I got one as an early birthday present cos the one I wanted isn’t readily available back home, and I got out to check my new lens’s AF calibration. Like a good boy though I’ve put it away for the next 6 weeks or so 🙂

So what do you use a tripod for? Macro work? Telephoto wildlife stuff? Extra sharpness on landscapes or still lifes? Studio portraits?

All of the above. The extra sharpness you get from keeping the camera steady is the equivalent of about a thousand quid lens 🙂

I use mine to clutter up the office.

I use mine to get out of having to record my eldest daughter doing some horrendous Disney song/dance routine, stick her camera on it and tell her to get on with it.

And the above when I remember. Mainly night stuff, though it’s been a while since I last did any…

Ditto Dr J

I must have too much money to burn on toyz 🙄 as I’ve more or less completed my induction in to the world of Arca Swiss camera pron.

Here’s a hotch potch of some of my kit.

Oh and BTW I don’t have the pennies for the big whites so the 300, 400 and 500’s I’ve used have been hired.

Right, looking forward to this extra sharpness then 🙂

Need a new ball-head then – the one I use on my monopod was £15 from Jessops and whilst good enough to allow me to angle the pod correctly, it shifts position when locking and unlocking which is annoying. What I could do with is some kind of stiff fluid damper that allows me to move the thing easily but still keeps it steady. My kit is pretty small and light. There was a nice looking Manfrotto friction head thing in the shop but at 109 € it was too much to tack onto the present bill 🙂

This is what I got btw:

http://www.enjoyyourcamera.com/Tripods-Accessories/Tripods-Pro/Cullmann-Magnesit-528Q-Tripod-with-Quickshift::4278.html

I have a few but virtually never use them – even for night stuff – just can’t be bothered with them. IMO Nikkon F2.8 lenses with VR-II make them pretty redundant for most things (although I’m sure plenty will disagree).

Ball Heads don’t have the precision of a 3 way unit but are more convenient in use and are generally lighter.

Despite having something like £600’s worth of ball heads, I’d probably suggest a 3 way unit if you’re happy to spend the slightly longer time on set up.

The Manfrotto 804RC2 would be a good starting point.

Oh and a hotshoe 2 or 3 way spirit level is a must have. They’re as cheap as chips on Fleabay

m1kea – that is a lot of kit!

I have a few but virtually never use them – even for night stuff – just can’t be bothered with them. IMO Nikkon F2.8 lenses with VR-II make them pretty redundant for most things (although I’m sure plenty will disagree).

Yeah, under ‘normal’ conditions stabilisation will get me pixel-peeping sharp images so a tripod isn’t necessary.

Video is the main area I find a tripod is useful under ‘normal’ conditions.

Hmm.. interesting about the three way head. I do want to minimise faff. To be honest it’ll most likely get used for macro shots anyway, when I’ll probably get some rails – which I appreciate is even more faff still 🙂

I have a 100mm macro lens but don’t use it very much. In fact my insect macros attempts have always been free hand as I wanted the bees in flight.

Never tried any rails but you might want to consider a lens collar so that you can rotate the body between portrait and landscape modes. Flipping the head obviously moves the body to a different axis, which means recomposing the image and tripod position.

Image stabilisation will allow to get away with handholding down to quite slow shutter speeds but not if you’re HDR bracketing shots, have shutter speeds heading towards 1 sec or do HQ pano stuff.

I use two tripods to hang a duvet from to make a vocal recording booth.

Video.

I have Manfrotto 055-something as well as a really nasty cheap Jessops thing that has the plus side of weighing naff all.

Proper fluid head coming for the Manfrotto as well as a Glidetrack Shooter.

Don’t really take photos of much other than family now. Just bought a new DSLR and it’s shot more video than it’s taken pictures.

Yes, IS is a good thing. The main issue with hand-holding macro though in my limited experience is keeping things in focus, cos the dof is so narrow. Of course, even if you brought a tripod you can still remove the camera for hand held shots of moving objects 🙂