Photographic Gear – Tripods

We’ve been taking a tour through my camera bag and so far, we’ve covered the bag itself, camera bodies, lenses, filters and miscellaneous. If you haven’t seen one or more of these articles, here are the links.

Photographic Gear – A Tour of a Photographer’s Camera Bag

Photographic Gear – the Camera Body

Photographic Gear – Lenses

Photographic Gear – Filters

Photographic Gear – Miscellaneous

This article completes the tour, but we now move outside the camera bag to the bag’s exterior where the tripod is often mounted.

Most good camera bags have provisions for mounting your tripod. This is extremely handy when you have longer distances to travel or you need to work your way through the brush to get to where you want to shoot. And any discussion of photographic gear is incomplete without including the tripod, at least for us landscape photographers.

Sharp Images

When we talked about camera bodies and lenses, we talked about technology that reduces or eliminates blur caused by slight camera movements when shooting hand-held. It goes by various names depending on the manufacturer but the goal is always the same – sharper images.

The tripod has always been the mainstay of sharp images for the landscape photographer. A camera mounted on a sturdy tripod will not move when the shutter fires although that statement is not absolute. There are circumstances when even on a tripod images can be blurry due to camera motion.

For example, on a windy day, tripods can sway in the wind which can lead to a blurred image. Most quality tripods with center posts have a hook at the bottom of the post that allows you to hang a heavy object such as your camera bag to help stabilize it. My experience is if the camera bag is suspended above the ground, the bag will blow in the wind and the tripod will still sway. So, the trick is to have the camera bag just touching the ground so that most of its weight is on the center post but the bag itself is not moving.

By the way, tripods without center posts also have this hook.

Another source of camera movement is mirror flap. When you press the shutter on a DSLR, the mirror that diverts the image up to the viewfinder prevents light from reaching the sensor when it’s in the down position. When the shutter button is pressed, it must get out of the way and it flaps up. This causes a slight vibration that travels through the whole camera/tripod assembly. This is not a problem with mirrorless cameras which have no mirrors, or when shooting your DSLR in live view mode where the mirror is already out of the way.

The alternative with a DSLR and live view is to use the camera’s mirror lockup feature. The first press of the shutter button flaps the mirror up out of the way and locks it in the up position. But now you can’t see through the viewfinder. Any vibration that causes quickly subsides. The second press of the shutter button triggers the shutter.

The two shutter button presses are awkward and may take some getting used to. But on some cameras, you can use the built-in timer to provide a 2-second delay from the time the shutter button is pressed and the shutter is triggered. The sequence of events with mirror lockup and a 2-second delay begins with the mirror flapping out of the way when the shutter button is pressed, then the camera body counts down the two seconds and finally trips the shutter. The advantage of this technique is that any vibrations triggered by the mirror flap have two seconds to dampen before the shutter fires. I use this technique virtually all the time when I’m shooting from a tripod.

There’s one more consideration for getting sharp images when shooting from a tripod. Long lenses are especially heavy and while it may seem like the tail wagging the dog, vibrations from mirror flap can last much longer than two seconds with a heavy lens. To compensate for that, I set the timer for a 10-second delay.

I learned that lesson the hard way on images I was really excited about that ended up blurred. It wasn’t the fault of the lens but rather camera/tripod vibration.

If you want to confirm for yourself that these vibrations occur, mount your camera on your tripod, make sure the timer is turned off, use a remote release to trigger the shutter and just rest your hand very lightly on a tripod leg when you press the remote. I think you will be surprised just as I was when I felt a slight vibration pass through the legs.

Qualities of a Good Tripod

But this is supposed to be a blog about the tripod itself. So, getting back to the subject, there are a number of things to look for in a good tripod.

Sturdy

The first quality to consider is the sturdiness of the tripod itself. This relates to the materials used to manufacture the tripod legs. Aluminum is used for a lot of the tripods you will see. The low to middle tier tripods are all aluminum. They tend to be very lightweight and as a result, they can be on the flimsy side. It’s often a temptation to think that, when traveling, light weight is good. But it’s better to have a sturdy tripod and therefore a heavier one.

Tripods with legs of carbon fiber are used by most serious photographers. The advantage of carbon fiber is that it is both strong (sturdy) and lightweight. The disadvantage is that these tripods come at a premium price. It is possible to find tripods with aluminum legs that have comparable strength to a carbon fiber tripod. They will cost less but will be heavier.

Center Post

Photographers debate whether it is desirable to have a center post or not. The argument for tripods without center posts is that you can get the tripod much lower to the ground. The lowest you can get to the ground with a center post is the post’s length.

Another argument against a center post is when you raise the camera on one, the whole assembly becomes more flimsy and subject to camera movement. I’ve heard some photographers say that when you raise the center post, your tripod changes into a monopod. I have a hard time understanding that because the last time I checked, if you let go of a monopod it falls over. I’ve let go of my tripod with the center post extended and it has yet to fall over. So I’m not sure where they get the monopod idea. One thing is true, however, and that’s that the camera is a bit more unstable when the center post is raised.

I prefer a center post. I don’t shoot close to the ground very often so the limitation on how low you can get doesn’t affect me. (Also, I have a way of getting closer to the ground than the center post allows. But trying to describe it is impossible. This needs a picture.)

The biggest reason I prefer a center post, however, is that sometimes the composition requires being 6 inches higher. And with a center post, I can often raise the camera just enough for all the compositional elements to fall into place.

Most center posts just slide up and down. But some can also swivel. These are called ‘leveling center posts.’ This feature is very useful when shooting panoramas. The ideal configuration for a panorama is your center post is perfectly vertical and the camera mount is perfectly flat. When these two conditions are met then when you rotate the camera it will stay perfectly level. If these two conditions are not met then your image will have a merry-go-round effect. A leveling center post allows you to adjust it so it’s perfectly vertical, even though your tripod is on uneven ground.

So, here are your options.

• No center post: Allows you to get low to the ground and always has maximum stability. The disadvantage is you can’t get your camera any higher if you need to.
• Regular center post: Allows you to get your camera higher if the composition requires it. The disadvantage is you are limited to how low you can get (unless you use my trick) and the camera is a bit less stable when the center post is extended.
• Leveling center post: All the advantages and disadvantages of the regular center post with the added advantage of facilitating panoramas.

Height

If you’re a tall person like me, you don’t want to get a short tripod unless you enjoy bending over all day. Personally, that’s not my preference. So I recommend selecting a tripod that matches your height. I needed to get the long version of my tripod.

Traveling

I’ve never tested TSA by attempting to bring a tripod on board as carry-on. It might be possible but I put the tripod in my suitcase and check it. So that requires that it break down to a fairly small size. The number of sections in the legs along with the height of the tripod determines if it will fit in a suitcase or not. Generally, the legs come in three or four sections. The more sections you have the smaller it will be when you break it down. My tripod has four sections and fits in my suitcase when I remove the ball head.

Tripod Heads

Most high-end tripods do not include a head on which to mount your camera. Lower end tripods generally do. There are quite a number of options when it comes to tripod heads. These heads are developed to meet specific needs.

They look cool and some tripods come with a head already installed. I’ve seen pretty much all of these heads on workshops but they are in the minority. The vast majority of landscape photographers from novices to professionals use the ball head. A ball head simplifies the whole process of composing your image and simple is better. The less you must fumble with the technical and mechanical aspects of taking a photograph, the more mental energy you can devote to creativity. And that’s what I use.

There are a couple of features I’d like to point out that have proven to be very valuable.

The large knob in the image above releases and tightens the ball. It is just the right size and is very natural to work. I have it set up so I work it with my left hand while I adjust the camera with my right.

The numbers at the very bottom are on a ring on which the ball head rotates and come in handy when shooting a panorama. They measure degrees of rotation. The knob on the lower left releases this ring allowing the ball head to rotate.

Finally, there is the quick release at the top. This is where the camera attaches to the ball head. This particular release is an Arca Swiss release. It comes in two forms – with a lever like above or with a screw knob. I prefer the lever because you know when the release is locked.

You need a bracket for your camera body and each of your long lenses. When locked in, there is no concern that the camera will come loose and fall to the ground.

There’s one more option to mention. There are two options in brackets for your camera body – the regular bracket and the L-bracket. The standard bracket allows you to attach the bottom of your camera to the quick release. If you want to shoot in portrait mode, you need to use the slots in your ball head. The L-bracket allows you to quickly switch from the landscape to portrait orientation.

How to Save $1000 on a Tripod

There’s a great blog post that’s been around for a very long time on how to save $1000 on your tripod. With all the upgrades that people often go through as they progress on their photographic journeys the punch line is to spend $1000 on your first tripod. Then you don’t have to upgrade.

A good tripod with a ball head camera mount is not cheap. But I’ve found that having a great tripod is as much of a contributor to good images as a good lens or camera body.

You might be interested in my tripod so here it is:

• Gitzo long tripod with leveling center post, model GT 2540L LVL (no longer available)
• Really Right Stuff ball head, model BH-55
• L-bracket for my Canon 1Ds Mark III
• Bracket for my Canon 100-400 lens.

Total cost today is about $1580.

So that wraps it up. It’s fun talking about camera gear. But keep one thing in mind. It’s not the gear that makes great photographs. It’s the photographer. I was once asked if having high-end gear was important. My answer went along these lines.

You can give a world-class violinist a student violin and she can make it sound great. You can give a student a Stradivarius and they won’t sound much better than they would on their student violin. But put the Stradivarius in the hands of the world-class violinist and together they make fantastic music.

All the best to you and may you walk in beautiful light.

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