How to select a tripod? Which is best for you?

How to select a tripod? Which is best for you?

Post the questions that you may have on our YouTube channel. Feel free to ask advice about tripods. We would love to hear from you. Subscribe to our channel!

Today we are going to take a look at tripods. A complete look at tripods: the pros, the cons and the criteria that I use when I am going to buy a new tripod.

Last year at PhotoPlus I bumped into the folks at FotoproUSA. I was very interested in their booth and the tripods they had because I was looking for a good lightweight gimbal. I love their gimbal tripods, but then they got me looking at some of their other tripods. There are some solutions here that I felt fit my criteria for what I am looking for when I buy a tripod.

Let’s look at the reasons why we carry a tripod.

1. We shoot a lot of times in low light. So you have to put your camera on a tripod because the shutter is going to be longer than 1/60^th of a second. This is one of the main reasons to use a tripod. You need to be able to shoot in low light.
2. It also allows you to shoot HDRs or pixel shift photography. When you are going to shoot several different exposures at the same set-up. You have to be on a tripod to be able to do that.
3. It allows you to pan to do panoramic views. That way you can piece them together more easily. A lot of these will have markings on them that allow you to set and shoot and move, then set and shoot and move again and again.
4. Tripods are also great if you are doing macro photography. With your own ability to get in tight on something you move too much when you are not on a tripod. This allows you to get in tight, frame up with your macro subject and be able to focus in on your subject. It is much easier to focus on the macro subject when you are on a tripod.
5. If you are doing running water or landscape stuff you need to be on a tripod because you are watching the sun go down and you want to be able to shoot into that late light. Which means that your shutter is going to get longer and longer in order to give you that blurring water or late, late light as you are tracking the light as it goes down. You have to have a tripod.
6. Another great reason it have a tripod it that it allows you to frame your subject matter. And then if you have to go talk to your client you can come right back and keep your framing. Otherwise you have to reframe every time you have to talk with someone or do something. It just makes it so you can keep your image frame as you check on things or talk to your client. It is an easy way to work.
7. It also allows you to do really great smooth video. Now hand held looking video is very much in these days. But the tripod gives you a very smooth pan. It makes it much easier to get a beautiful, smooth pan. So having a tripod gives you much more stable video.

What are the cons of a tripod?

1. They are bulky. You have to carry them and they can be heavy.
2. They can be a little expensive.
3. It is another piece of equipment you have to take with you.

But in my mind the cons are so insignificant compared to the pros of having a tripod that there is no reason to allow yourself to dwell on, “Well it is going to be too hard to carry.”

This brings me to how I choose a tripod. Some of the things I really look for in a tripod help me to work faster and make it more convenient so that it is not such a drag to have a tripod. So let’s take a look at the things that I look for when I choose a tripod.

1. I want them to be lightweight. So I buy carbon fiber most of the time. People say, “They are so expensive.” You know a tripod is a piece of equipment like a lens that you will use for a long, long time. There is no reason to buy a new tripod every two years. You should be able to use a tripod for years. I have tripods that I have used for thirty years. So I want a tripod that is going to last a long time. I am going to spend the money necessary to get myself a decent tripod that has a very lightweight platform.
2. I do not like 4 leg pieces. The reason I do not like for is that my hand is just not big enough to loosen all 4 at one time. I can do 3. So I like a tripod with 3 leg sections. I can loosen and tighten all 3 of those at one time.
3. People have different feelings about twist locks versus a lever. I like the twist locks. I just know that I need to twist them counter clockwise and clockwise. I have done it for so many years it is just second nature to me.
4. I also love a center column. The reason I love a center column is that if I am in a situation where I want to make a quick little adjustment in height. If I just want to come up a little bit like with a macro shot to get up a little higher or a little lower, the tripod with the center column gives me that flexibility. It gives me quick adjustments to be able to go up and down and shoot and work fast. That is super important to me.
5. Height is important. I don’t want to bend over low all day. If I am shooting moonrise over Half Dome, it is a long ways over there. And I going to want to stand in a comfortable way. So I get the tripod up to where I can shoot and not have to worry about it. So I want it to go up to at least my eye level and slightly above is even better.
6. The tripod also has to carry my heaviest camera and lens. So if my heaviest camera with my heaviest lens is 8 or 10 pounds then the tripod has to hold at least twice that. So this X-Go Max will hold up to 26 pounds. That is a really heavy camera and lens. 13 pounds of camera and lens is a pretty heavy set-up.
7. I will not buy a tripod if it does not have an Arca Swiss mount and plate. I will not buy it if it has some proprietary plate that the manufacturer makes. Proprietary plates are just absolutely incompatible with everything that I own. Arca Swiss is the standard in the industry. I won’t buy a tripod that doesn’t have Arca Swiss.

This is FotoproUSA’s travel tripod, the X-Go Max. It really gives you that small size and weight. It gives you the ability to hold 26 pounds. And it has a great ball head on it. The reason I love this ball head is that you find a tension point that allows you to not have to mess with it. Because these tripods are fairly lightweight I like to have a little hook on the bottom that allows you to hand your camera bag on it or some other weight like a water bottle in a bag to give it stability. It also keeps the tripod from shaking as much.

This one here is the T-Roc Max. It is a little more expensive tripod. It can handle up to 44 pounds. It can handle almost twice as much weight as the X-Go Max. It also similar height and weight as the X-Go Max. It also collapses to the same travel size. When I am looking for a travel tripod I want it to be lightweight and rugged. I don’t want to have to baby it. I don’t want to have to feel like it is a fine lens that I can’t bump around. I want to be able to throw it in the car and be able to use it in a rugged environment. Super rugged is very important to me. I am not going to abuse it. But I think it is important that it is rugged.

So these two tripods really fit exactly what I look for in a travel tripod with regards to weight, weight that they will carry and hold. The one thing they don’t have and the reason why I found FotoproUSA is the gimbal head. A gimbal head allows you to set your camera on it and to be able to use it to follow things. Any kind of action works well with a gimbal head like sports, animals, birds, etc. It gives you the ability to follow action. It swivels and tracks and makes it super easy to use.

This E-6L tripod with the gimbal has a self-leveling bowl. To have that you have to lose the center column. If you lose the center column you gain a 4 section tripod. So it is not quite as convenient. But it is well worth the trade-off because you get that self-leveling bowl in the middle. You can set this up on any terrain. You can find the center and level it. So then if you are panning your camera stays level. If you are following a bird or something the last thing you want is for the camera to not be level.

The E-6L goes up to almost 63”. So not quite as high as the other two tripods. But when your camera sits on top of the gimbal it hits me about eye level where I can shoot. This is a lightweight gimbal set up and it will hold 22 pounds of weight. That is enough for my Tamron 150-600 and my Canon. I don’t need to go to the E-9 which is a monster. You can put a telescope on it. It will hold 66 pounds.

I have kind of come to the conclusion as I have used these tripods that I love the T-Roc Max and the X-Go Max a lot. I will probably take the gimbal off the E-6L when I am traveling and then carry with the X-Go Max. That way I can use the gimbal or ball head. That is a fabulous travel set-up. The FotoproUSA gimbal head is really interesting to me because you can pop this piece on the gimbal and easily move the camera back and forth and helps you to center the weight of the camera. It is a quick adjustment that I have not seen on the other gimbal that I have.

I hope you enjoyed this. I hope it gave you some perspective about tripods. I want you to understand the things you need to look for when you are in the market for a new tripod.

Post the questions that you may have on our YouTube channel. Feel free to ask advice about tripods. We would love to hear from you. Subscribe to our channel!

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