In general, I don't like carrying around a tripod. If I'm working from the car, and happen to have tossed the thing onto the back seat, there's a real chance that I could possibly use it. Hiking, not so much. I did once see a set of hiking sticks that featured a camera mounting plate in the handle and an expandable foot that unfolded into a mini-tripod, but it cost over $600. Luckily, it was on backorder at B&H. These days, many cameras have pretty amazing image stabilizers built in, so mostly the problem is solved, at least as far as I am concerned. If I'm honest, the only tripods that I ever found particularly interesting were the ones featured in the series of children's books by John Christopher, the Tripod trilogy, but those tripods were pretty terrifying. Hmm.
