Choosing a Tripod for Stills Photography

Hello neighbours. In this article at thephotovideoguy.ca I want to talk about considerations when choosing a tripod for stills photography. This does not necessarily mean that you could not use such a tripod for video, however serious video requires differences in the head and sometimes in the legs, so I’m going to be stills specific.

Best Routes vs Lowest Cost

Depending upon your commitment to your photography, your budget allocation will vary. If you are a very casual photographer who expects to use the tripod only very rarely, you can use the guidance here to get the best combination unit that you can find. While they certainly are not all equal, combination units are generally built to drive a price point, although you can find highly specialized combination units as well. When I say combination unit, I am referring to a leg set, a tripod head and a centre column.

Legs

There are various materials used for tripod leg sets. A tripod that is cumbersome and heavy gets no use, so the first thing to look at is the combination of leg capacity, leg set weight, and height delivery to the platform where the head goes. When you look at leg sets, look for carbon fibre. It is lighter, typically stronger and transmits less vibration than the less expensive aluminum options. There are varying qualities of carbon fibre leg sets. I only recommend what I buy myself and so my leg set recommendations will be Really Right Stuff or Gitzo. Manfrotto does some decent carbon fibre leg sets as well that I have used in production but do not own.

The maker should indicate the weight capacity of the leg set. Take the weight of your camera, with your longest lens, double that and that is the weight capacity you should be looking for. If the weight capacity cannot be found, look elsewhere. If you have the ability to go into a camera store, fully extend the legs, but not the centre column if one exists and press down on the camera platform. Some flex is ok, twisting is not. Sadly many people seriously underbuy the legs and this results in a small and light tripod, that’s pretty much good for nothing.

The next consideration is height. Unless you plan on shooting from a low position all the time, you should be looking at a leg set that when fully extended places the platform where the head mounts at about the level of the top of your breastbone where the collarbone ends. Lower than this means a likelihood of lower back pain from being scrunched over.

Leg Locks

Much is made of the type of leg locks. There are two kinds generally. Lever locks are popular because they are fast to operate and appear very positive. The downside is that they are dirt and grit magnets and will wear down when used a lot. Cylindrical locks (twist locks) are slower and in the case of cheap ones, unreliable and are prone to breakage. A good set of legs such as from Really Right Stuff or Gitzo will have twist locks that are built to last, that handle harsh environments, and are not held together with cheap plastic sleeves. You get what you pay for in leg locks.

Feet

Most tripods come with rubber feet. In many cases these feet can be screwed higher to reveal a short ground spike. These should be used more than they are, but often the rubber is screwed back down without cleaning the spike of detritus. This is bad. Higher end tripods offer interchangeable feet. For my Really Right Stuff tripods, I have rubber feet, long ground spikes and rock claws. All have their place, and while it is definitely more work to change the feet to suit the situation, dedicated feet are designed for a purpose. The rock claws have specifically saved me when shooting moving water from a rock, where rubber feet (and shoes) slide all over the place.

The Tripod Head

For still photography you want a ball head. Those multiarmed pan tilt heads will make you nuts. Don’t waste your time and money. There are two design examples of a ball head. In the most common, the ball is in the base that attaches to the tripod and their is a post coming out of the ball with the camera mount on it. The less common, but equally useful is the reverse. The camera mounts directly to the ball and the pod that comes out of the ball is what attaches via a mounting plate to the tripod itself.

As with a leg set, use the same rules for the head when it comes to weigh capacity. The weight capacity of the head and leg set do not need to be equal, however the part with the lowest capacity should still be 2x the weight of the camera and longest lens.

There are both cheap and more expensive ball heads. I have bought and used ball heads from Really Right Stuff, Gitzo and most recently Platyball heads. The Platyball heads are of the camera mounts to ball design, like the old Arca Swiss Planetary heads, My go to head is the RRS BH-55 which can hold anything that I shoot, from basic DSLR all the way up to my Sinar Monorail 4x5. It has very positive locks and I never find that it has become overtightened. While I own two different Platyball heads, I paid for them a couple of years ago on a Kickstarter thing, and they only arrived a couple of weeks ago, so I have no real practical experience with them.

Mounting Plates

The Arca Swiss model is a dovetail plate that mounts into a standardized locking model. I have had serious issues with client and student tripods that claim Arca Swiss compliance but where the actual dimensions were way out. I have found that the Really Right Stuff plates, as well as their camera L brackets are perfect. Other excellent options include Kirk and Arca Swiss themselves. While I have in a rush tried other plates, I don’t use them in production because I do not feel safe with them on my gear. Not all tripod heads come with camera mounting plates. Be aware.

Centre Columns

A centre column exists solely to allow the tripod to extend taller. However they are not called wobble posts for nothing. I do not buy centre columns for my tripods, I buy proper leg lengths. While a centre column can get you by in a pinch, it’s the most likely place for camera movement to happen and never recommended for long exposures or time lapse work. While this article does not pertain to video tripods, there is a darn good reason why no credible video tripod has a centre column. If your leg set has one, so be it, but only use it with caution.

Summary

It’s not hard to buy a good tripod. However you do get what you pay for. There are numerous clones out of Asia that purport to be as good as a Gitzo or Really Right Stuff. This is not true, although some I hear are decent enough. It’s frightfully easy to buy a lousy tripod. Consider this thought. Take whatever you spent on your camera and most used lens, and take 20% of that amount. That’s your budget number for a tripod that will last a lifetime.

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I'm Ross Chevalier, thanks for reading, watching and listening and until next time, peace.

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