Now that I’ve entered the world of expensive digital SLR photography, it’s time to start buying lots of expensive gadgets, gizmos, and essential things that I don’t know how to use but might need on the third tuesday of the month during the winter solstice. The first purchase will be a tripod.
Unfortunately it seems there are tripods for every day of the week and every kind of weather, so I could really do with some recommendations here. What should I be looking for in a tripod? What makes of tripod are particularly good / reliable? What’s a reasonable amount to spend on a tripod?
Help!
Related posts:
Ugo recommends manfrotto – http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000BTCK3A/ ?
The canonical tripod recommendation is to buy quality now, to save money. The gist is that buying cheap is to waste money. A tripod is to steady a camera, and that’s hard to do on the cheap (or even on the dear penny). The review:
http://www.bythom.com/support.htm
To that recommendation, I would add that technological wizardry (marketing) and price (marketing) does not guarantee a solid tripod. You can compare tripods by standing them side-by-side, grabbing each head (with your bodyweight leaning in), and trying to rock the head back and forth. That’ll tell you (and show you) just how solid the tripods are by comparison.
In the field, you’d be amazed at how unstable a heavy camera on a tripod can be in wind. Plus, when you do (e.g.) landscape at long exposure (to use small aperture), a little instability is the difference between tack sharp and blown fuzzy.
I took bythom’s advice (e.g., Gitzo), and I don’t regret it.
My advice is as follows:
Buy something heavy. You’ll hate carrying it, but you’ll hate the photos from a light one. Try to get a tripod with a centre brace, because it’ll (a) be more stable, and (b) you can have the at any angle, instead of having to pull them right out, which can be very useful when there’s not a lot of room. For photography work, aim for a 3-axis head so that you can take portrait images as well as landscapes. Even for ‘landscapes’, portrait can still be the right format. If you can, get a quick-release head; it’ll help a lot when you’re switching back and forth between tripod and handheld shooting. Try to get a tripod with exchangeable heads; it’ll mean that (a) if you break the head (does happen, or maybe that’s just me), you won’t have to replace the whole tripod, and (b) you can get a pan and tilt head later if you do any video work.
Paul
I have three tripods as it really depends on the conditions and gear I’m going to be using.
For general quick work where I don’t have to worry about wind and weather I have a light weight generic model with the standard three point telescoping legs and tri-directional head adjustment. For finer work I have a ball-head Gitzo and for work outdoors I use a large Manfrotto with a tri-directional head. Macro work usually has be using an old 6 incher (which does telescope but I don’t recomment using it for that.)