I was delighted to see the tripld mode appear on my p4 list of flight modes, charged the three batteries and set off to try it out only to find tripod mode had disappeared from the list, any ideas ?

Removed, but I thought a couple of DJI GO versions ago. You've been seeing it on GO recently? Perhaps you didn't upgrade until now?
It, and other intelligent flight modes shared with the P4P and mavic, was removed earlier this year when DJI decided not to release the P4 firmware update which was beta tested in January. Now don't know if, or when, we'll see that.

I saw the tripod icon last night as plain as day 31st of May .
Dji are manipulating the market as tripod is the most used flight mode used, having it with the p4 will detract sales of the p4p so we might not see it until the p5 is released.

Andy B Posted at 2017-5-31 23:00
I saw the tripod icon last night as plain as day 31st of May .
Dji are manipulating the market as tripod is the most used flight mode used, having it with the p4 will detract sales of the p4p so we might not see it until the p5 is released.

Aloha Andy,

     Last time I looked, the P4 did not have Tripod ever, except with an experimental Beta version.  I have checked my P4 and it did not have it a week or two ago, but I flew my P4 Pro yesterday and it was there and worked real well.

     I think the new P4 Advanced is supposed to have it but that is from the promotional literature.  The P4 Advanced and the Mavic only have forward and backward sensors but they do use Tripod.  Can you confirm that the Phantom that you say is missing Tripod after having it is the original Phantom 4?

Aloha and Drone On!

Andy B Posted at 2017-5-31 23:00
I saw the tripod icon last night as plain as day 31st of May .
Dji are manipulating the market as tripod is the most used flight mode used, having it with the p4 will detract sales of the p4p so we might not see it until the p5 is released.

Which version of DJI Go 4 are you running ?  Tripod mode and Terrain Follow mode appeared  in V4.0.5 (as far as I remember), they then disappeared again in the next release (V4.0.6). The expectation was/is that a new firmware release for the P4 will enable these two additional functions on the P4. But other than the Beta firmware release there has been no further word from DJI regarding any new firmware for the P4.

I still occasionally see Tripod mode pop up on my P4 and I've never had the beta firmware installed.  It shows up, I try and select it, computer says no, then it disappears again.  Becoming quite a regular thing nowadays.  Haven't tried the latest Go update yet though.