SEVEN THINGS FOR WHEN GETTING A NEW TRIPOD







Today I am going to know you seven things for when getting a new tripod there are many different tripods out there to buy today and sometimes this makes it difficult to pick a good one so I am going to give you seven things to look for when you're getting a new tripod now it may seem simple getting a tripod is just basically a platform for your camera to keep it still and to keep it steady but there are a few things you need to look out for there are a few things that you kind of want in a tripod now the main reason for getting a tripod is all about stability you're basically giving yourself a platform where you can put your camera on to get a long exposure to get it at that perfect height so you get a perfectly sharp image at the height that you want and at the level that you want basically at that position that you want so the tripod needs to be stable if you look online you can get one for around about twenty dollars but this really won't do the job and they'll tend to be quite plasticky and unstable also after a short while these will probably break especially if you kind of give them a little bit of abuse or if they're on your rucksack and they catch something as you're walking somewhere or anything like that they do not last that well so it is worth spending a bit of money on a decent tripod it doesn't have to be overly expensive either you have an old one from the 1990s that is absolutely solid, so if you look out for those really old tripods you can get a good one but it doesn't have some of the features that you prefer in some of the newer and some of the more modern tripods.

One is K F concept it's small light and it's great for travel photography and one is the Manfrotto 055 and this is an absolute beast it's heavy and not great for carrying on long hikes but it really is stable and it gives you a solid platform to put your camera. 

On the next thing to look out for is durability if you have a tripod that is stable but it keeps falling apart this is useless now if you do a lot of seascape photography the salt water will really eat through your tripods really quickly now what you need to do is rinse them off with fresh water every time you use it but even if you do that sometimes the salt water gets inside each of the tripod legs you've lost several to corrosion from saltwater and there's not much you can do about this other than wash the tripod after each session. 

Most tripods are pretty durable nowadays but again it's worth spending a bit more money to get a slightly more rugged one than normal and especially if you go on long hikes or you've got it strapped to your backpack and it's likely to get knocked around quite a bit if this is the case go for the more rugged one if you just do the odd shoot here and there and you only take it out from time to time, but keep it in its case you can get away with a slightly less rugged one with Manfrotto 055 it is solid and durable but it's not that much fun to use the ratchets are stiff and when the legs lock into place it's a pain to get them unlocked and into the next position also the clips that lock the legs into place have so many pinch points on them that you keep trapping your fingers or a bit of skin from your hand in them time and time again this is just poor design making them look fancy without thinking about the user if they actually thought about the user they'd make these clips a lot more kind of user friendly. 

Now with the Optex tripod that got from the 90s the clips on this are much better even though they're made of plastic there aren't any pinch points on them and they work really well and considering it's over 25 years old it's doing such a good job and it does keep your camera really nice and stable as for the K F concept that's got these rotational collars you just screw them tighter or screw them looser now these work surprisingly well there's no pinch points whatsoever so you're never gonna pinch any part of your hand or your skin or your fingers the size and weight of a tripod is always a trade-off the more you hike and travel the smaller you'll want it to be but on the other hand we're looking for as much stability as possible if you using a tracker you'd have to take 055 Manfrotto app because it gives enough stability to keep that tracker and say a camera with a big lens nice and stable whereas if you are out shooting your landscapes with just the a73 the K F tripod is just fine so it really is a trade-off the bigger the kit that you're going to be using on it the bigger the tripod that you'll need but the further you're going to be hiking the smaller you'll want it to be so if you're a hiker with a small mirrorless camera go for a smaller carbon fiber tripod whereas if you're an astrophotographer that wants or already uses a tracker and has some bigger lenses to put on the tracker go for a bigger one like the Manfrotto 055 this might not sound like much but it really does make a difference especially if you're into shooting panoramas or you use a tracker when you set up your tripod it's always good to get your legs level so the platform where the tripod head will sit is perfectly flat most of tripods have a bubble float on or next to the leg to make it easy but a few haven't. 

You don't understand the logic behind this you can buy third party products that sit in between your legs and whatever tripod head you're using and this puts a bubble float just to one side but it would be so much better if they came with them in the first place so look for a tripod with a bubble float on the legs to get a perfectly level head if you've ever tried to use your tripod in high winds it's amazing how a bit of turbulence can cause it to shake and sometimes cause it to shake quite a lot the one way around this is to hang something heavy from the bottom of it be it a bag of rocks or your camera bag this usually helps so make sure the tripod you're looking for has some kind of hook underneath it where you can hang your bag from when you're taking photos you might want to get really low to the bottom having a tripod that allows you to invert the middle column or has how of getting the camera the wrong way up underneath it's really handy for this and it lets you get your camera really close to the ground without actually putting it on the ground i have one with this and i have one without and i always seem to be reaching for the one with this feature especially when you are going out taking landscape shots or you are using a super wide angle lens and you want to get something really close in the foreground in your landscape photo so buying a tripod doesn't have to be difficult just go through this list and work out what your priorities are for what you want in your photography and what you're going to be doing with it now are there any other things that you look for in a tripod.