Making an Informed Decision
After the camera and lens, purchasing a good quality tripod is the third most important decision you need to make. The tripod is necessary for holding the camera steady for any long exposure photos including silky water effects, and low light conditions such as sunrise, sunset and astro photography. And the weight of some cameras and lenses often make having a tripod helpful just for holding a steady shot.
Many of our clients come to the tour with high quality cameras and lenses, but either don’t have a tripod, or have a cheap, wobbly one. And they need a good solid tripod once we get to mountain stream and waterfall spots where we shoot long exposures for more creative effects in the flowing water. After watching them struggle with wobbly legs or a floppy, hard to manage tripod head, we frequently lend them one of our own tripods to use for the rest of the tour.
Once they experience how easy our tripods are to use, and how light but sturdy they are, they usually ask us for recommendations on buying a new tripod for themselves. We hope this post will help all those who are eager to make a wise decision on a tripod that will serve them well for many years to come.
Rather than reinvent content that is already so widely available on the internet, we are including links to some of the most informative web posts, along with details on what we ourselves have been using for well over a decade of frequent, often hard use in the mountain and stream locations of western North Carolina.
For an excellent overview of the different components and types of tripods check out these posts from B&H Photo. Written by Todd Vorenkamp these posts are an excellent way to be informed about what is important in selecting the best tripod for your own use, including the legs, head and any accessories you might need.
The tripod overview
Tripod heads
Choosing the Right Tripod Head
Todd’s overall recommendations
Our Recommendations
The tripod legs should be:
- Sturdy, light-weight, easy to expand and collapse, with no slippage when tightened
- We have used the Feisol Tournament CT3342 carbon fiber tripod for over a decade now, and are very happy with it’s light-weight but very sturdy quality.
- It has the twist-lock type of leg extension locks which we prefer over the lever-lock type.
- The one drawback we have found with this tripod is that when the legs get wet they are hard to collapse and expand again until they are dried out. Dirt or grit can also get pulled into the internal part of the larger leg which requires a periodic cleaning when this has happened. Fortunately, Feisol provides a detailed instruction sheet on how to clean the legs and sells replacement for the compression rings that go inside the legs. We have not yet upgraded to newer models, but are told by the Feisol owner (whom we actually met in person at a photography conference) that this is less of a problem with the newer models.
- Check out all the Feisol models including legs, heads, quick-release plates and related accessories at their website: Feisol Tripods
The tripod head should be:
- Firstly and most importantly – AVOID tripods with a fixed head that cannot be replaced in case the head itself gets damaged in a fall. It’s best to buy the legs and head as separate components. In addition to the replaceability, this also gives you far more options in selecting high quality components for both the legs and the head.
- We recommend the ball-head type, and be sure to choose one that has separate locking knobs for controlling tilt from swivel; and a separate knob for attaching the camera to the head with a quick release plate. The quick release plate is attached to the camera body and allows for easy attachment and removal of the camera from the tripod. The Arca-Swiss type of quick release plate is the most widely used and versatile.
Travel tripods vs. “workhorse” tripods
- If you intend to make lots of trips by air or car, and need to minimize the weight and space taken up by your camera gear, you may want to invest in what is called a “travel tripod” vs. the larger and usually more sturdy models of what we will call a “workhorse” tripod.
- There are tradeoffs and challenges with this type of choice that you will want to be aware of before making your purchase; but in general you should still follow our general recommendations listed above in your choice to the best of the available options.
- The travel tripod that we have, and find fits all these criteria is the “MeFOTO A1350 RoadTrip”.
- If a travel tripod is your preferred choice, check out the MeFOTO line of gear on their website: MeFoto Tripods
A few final tips
- If at all possible, go to a well stocked camera store to get hands on with a variety of tripods and help with your decision
- Whether you buy from a store or online, make sure that you have the option to return the tripod for a refund or exchange in case you don’t like it after trying it out for a few hours in the field.
- If any of your photography friends has a tripod that they like, ask them if you can try it out for a shoot. Maybe that model will be the one you want to buy!
- Be sure to do a search on the latest tripod reviews and models, as new ones come out every year.
- Give us a call if you still have questions after doing your research. We’re happy to help you sort out the options you are thinking of to come to a final decision.
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