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SELECTING THE RIGHT TRIPOD
by Roger Fremier

My advice on how to select a tripod is simple. A tripod should be easy to operate, light weight and durable with a tripod head that is simple to operate.

The reason for using a tripod is mostly to hold your camera steady for long exposures. The general rule for hand holding a camera is to use a shutter speed faster than the focal length of the lens. That is, if your focal length of your lens is 200 mm, you should not use a shutter speed slower than 1/250th speed and hand hold your camera. Also never hand hold your camera below a 1/60th speed because of camera movement. Thus, if depth of field is important, you must consider using a tripod to extend depth of field in most cases.

Your tripod should be as lightweight as possible. You can use a weight, like a bag of shot, to give your tripod enough weight if the day is windy and/or the tripod is fully extended. If you travel on an airplane make sure it is short enough, after you take off the head, to place into your suitcase. A tripod should also have a feature to go down to extreme low-angle shots.

The tripod head should be easy and simple to operate like a ball head.

The state of the art is the Gitzo with carbon fiber legs with the ball head. I use the Gitzo "Reporter Performance" tripod without carbon fiber or "Reporter Mountaineer MK2" with carbon fiber and the Arca Swiss Monoball head. I also have the Manfrotto 3001 tripod with the 3262 head.