Tripod, how choose the right one?

In this episode, I show you the tripods I own and make some recommendations on choosing the right one for you. The choice for tripods is humongous. Thankfully there are a few criteria you can focus on to make up your mind.

Criteria:

Height:

We are all different in size, and so are the tripods. Choosing one that matches your chin height will provide you with a more comfortable position to shoot as the camera would be at your eye level without having to lean forward and straining your back.

Leg sections:

To reduce the size of a tripod once folded, one increases the number of leg sections as this enables to have short segments sliding into one another. However, the more leg sections a tripod has, the less sturdy it becomes as the segment need to be thinner and thinner to slide into one another.

Weight:

The heavier a tripod, the sturdier and the more stable it is. This must be the biggest source of compromise since your type of photography may require you to carry your tripod with you where you go, whether it is a 5 min walk or several hour hikes.

Tripod heads:

Most of the non-entry level tripods either come without a tripod head or offer the possibility to change it. This is highly valuable as depending on the type of photography; one may want a ball-head or a panning-head.

Tripod plate:

The days when one had to screw the camera onto a tripod head are over. Nowadays, even the entry level tripod will come with some camera plate. This is a small plate which one screws under the camera body, leave there all the time, and whenever one needs to use the tripod, the camera simply clips onto the tripod head with 1 sec gesture.

Manfrotto Quick release plate for tripod

My Tripods:

Hama Star 61

Purpose: This is a cheap tripod. Not strong or heavy enough to be used seriously with a DSLR and in windy weather. A valid 1st tripod when starting photography.