heavier tripod?

[ccc_javier]

OK, yes, I got a 15$ tripod in amazon, works fine indoors... last night tried to get some 30 seconds pictures of Miami skyline, and only one pic out of 25 came out decent...

I did all by the book, lock-unlock the mirror, use the timer, hang the backpack to the bottom part of the tripod, and camera shows big time shaking

Wind was blowing but not that bad... one was 30", the other 8"...

318072

318073



what do you think?

regards

[ben_r_]

A $15 tripod and youre wondering what the problem was? Get yourself a Bogen 055XProB and a Bogen 488RC2 ballhead AT THE LEAST, and then try it again.

A tripod is the very foundation of taking good landscape shots. It should be as high quality if not higher than the gear you place on top of it!

[ccc_javier]

A $15 tripod and youre wondering what the problem was? Get yourself a Bogen 055XProB and a Bogen 488RC2 ballhead AT THE LEAST, and then try it again.

A tripod is the very foundation of taking good landscape shots. It should be as high quality if not higher than the gear you place on top of it!


I know, guilty as charged!... just want to totally confirm that the weight is directly proportional to the stability ...

[ben_r_]

I know, guilty as charged!... just want to totally confirm that the weight is directly proportional to the stability ...
Weight is not really the important one. I mean it can help, but theres many other things that need to be satisfied before adding weight will help enough. Its build quality, materials used, and how the tripod is setup and used.

[Mark1]

It is not really the weight as much as it is the looseness of the joints. It may feel stiff. But they only have to move a fraction of a MM to cause blur. Cheep tripods are cheep for a reason. They just dont have the close tolerances in manufacturing.

[Bill Roberts]

I know, guilty as charged!... just want to totally confirm that the weight is directly proportional to the stability ...

:) Just a *little* bit of shake showing there...

Seriously I wouldn't say that weight is directly proportional to stability, because some of the carbon fibre tripods are very very stable, don't transmit vibrations easily and yet are quite reasonably light weight.

On the other hand my main tripod (alloy) weighs in at over 12 lbs and that's not including the head. It's very stable! but I really wouldn't like to carry it too far either.

But I think it may be time to move up market with your tripod anytime now...

cheers

[ccc_javier]

thanks, looking into now... hope I can find something good below 130$

[Headshotzx]

Hey, if you don't want to break the bank, and you're willing to import, Yong Nuo does sell a good 3 section tripod that is heavier and sturdier.

Here's my full review:
http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=433895

Cheers,
Zexun

[ccc_javier]

It is not really the weight as much as it is the looseness of the joints. It may feel stiff. But they only have to move a fraction of a MM to cause blur. Cheep tripods are cheep for a reason. They just dont have the close tolerances in manufacturing.

OOOK... and my cheap one has lots of that....

got it

thanks

[ccc_javier]

at least one came up OK

318090

[DocFrankenstein]

Get the heaviest one you can carry, the weight does help a lot with stability. In science labs the table tops are extra heavy and made out of some synthetic stone which is very dense. Your ideal camera support would be the same - a block of granite that weighs about a ton.

You won't find anything decent for 130 bucks. Throw 250 at it and you'll be fine.

http://www.bythom.com/support.htm
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/tripods_&_heads.shtml
http://www.digitalcamera.com.au/tutorials/tripod/index.shtml
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8275

[ccc_javier]

Get the heaviest one you can carry, the weight does help a lot with stability. In science labs the table tops are extra heavy and made out of some synthetic stone which is very dense. Your ideal camera support would be the same - a block of granite that weighs about a ton.

You won't find anything decent for 130 bucks. Throw 250 at it and you'll be fine.

http://www.bythom.com/support.htm
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/tripods_&_heads.shtml
http://www.digitalcamera.com.au/tutorials/tripod/index.shtml
http://digital-photography-school.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8275

250$..... man........ there is goes the photomatix license

[DocFrankenstein]

250$..... man........ there is goes the photomatix license
Oh. Awesome. HDR blows anyways.

And if you disagree, for HRD you need a good tripod first. Software second.

[1ruffryder]

ive takem may wonderful long exposure pics with a cheap 20 dollar tripod. jus depends on the conditions sometimes.

[ccc_javier]

ive takem may wonderful long exposure pics with a cheap 20 dollar tripod. jus depends on the conditions sometimes.


well now you messed me up

:)

[citrinella]

Get the heaviest one you can carry, the weight does help a lot with stability. In science labs the table tops are extra heavy and made out of some synthetic stone which is very dense. Your ideal camera support would be the same - a block of granite that weighs about a ton.

Yes, I use a tractor, weighs most of 4 tons and makes a great bird hide too. Fortunately it carries me.

[1ruffryder]

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3244/2907020416_c3c021f753.jpg?v=0
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3212/2900718427_24502cf8d8_o.jpg
heres just a few. 20 bucks on the tripod

[mitsu13gman]

I did all by the book, lock-unlock the mirror, use the timer, hang the backpack to the bottom part of the tripod, and camera shows big time shaking


regards

I just got a 190XPROB and 488RC2, and I can tell you that there is still some art in releasing the shutter if you don't use a remote. I can very easily set up 2 or more seconds of shake in the tripod if I manhandle the shutter release with the tripod set up for near-maximum height.

Just to be 100% sure, do some testing indoors at your dwelling. Stop down and set the ISO to get a good slow shutter speed, and then see if you can get a clean shutter release with no shake before you condemn the tripod.

That said, the Manfrotto setup is a joy to work with and I wouldn't go back to the tripod it replaced even if the thing wasn't broken. I just want you to make sure you're not getting bitten by technique where throwing money at it may not solve the problem.

Alternatively, try getting a cable shutter release first and see if that fixes the problem. Much cheaper than a midrange tripod and still quite useable after the investment.

Mike

[jr_senator]

$15? I can just imagine how flemisy it is. You could be making the shake from pressing the shutter button. Get a remote or use self timer. Oh, yeah, get a decent tripod.

[alt4852]

ive takem may wonderful long exposure pics with a cheap 20 dollar tripod. jus depends on the conditions sometimes.

in my opinion, that's the root of the matter.. the conditions that you shoot in. technically, a $200 kit lens will perform almost just as well as a high-end L under bright, even lighting conditions. the thing is, once you try to shoot in low light, or flare/aberration prone situations, the higher quality lenses show their worth. i think the same truths apply to tripods.

the pictures that 1ruffryder posted with his $20 tripod i'm sure turned out just fine, but there is a very narrow degree of conditions where a cheap tripod will suffice. case and point, my 055xprob/488rc2 combination which is largely considered to be reliably stable could not compensate for the rough wind conditions during a recent trip to california. with a $20 tripod, i'm guessing my setup might have even blown over:

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q295/alt4852/ggb01.jpg

100% crop:

http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q295/alt4852/ggb02.jpg

if you're shooting under challenging conditions, use the appropriate equipment for the task at hand.

(oh, and my apologies for taking such an overdone picture of san francisco.. i don't know what possessed me to stop and take that shot.)

[Wilt]

Weight does help with stability, but it does NOT cure issues created by the wind. I have used a Bogen 3021 (precursor to Manfrotto 055) and the windy shores of Hawaii visibly caused my 35mm SLR to move in the variable but strong winds (I had to wait for the wind to momentarily calm, to shoot).

[ccc_javier]

I do use the self timer... and it was windy last night... not a tropical storm but some wind was present

I will try it again soon with the same setup and see what's up

thanks 1ruffryder for your moral support :)
and to all for your knowledge sharing

[René Damkot]

I did all by the book, lock-unlock the mirror, use the timer, hang the backpack to the bottom part of the tripod, and camera shows big time shaking

Okay. First of: This is a lot of shake. even if you'd used a gorilla pod I wouldn't expect this.

Here's my guess: You hung the backpack to the bottom part of the tripod, but too high: so it (partially) was off the ground, swinging in the wind. Don't. Just have it pull the tripod down, not have the tripod lift it up ;)


Second: A heavier tripod isn't by default more stable. A photographer I work for has a Manfrotto 058 (http://www.devoncamera.co.uk/index.cfm/photographic/Products.Details/product_id/504/subject/manfrotto_058b_triaut_camera_tripod_black). Heavy bugger.
I think my Gitzo 1325 is way more stable, at a third of the weight.

[SuzyView]

I had a good tripod and still got a little blur, so I started using the timer on the camera, worked better, remote even better than that.

[JohnJ80]

If you read the Leica 1/06 article on tripod performance, one of the conclusions that you can draw from this is that weight is helpful but that materials are more important. For example, in many cases the smaller lighter CF tripods did just as well as the heavier non CF tripods.

There are two kids of vibration to try and damp - up through the legs and torsional. The only place additional mass helps is up through the legs. I tried to reproduce the Leica results and couldn't (the idea of 2 sheets of cardboard over cement as being like earth is not valid, IMO). When I set up my tripods on a 3/4" wooden floor over a basement (floor joists) and then jumped up and down right besides the tripods (a Gitzo 1258 and a 3540LS) I could not see any perceived vibration in the images.

From this I concluded that the idea of hanging additional mass on the these tripods is not useful. In point of fact, hanging a mass on the tripod is probably as big a problem as it probably tries to correct. If the mass moves (swings) or gets into a resonance in the wind (bungie cord to tent stake approach) these could be worse than not doing anything at all. I'm also wondering if my results are not why Gitzo decide not to supply a hook on the new series 3 (3540LS).

So from this, I found that the damping capability of the legs was more than adequate to remove the vibration up from the feet. I don't think weight helps much if you have a high quality set of CF legs.

J.

[René Damkot]

I'm also wondering if my results are not why Gitzo decide not to supply a hook on the new series 3 (3540LS).

Actually, the new Systematic plates come with a hook, according to the brochure...

[JohnJ80]

Really. That's new.

If you look at the website, it doesn't look like there are there in the pictures, at least for the 3540LS that I checked.

You don't need them. I can't find that they are useful whatsoever unless you are in a circumstance where it might blow over or something like that.

J.

[bohdank]

In windy conditions, some added weight does add stabulity.

[René Damkot]

Really. That's new.

Wouldn't have known if I hadn't gotten the brochure at the PhotoKina.

Same can be said for the Systematic Head or the Ocean Traveller series. The Gitzo website is horror IMO.

Here's a screenshot out of the pdf folder:

http://img.skitch.com/20081110-bs5j1gsriaay1rk6qfastixsei.jpg