Entry Level Tripod

[Kiddo]

Hey guys,

I mentioned this in another thread, but i thought i'd place it in the appropriate category, i was looking into picking up a tripod. Seeing as i'm new to photography, i am still somewhat lost with brands and such, but i'm looking for a fairly cheap and cheerful one to start off.

Any recommendations?

[Marko]

Hey Kiddo,

I'm not sure i would buy a cheap tripod...A good tripod will probably outlast you and costs anywhere from 150-300.+ new - Try ebay for a good used one would be my suggestion.

A cheap tripod will probably cost you 30-40 dollars but they aren't sturdy enough(often aren't tall enough) and are a pain to use. Also you often can't replace the 'head' of the tripod which is a nice option to have and one that i have taken advantage of.

manfrotto
bogden
gitzo

all three are good makes. Mine is an older heavy manfrotto 055 with a #222 (joystick like head) i love it but it's heavy and one day I'll sell it and buy a lighter carbon fibre tripod.

Hope that helps

marko

[Kiddo]

Great thanks Marko, that's exactly what i was looking for, and thank you for the advice too, i'll check out ebay

[tegan]

As to a tripod, I would look at your projected use for one.

There are a lot of places where they get in the way, can't be used easily or are not allowed. Tourist spots, museums, churches, narrow sidewalks, mines, caves, etc. come to mind. Adding a tripod to your camera bag can be rather cumbersome to carry around all day when you are exploring a city on foot.
By carrying around a tripod, you are also advertising the fact that you have expensive camera equipment which is not to be recommended in some areas.

I find a tripod is great for formal portraiture of several individuals that need to be similar but I find that it would slow me down considerably on a model shoot. Product shoots, macro and creative work also lend themselves to tripods. Moonlight over the lake shots and dawn shots benefit from a tripod as well.

Although I have 3 tripods at the moment, I don't use them nearly as much as I expected to, when I first bought them. With high ISOs, off camera flash, battery powered camping type lighting or even high beam headlights are being used to light up large areas and shoot with a handheld camera.

Tegan

[Kiddo]

Really good points there Tegan, i actually hadn't even considered a couple of them initially.

I was mostly just looking to use it for landscape shots, up north at the lake, and i wanted to experiment with some night shots, and thought it would be useful for the long shutter speeds.

You're probably on the mark when you talked about the use, i probably won't use it as much as i think i will. It could be a case of "wanting" one as opposed to "needing" one. I think i'll do some more soul searching and homework before i pick one up

[tegan]

Really good points there Tegan, i actually hadn't even considered a couple of them initially.

I was mostly just looking to use it for landscape shots, up north at the lake, and i wanted to experiment with some night shots, and thought it would be useful for the long shutter speeds.

You're probably on the mark when you talked about the use, i probably won't use it as much as i think i will. It could be a case of "wanting" one as opposed to "needing" one. I think i'll do some more soul searching and homework before i pick one up

As you may or may not have discovered, landscape shots toward darkness often require manual focus, experimentation with shutterspeed, and solving the picture noise problem of many cameras. A light inexpensive tripod is often successful for this type of shot if necessary but the current trend is toward using those large battery camping lights or car headlights on high beam to light up large areas. At ISO 3200 auxiliary flashes will also cover a considerably distance as well.

You should also realize that the sensitivity of the human eye is equivalent to ISO 800, which means that the camera set at ISO 1600 or 3200 sees more than you do. I have been amazed to shoot in the almost pitch dark in an underground coal mine handheld, and still get a reasonably sharp usable photo.

Tegan