Since it's discontinued I figure it's not worth posting a full review, but for the curious I thought I'd share my thoughts on the
Travel Flat Series 2 CF tripod.
First off, the stuff I'm not crazy about. As mentioned, I expected this to be more like the MeFOTO Roadtrip and it certainly is not. Fully compacted it's about 6 or 7 inches longer and an inch or two wider (in one direction, about an inch narrower in the other). Instead of being mounted in a circle the legs hinge off a single straight bar under the head, with one leg being where a center column post might be. The center column exists, but only an "above the mount" version and needs to be screwed in when you want it, but that'll extend the most compact length by 8" (it's stored in a pocket in the rather nice carry bag, which will only hold the tripod without the column attached). This is what enables it to lay flat, but it's also what normal tripod users will find to be the hardest thing to get used to for two reasons. First, on normal tripods everything pulls in the same direction as you rotate, but here not so much - everything moves in its own direction and rotating it doesn't make it any easier. Second, the leg positioning complicates the process of getting every leg the same length. On a normal tripod I'll loosen a set of rings and simply raise or lower it against the ground allowing all legs to extend/contract at the same time, and then go around and tighten each. With the lay flay arrangement this is nearly an impossible task as there is no room for your fingers to get around the center leg's rings.
OK, so all that stuff I can deal with. Now the good stuff. The carbon fiber legs are wider and sturdier than the aluminum legs of my Roadtrip, with the thinnest section being equivalent to the second to last on the MeFOTO. This makes for a very stable feeling tripod. The IB1 tripod head is also a step up in quality from the MeFOTO. The knobs are all slightly larger and have a smoother feel - and they're also labeled which is kind of nice if you get confused. What I love is the mounting bracket. I've got 3 other tripods with Arca-Swiss mounts, but this is the first with a safety system that will not release the plate simply by loosening the tension - you need to physically pull on the knob
after loosening and loosen again to remove the plate. As someone who has accidentally loosened the wrong knob while trying to make an adjustment with my eye to the camera I know the shear panic when you feel it slipping out of the mount and to have something like this is awesome as a "just in case" measure. I wasn't expecting it but when fully extended
without the center column the camera eyepiece is in a great position for my 6 foot tall frame, something I was worried about when I realized there was no permanent column. And while I complained about the lack of a center column above, I'll uniformly praise it now as my full size tripod can quickly adjust so that the mounting plate is only 7.5 inches off the ground -
a full inch lower than the minimum height for my MeFOTO Daytrip mini-tripod!!
I'm guessing this thing was designed as a travel tripod that can lay flat in a suitcase, and yes, it can surely do that. But it's by no means something I'd call "compact". That said, folded in its case it's an easy carry, and strapped to my backpack it's actually much less obtrusive as it will "lay flat" against the front or either side. All said, I'm pretty darn happy I jumped on this.