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The best tripods for your DSLR or mirrorless camera

Despite the impressive stabilization tech in today's cameras, there are times when you need a tripod. We've rounded up the best camera tripods to help keep your camera steady in the most trying conditions.

Tripod heads come in all shapes and sizes. Vanguard’s Alta Pro 263AGH offers one of the more unique styles, however, amounting to a pistol-style grip that rotates on a ball head. The three-section tripod features an uncommon three-position angle adjustment, allowing you to set the legs at a 25, 50, or 80-degree spread to go from a standard upright position to an extremely low one. Combined with a 13.2-pound weight limit, this tripod has a lot to offer, especially when you consider the relatively affordable price.

If you’re looking for flexibility, Joby’s iconic lineup of GorillaPods will give it to you — literally. Its legs are basically a series of interconnected ball joints, allowing them to articulate in any direction so the tripod can grip anything it can fit its legs around. GorillaPods come in a variety of sizes, too. This particular model, for instance, is capable of holding up a DSLR with a decent-sized lens. For smartphone stability, Joby’s GripTight tripod might be right up your alley, while mirrorless users might find the GorillaPod 3K Kit more appropriate for medium-weight applications.

Manfrotto might be better known for its larger tripods, but the company has struck all the right chords with its Pixi Evo series. Designed for smartphones, point-and-shoots, action cameras, and even mirrorless cameras, this little tabletop tripod is built like a tank, but packs down small for the sake of convenience. Perfect for travel and outdoor adventures, the ball head lets you easily level your camera even when the tripod is placed on an uneven surface. It can also be used as a hand grip for holding your camera when shooting video.

The Slik Sprint Pro III is a lightweight tripod that gets the job done without any extra frills and offers good value for the money. Each of the three legs have four extendable sections and the center bracket can be taken down so that lower-angle shooting is possible. With the ball head mount, the Silk Sprint Pro III is also capable of holding an upwards of 4.5 pounds, which isn’t exactly much compared to others on this list, but is still more than enough for a mirrorless camera or DSLR with a standard zoom lens attached.

Compact, colorful, and capable, the MeFoto BackPacker Travel Tripod is one of the more interesting offerings available. Like most of MeFoto’s tripods, this particular version is available in a rainbow of colors, from silver to purple. As the name suggests, it also packs down so that you can easily stow it in a small backpack. It even manages to hold upwards of 8.8 pounds on its ball head mount. Want an even lighter tripod? Check out the Air version of the BackPacker.

If you’re looking for a nimble tripod that can handle still and video work, you should opt for one with a fluid head, and Manfrotto has some of the best options out there in terms of bang-for-your-buck. The Manfrotto MK190X3-2W is one of the company’s mid-tier options, yet it still offers impressive performance despite its compact design. The fluid head means pans and tilts will be nice and smooth while recording video. This tripod is unique in that it’s actually a still photo tripod with a video head attached, and it uses the same quick-release plate as Manfrotto’s other still photo heads. It’s therefore easy to swap out a ball head when you need it, making this a good choice for hybrid still/video shooters.

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What's happened? This week, China's Quality Certification Center released information about a battery (EB-BS04898ABY) with a maximum capacity of 4,855mAh. That's the same capacity as was previously seen in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and fans have taken this certification to mean the Galaxy S26 Ultra will not see a capacity increase after all.

The Samsung Galaxy Ultra models have had the same battery capacity for the last five years.

What's happened? Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Tab S10 Lite, a budget-friendly alternative to the Galaxy Tab S10. The device has been rumored for months, but this is the first time Samsung has officially acknowledged its existence.

The Galaxy Tab S10 Lite will have a 10.9-inch display and a peak brightness of 600 nits — a bit on the lower side, versus the iPad Pro's maximum brightness of 1,600 nits.