Several years ago, we field-tested the original Heipi W28 travel tripod, subjecting it to a thorough set of torture tests under various conditions. I was quite surprised when it passed all of them with flying colors. Having never heard of the brand before, I didn’t have any positive expectations from them, but the tripod proved to be worth its mettle. Now, an upgrade has been released, and the all-new Heipi W28S improves upon its predecessor in many ways.
This is a brief review, shorter than our usual format. Although it won’t follow our traditional review style, I will still make a point to mention that the Heipi W28S tripod deserves not just a full five stars, but also our Editor’s Choice award. The improvements over the original tripod may be subtle in some aspects, but they definitely make a difference. Heipi has made improvements that photographers will actually feel and use every time they shoot
Here’s why we’re giving it an Editor’s Choice award.
Notable Improvements
Firstly, the leg locks on the Heipi W28S have been extended slightly. Again, a small change, but whereas the leg locks on the earlier W28 felt a little tight at times, the aluminum alloy ones on the W28S are significantly smoother to use. They definitely open and close more easily and didn’t pinch my fingers like the predecessor did. Not a fan of the clip-type locks? You can order your Heipi W28S in a twist-lock option too.
Not the legs this time, but the larger lever on the ballhead ensures you can keep a steady camera on any surface. You can also easily remove the locking lever for cleaning. A point that needs to be made here is how well designed the ballhead itself it. Most all-in-one tripods I’ve seen usually come with flimsy, small ballheads; not this one. And you still get the inbuilt, smaller tripod which you can attach your smartphone to (using a built-in clip) for BTS filming on long shoots.
The Heipi W28S features spike options for the feet, similar to the W28, but these are slightly longer in size. The spikes are hidden in the rubber feet like before, but they extend all the way to 30mm (1 12/64 in) now, allowing you to steady your tripod much better in sand, earth, or snow.
Extending the legs to extreme angles is possible too, but the angle locks make it easier to do this with their redesign. The locks now are a bit more traditional in design. The ones on the W28 were unconventional (can’t say I’d ever seen them before on any tripod before), but these are fairly standard-looking looking
You can do smooth 360° panning with the ballhead, but you can also switch this around to have 10° clicked pans too. You just need to bear with the extra step of using the supplied Allen key for switching between these modes. Use either of the two spirit levels (ballhead or main tripod) to level your camera for this.
Overall, the small yet thoughtful improvements in the Heipi W28S tripod make this an even more desirable unit, particularly for travel and landscape photographers.