Not an expert on tripod but generally a good tripod can do the following things:
1) Support your camera! - think about it, you spent hundreds or thousands on your camera and lenses, do you want to rely it on a cheap/fragile tripod? Your tripod should support the whole weight of your camera against strong wind or slight bump/hit, if your tripod flips, your camera + lens are history.
2) Portability - Tripods are not only for group photos, it is for travel and landscape photos too, you can put it in your trunk but many times you want to carry it around too, so a light tripod can save your shoulder.
3) ease to use - a well designed tripod can be set up / collapsed in seconds, coz if you spent most of your day setting up your tripod, you don't want to bring it out ever again.
4) Stability & Fine tune adjustment - ok, you got your camera aligned to the horizon perfectly, you tighten your tripod head and you let go your camera, it tilted! Then you spend 1 min just to guess how to adjust it then you have to do it all again after you moved to another location, then you'll know how important built quality & fine tune adjustment is for a tripod.
5) Reach - not very important but some tripods can tilt horizontally or let you mount your camera upside down for macro shoots.
A good tripod can last forever, you don't need a gitzo but don't go cheap on tripods, I won't suggest anything less than $100 in retail for a dslr, you can get a used one on CL then sell it later if you need a better one. Manfrotto, Slik, Giotto are some of the good brands to trust.
well, I just bought a benro in HK for a little less than HKD$1000, not a carbon fiber but I think it is strong and steady enough for my camera, one bonus thing of my tripod is one of the legs can be detached to become a monopod! If you're going back to HK, remember to check them out too. |
發表於 2010-8-3 09:49
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