (rucksack etc) could be hung to provide extra stability. However I'm not sure that such a thing exists. :(

-- Edited by Charles Farrell on Wednesday 12th of February 2014 12:10:13 PM

-- Edited by Charles Farrell on Wednesday 12th of February 2014 12:10:41 PM