Essentially, all tripods, monopods, and heads have included a weight capacity rating for as long as I can remember. However, a specific standard for establishing these ratings is seldom (never?) mentioned.
Manfrotto has just announced compliance with a new standard to ensure safety for supported gear.
From Manfrotto:
For the first time in the imaging industry, UNI/PdR 105:2021 establishes an official reference practice for payload safety providing full transparency about payload measurements to consumers.
No more gear purchased on arbitrary product specifications:
UNI/PdR 105:2021 guarantees that a support loaded with a weight equal to the declared Safety Payload is never jeopardized, no matter the position, taken all the safety parameters into account.
Whereas, Max Payload indicates the maximum load a support can hold, sometimes not taking safety parameters into account. This means that applying the maximum weight, the support’s safety and functionality might be compromised.
Get more details at https://www.manfrotto.com/us-en/safetypayloadunipdr105-2021/.
Get more Manfrotto gear at B&H.