kai

I've decided that i need a tripod, because i am tired of being limited by low light and camera shake problems when i am in the woods and at sunrise and sunset. my problem is that it needs to be light enough and easy enough to carry when i hike. (ideally, but unrealistically, i'd like a james bond-type of contraption where a hiking stick turns into a camera tripod, and its made out of carbon fiber...)

does anyone have any suggestions for a lightweight and easy to carry tripod? something thats fairly compact, but fully extends? maybe that will fit into the the side mesh pocket of my pack or can be attached to my pack through the daisy chain? I'd like to have a specific company/model in mind- i've asked for one for the holidays this year from my husband- we are headed to hawaii, and i thought it might be nice to have...

has anyone had a problem getting a tripod thru the new airport security checks since 9-11? i don't think it would be a problem, but i've seen other people have problems with other seemingly harmless stuff, and don't want to be surprised. i suppose if it just gets run thru the machine, no one will care...

OutdoorPhoto.com

What's your budget? I can make some recommendations once I have an idea of what you're willing to spend.

I have a Gitzo G1228 "Reporter" tripod with a Gitzo ballhead. It's a great tripod. Unfortunately, it is not in the "lightweight" class.

Gitzo has a line of carbon fiber tripods that are lightweight but also a bit on the pricey side.

Thanks for participating here at OutdoorPhoto.com!!

kai

heh...sorry. i had gotten side tracked for a while by "moving" (coming home to TX after 3 months)... so... if i can pick this thread back up now...

I don't really have much of a budget- I hadn't really considered what I was looking to spend. I haven't done any research on the subject, but probably $100-$200. is that even reasonable?

its almost, but not completely pointless right now- i was hoping to have it in time to take to hawaii for new years, but due to a family emergency, we already went to hawaii (3 months early)... so i'm in no rush now, anyway.

what are some features/characteristics (other than weight) that i might want to consider?

thanks for your reply, and sorry i let it drop...

OutdoorPhoto.com

No apologies - look at me, replying like millions of years later.

Some features to consider when purchasing a tripod include:

1. Weight
2. Type of head (ball versus pan & tilt)
3. How adjustable are the legs? Some have set limits while many of the Gitzo tripods and other high end models let you adjust the tripod legs to a variety of different angles.
4. Composition (related to #1 - metal tripods are heavier but less expensive than some of the cool new carbon fiber models).

Regardless, ANY tripod is better than NO tripod when shooting at shutter speeds that make handholding the shot an impossibility.

kai

well, here I am, back to the tripod question. funny how it keeps coming back to the forefront...

over new years, I went back to new england, up into the white mountains, with my camera (oh, to be home again....different story) - I managed to borrow a tripod from my dad, and it did, indeed, make ALL the difference in the world. In the forest, half way up the mountain, and hour before sundown while it was snowing, and the pics came out great, even with that really low light (well, lower than I've been sucessful in before anyway).

i've noticed a few features that are vital to me:
1) ease of set up. on the one i borrowed, which was ancient, I am sure- the legs unscrewed to loosen them so you could adjust the height. then you had to rescrew them/tighten them. Awfully hard to do in the snow, when your hands are somewhat numb & somewhat wet/slippery. I think some kind of quick release lever would be a lot easier to use. what is that feature called? (eventually, I'll have to speak intelligently to some store clerk about this...unless... AH HA- the internet.)

2) weight. weight. weight. the one i borrowed was heavier than I would like to hike around with while backpacking for days.

3) material- If i'm out using the tripod in the snow/rain, or really humid climates, what are the chances that it'll eventually fail/crap out/corrode/rust due to moisture getting in to adjustment points. Are even the cheaper metal ones made of a material that wont be affected by years of use in wet conditions? I know the easiest solution is to NOT use it in the rain- but i LIKE the rain & snow. I love fog. and it seems to get awfully humid down here... and who knows where I'll end up moving to next- never thought I'd live in texas

I guess in the end, my price range would be $200-$300. I don't know if i posted that figure before or not. or, if I did, if it was different. But right now, thats where I'm at- if I'm repeating myself, I apologize. I don't want to be buying another tripod anytime soon, so I could stretch that figure a little bit for the assurance I wont be buying another one in a couple years.

is there anywhere to buy used tripods that anyone knows of? local to san antonio would be good, in that case- I don't want to buy something used sight unseen.

i don't seem to be much closer to a solution yet, do I?

Shannon

We only have one tripod between the two of us, and I'm not that comfortable with the tripod Justin mentioned (the model we own). It's a terrific, high quality tripod, to be sure, but it weighs a ton and it always leaves me frustrated during setup and stowing (adjustment once it's upright and secured isn't quite as bad). It's pinched my fingers pretty badly before, and my arms are always sore after I've used it -- and that's just using it, carting it a quarter mile or less to take a photo, not hiking with it, which is do-able but not fun.

We are both currently lusting after a carbon fiber tripod -- LIGHTweight, strong...you guessed it, expensive. Someday, but not yet.

We shoot exclusively with Canon gear, and our two best lenses are "IS" -- image stabilized. While the lenses each cost about the same as a pro tripod, they have the advantage of letting us shoot HANDHELD shots at very low shutter speeds. And don't even get me started on aerial photography and how useful the stabilization is there (though it doesn't do a bit of good when we encounter turbulence -- we need a "flight stabilized" aircraft, for that!)

If I don't have a tripod I'm comfortable with and can count on not to dump my lens and camera body into the muck, I'd rather just miss some shots... and that's what I do. That said, even on trips Justin's taken on his own, I can usually pick out which ones he shot with a tripod versus hand-holdingan image stabilized lens.

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kai

well, my husband, apparently got tired of me complaining about NOT having one, so he bought me one. Not a real expensive one- amazingly cheap, actually- so now at least we have a starting point for comparison, and at the very least a back-up one for future use. He got me a SLIK. we borrowed a friend's one day recently, and decided that it worked good enough for us for now. hopefully i wont be replacing it for a little while at least.