3 Legged Thing Founder/CEO and Chief Designer, Danny Lenihan, explains Why You Need a Tripod.
It's a question that routinely gets ignored both by staff and consumers when a person is in the market for one, because for those of us that have been doing this for a while, the "why" doesn't seem like the dominant factor. Most of us tend to ask ourselves "what can I do with it?"
Which brings us back to a much more fundamental question: "what does a tripod do?"
I've been in hundreds of stores worldwide, heard staff talking to customers, reps talking to staff, and in all that time, I've never heard anyone give the actual answer to this.
A tripod has one job - to securely hold your camera still.
That's it. The very basic first question we should all be asking when looking for a tripod is "will it securely hold my camera and keep it absolutely still?"
Instead, the questions I hear most often from people are "will it fit in my backpack?" or "can I carry it on an aeroplane?"
Every tripod manufacturer or brand has a model that does the fundamental basic job of a tripod. What comes next is all of the additional innovations and features that provide us with such a wide range of options for varying situations.
And, of course, the answer to the initial question will sometimes be "depending"...
On what? Well, the size and weight of your camera, for a kick-off. The way it's mounted makes a huge difference. Being able to maintain the centre of gravity is crucial to the stability and rigidity of a tripod. Being able to securely manage a heavy, offset load and remain still and unmoving in a hurricane, on the side of an ice-covered mountain, but weighing less than a handful of rice-crispies, folding up to the size of a swiss army knife and extending to over two metres is the ultimate goal for all tripod designers.
It's simply not possible. So, the next stage in the process is to decide what your ultimate goal is for that tripod. What can you afford to compromise? For this reason, tripods can be broadly categorised as follows:
1: The Beast. This is your basic, solid-as-a-rock, built-with-steel-that-was-carved-off-Thor's-hammer tripod, and likely to cripple you after walking thirty yards with it.
2: The Pilgrim. Super light, and ultra-small when stowed, these travelling superstars are great for the nomadic types or those that prefer to carry less gear.
3: The all-rounder. Usually the best fit for most people, an "all-rounder" essentially sits in the middle bracket of weight, size, extended height, load capability and various other attributes.
4: The specialist. There are some tripods with very niche applications that are designed for specific purposes. An example of this might be a low-level tripod, with single, short legs, and a flat or bowl mount on the top, designed only to be used at ground level, or as a table-top product.
These are just a few of the most popular categories of tripod, but there are thousands of different models, all boasting different potential applications and capabilities.
The biggest challenge for people like myself, that design tripods, is trying to create combinations of these models to provide a wider use, and more versatile and functional product, without losing rigidity and stability.
Modern materials have certainly helped, with carbon fibre being a preferred option these days. This ultra-light, stronger-than-steel material is a fantastic enabler, and has many properties that you wouldn't naturally consider when making a tripod purchase. For example, carbon has exponentially better vibration dissipation than aluminium or steel tubing. This makes it particularly useful for long exposures in inclement weather, and helps dampen movement and vibration from a camera's working parts – the mirror, for example – resulting in much sharper images.
It's incredibly light, making it easier to transport and carry.
There are also some downsides to using carbon. It needs treating before assembly, as it is naturally porous. It is also a super-conductor, so I wouldn't recommend using it in a lightning storm unless you happen to wear a lot of rubber on a day-to-day basis (I won't ask). It's brittle. Nobody looks after their tripods really. They usually get slung in the back of the car, or in a cupboard at home, and whilst carbon is enormously strong, aluminium legs will dent without breaking.
It's incredibly light, making it less stable in strong winds.
Contrary to popular belief, if you want ultimate stability, you're probably better off looking at a heavier tripod. Back in the heady days of early Benbo tripods, you could open your shutter for twenty minutes during a world-ending apocalypse and the image would still be sharp. It would take half a dozen rugby players to carry it for you, but so what? It's all about the image, right?
That's where innovation is so important. Tripod designers are rarer than Formula 1 drivers, so the few of us still in the game have to spend our days inventing new ways to make tripods more stable, and less cumbersome. More rigid, and more versatile. Taller and shorter.
Legends Nicky tripod in high winds on the Isle of Skye - video by Chris Orange
The next big question is: "what might you use a tripod for?"
This is the really the question that determines what sort of tripod you need. There are lots of uses for tripods, but a few of the most common ones are detailed below...
Long exposures – those beautiful scenes you see at waterfalls, where the landscape is sharp and vivid, but the water is like a velvet carpet flowing silkily through the image. This is created by keeping your shutter open for as long as possible, causing anything that moves to blur within the image. Handheld, everything would shake and the image would be ruined, so a solid grounding with a stable tripod is essential.
Astro photography – where the light is so dim that even with a fully open aperture, the shutter speed needs to be multiple seconds in order to gain the correct exposure.
Studio and pack shots – having the camera set up in a single position and locked off, whilst changing the subject matter – school photos are a good example. A photographer would set up their tripod and frame their first subject, and once this is done, it is a simple matter of taking the shot, and bringing in the next subject to stand in the same place.
.High depth-of-field. A good example of this is cityscapes, where the skyline is sharp from front to back. Shooting a city at dawn or twilight may require a longer exposure in order to enable you to close your aperture for a high depth of field, bringing everything in focus, near and far.
Wildlife – most wildlife photographers use huge lenses to help them get close up to their subject, without having to approach them. Handholding a big lens is not only impractical but also almost impossible to keep the image still in the frame. Our bodies vibrate constantly, and this translates to the camera. Long lenses magnify these vibrations, creating shakey images. Let the tripod take the load.
Sports photography – lots of sports photographers operate a second camera remotely, and this needs to be set up and locked off in position, usually using a low-level tripod for striking visuals.
These are just some examples of the most common tripod uses, of which there are undoubtedly hundreds more. Which one is most applicable to you?
So, the next time you're in the market for a tripod, ask yourself these questions.
- What does it need to hold still? Is it a mirrorless camera with a small kit lens, or a full body DSLR with the hubble telescope attached?
- What are the scenarios I'm likely to use it in? People often categorise studio tripods and landscape tripods together, but in the studio you don't need the extra weight for it to remain rigid, and don't need it to be light for transport, whereas the opposite is true for landscape photographers.
- What can I best compromise? Height? Weight? Load capability? Folded size?
- Ultimately, will it do the job? If the answer is "well, yes, if I gaffa-tape this part to this part, and set up my beach wind-breaker, and concrete the legs in place" then the answer is "no". Talk to your local camera store. Tell them what you want to do with it. Ask them which tripods will get the job done – the basic job of holding your camera absolutely still.
And for goodness sake, get this thought out of your head: "I won't use it often, so a cheap one will do." It continues to amaze me when I see customer emails, looking to upgrade their tripod because their hundred-dollar internet-special just collapsed with six-grand of camera gear on it. Particularly if your income is reliant on that camera.
Above all else, remember this. YOUR TRIPOD IS YOUR SHARPEST LENS. You can spend as much as you like on super-duper lenses with vibration dampening technology, but if you get the right tripod, your cheapest lens will be pin sharp.
