New CiC Tutorials Page: Camera Tripods

[McQ]

There's another new article on the tutorials page:

Selecting & Using Camera Tripods

It gives a basic overview of important considerations when making a purchase, in addition to techniques for achieving sharper photos.

If you have feedback on typos or anything I've left out, please let me know.

Thanks!

EDIT: if you notice a typo, first try refreshing the page. There have already been some changes...

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Sean,

As usual, a fairly thorough and easy to absorb article.

One thing I felt might be worth a mention is the flip to portrait orientation feature - and how that will almost inevitably result in droop as now the lens angle is dependent upon tightness of the screw in the base.

Ooh, yes - Is it worth saying don't over tighten that - and check the thread length doesn't exceed the depth of the hole in the bottom of your camera?

Extend only the largest leg sections necessary in order to reach a given tripod height

Perhaps "thickest" rather than "largest", which might seen as implying length even though that's daft.

In heading and text near bottom: ALUMINUM rather than ALUMINIUM and FIBER rather than FIBRE, but I guess I'm not gonna win on those

Levelling:
Are tripods with spirit levels in the head worth it?
And the hot shoe levels; who says the hot shoe is THAT accurately level on top of the camera anyway? and they can be quite cheap looking, so again, I'd have little faith they're worth it.

Panoramic use:
Heads with angles marked for panning and or tilting a set number of degrees to get good coverage, are they worth it - I'd guess not as the stitching software will take care of any inaccuracies and you always go with a 30 - 50% overlap anyway.

Cheers,

[KentDub]

I thought it was a great tutorial. It might be helpful for someone (like me actually) who is searching for a tripod to have some guideline numbers. For example, you mention the differences between heavy and light tripods -- how heavy is 'heavy' (5lbs? [sorry for no metric conversion]), and how light is 'light'? Not any means exact numbers - but rough estimates. Lots of us purchase things online without being able to go to a store and test something out.

Again, you did a great job covering all of the topics. I would actually mention that people may want to get a tripod not as tall - but taller than they are. The reason being is it allows you to use it on a stair case

Great job

[McQ]

Thanks for all the feedback!

Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

One thing I felt might be worth a mention is the flip to portrait orientation feature - and how that will almost inevitably result in droop as now the lens angle is dependent upon tightness of the screw in the base.

I'll add a sentence about this in the paragraph about tripod head creeping/slipping.

Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

Perhaps "thickest" rather than "largest", which might seen as implying length even though that's daft.

This has now been changed.

Originally Posted by Dave Humphries

Levelling:
Are tripods with spirit levels in the head worth it?
And the hot shoe levels; who says the hot shoe is THAT accurately level on top of the camera anyway? and they can be quite cheap looking, so again, I'd have little faith they're worth it.

Panoramic use:
Heads with angles marked for panning and or tilting a set number of degrees to get good coverage, are they worth it - I'd guess not as the stitching software will take care of any inaccuracies and you always go with a 30 - 50% overlap anyway.

Yes, both are important additions. Using a bubble level or having one built into the head was actually left out by mistake (it was listed in my article outline). I'll also mention pano heads along with a link to the discussion/diagram of parallax error in the digital panoramas article.

[McQ]

Originally Posted by KentDub

It might be helpful for someone (like me actually) who is searching for a tripod to have some guideline numbers.

I would actually mention that people may want to get a tripod not as tall - but taller than they are. The reason being is it allows you to use it on a stair case

Thanks for the feedback! I will add something about both of these. Including rough weight numbers is a good idea. I'll probably show these for carbon fiber versus aluminum (at the same max height), in addition to comparing the weight of relatively shorter and taller max height tripods.

[Dave Humphries]

Ah, one more thought; not that I have one, boom arm/centre columns that go horizontal - did they get a mention?
Worth it?
More trouble than benefit?
Tipping over due to C of G being outside base?

[Colin Southern]

Hi Sean,

Eight needs to become sixteen in the IS section now that 3rd generation (4 stop) units are out

http://www.usa.canon.com/consumer/co...&modelid=14260

Just because you can hold the camera steady enough to take a sharp photo using a given set of camera settings (aperture, ISO & shutter speed),

Just wondering if you need the reference to aperture and ISO here? - they're secondary in that they affect shutter speed, but ultimately shutter speed is still the only variable.

[McQ]

Originally Posted by Colin Southern

Eight needs to become sixteen in the IS section now that 3rd generation (4 stop) units are out

Well, I was initially hesitant to re-publish numbers directly from Canon's marketing team . I have the 70-200 f/4L IS, and while it has perhaps a little better IS than the 70-200 f/2.8 IS that I previously owned, I'm skeptical that it's truly 4 stops. Perhaps in specific zoom ranges and shutter speeds, but certainly not across the board. On the other hand...I do say "up to," so it's been changed.

Originally Posted by Colin Southern

Just wondering if you need the reference to aperture and ISO here? - they're secondary in that they affect shutter speed, but ultimately shutter speed is still the only variable.

Yes, the wording on that part could have been a lot better. I had intended for it to refer to the collective settings in the exposure triangle, but that wasn't the sentence to do it in. The first three sentences have now all been changed to make it clearer.

[Colin Southern]

Originally Posted by McQ

Well, I was initially hesitant to re-publish numbers directly from Canon's marketing team .

I'm sure if Canon said it, then it must be true

I'm surprised to read you changed from the F2.8 to the F4.0 version - most seem to contemplate going the other way.

[KentDub]

I got another one for you =)
For your list of other reasons to use a tripod:
* To take a series of photos in a busy place so you can PP people/cars/objects out to get a clean scene

[Bill44]

A few points.
Dave mentioned slippage when going to portrait orientation, this can be overcome by using the correct anti twist plate on the camera, assuming that QR plates are used.

In the Tripod Ease of Use section you mention that twist locks "usually" require two hands. Only on some tripods, usually some of the cheaper ones. However a lot of the relatively expensive Feisol need two hands, while the cheapish Benro can be used with one hand.

[Colin Southern]

Originally Posted by Bill44

Dave mentioned slippage when going to portrait orientation, this can be overcome by using the correct anti twist plate on the camera, assuming that QR plates are used.

I agree. I get ZERO slippage with mind (a Really Right Stuff plate for the 1Ds3)

In the Tripod Ease of Use section you mention that twist locks "usually" require two hands. Only on some tripods, usually some of the cheaper ones. However a lot of the relatively expensive Feisol need two hands, while the cheapish Benro can be used with one hand.

My Gitso only requires on hand (unless you start at the wrong end) - mind you, the other hand is needed to hold the tripod anyway.