Grumbling

More than ten years ago I bought a small tripod for my first digital camera. The tripod had ~10 sections, extended to ~1 meter or even a little bit longer in a couple seconds, folded to ~20cm, and was very light. I can carry it in my pocket (jacket pocket of cause) or keep it in my bag. The thing cost about 20 Swiss franks, or even less, and I used it for many years. Obviously it was shaky, but my camera had an infrared remote and no mirror, so I had no problem with stability of the camera. Also, the camera had a timer, and it was possible to shoot on the tripod even without infrared remote. The camera have fallen on grass a couple time under strong wind, and I kicked it off accidentally, but despite all these shortcomings it was very handy and very useful.

I have not used compact digital cameras for years and don't have this tripod anymore. But now we got Fuji X10. So, I searched for a similar tripod on ebay today. And guess what? Essentially nothing! The only similar tripod I found is in US, with the cost of shipping to Oz over 60 US$.

Table tripods are way too short for me. I have "a digital" tripod that can be used with small DSLR camera. I can put it in my backpack but then I will look like a Hunchback of Notre-Dame. And it is heavy, over one kilo, and big. Yes, it is stable and safe, but it mostly stays at home.

Why such tripods have disappeared? The only explanation I came with was following: a few years ago  the high-end compacts were big and heavy (Olympus C8080, Minolta Dimage A2, Canon Pro1), and a flimsy tripod was not good much for such cameras. People with less advanced models probably would not use tripods at all. This generation of high end compacts were replaced with even more heavy entry-level DSLR cameras. The small portable tripods have extincted because the disappearance of their pray, small advanced cameras :-)  

However, in last couple years the high-end compact cameras got a fresh start with appearance of such models as Panasonic LX3 or current models (Samsung TL500, Olympus XZ-1, Fujifilm X10 and others). These cameras are not heavy, and very often were bought by people who do use tripods. So, I expect that soon we will see re-emergence of such small expendable tripods.