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Photography e-Book Chapter 7 - Tripods
and Heads
If you have done some reading of photography
books and other photography web sites, I am quite certain that you will
have come across the maxim that a good tripod and head are the next
most crucial pieces of equipment to own. Actually, that depends. If
your photographic style is more towards street shooting and photojournalism/documentary
styles, then I do not think you are going to much like carrying a 7lb
tripod and head combination with you all day. Same goes for the wedding
photographer taking candid shots. However, if you are a stickler for
sharpness and maximum quality for enlargements then you better damn
well get the best tripod and head you can afford.
There are several manufacturers of tripods
but you will most likely hear of two companies most of the time, Manfrotto
and Gitzo. If you are swimming in cash from short-selling the high tech
stocks on NASDAQ then just go ahead, buy the carbon fiber Gitzo tripod
and Arca Swiss ball head, and be done with it. If you still have to
suck up to the boss everyday and live within modest means then buy a
Manfrotto.
Manfrotto tripods are very good tripods
for the money but only up to a certain size. There are three models
I am familiar with, the 190, 055C, and 075. For American readers you
will have to translate the Manfrotto model numbers to Bogen numbers.
Some points about Manfrotto tripods:
- They have among the best leg releases
with quick flip levers to lock or release the legs. They even have
a model that will release all the legs at once but convenience comes
at a price. The release levers are made from plastic which will limit
the ultimate load bearing capacity of the Manfrotto tripods.
- The larger the tripod you want from
the Manfrotto line, the more monstrously huge it becomes and worse,
the heavier it will weigh. Manfrotto tripods are made from aluminum
alloy but they seem less sturdy than Gitzo tripods for the same size
and weight. Hence, the leg tubes have to be much larger than comparable
Gitzo legs in order to support a given weight.
- Stick with the smaller to mid-sized
tripods and avoid the ones with the center struts that splay out.
The 075 is a major pain in the butt to deal with in this regard. Every
time an adjustment is required in positioning, not only did the main
leg release require adjustment but so too did the center struts. Did
I mention the 075 is a pig to haul into the field? It is twice the
weight of the 055C for twice the load bearing but it is far surpassed
by the Gitzo 134x series of tripods for weight to load ratio.
- The overall best tripod from Manfrotto
is probably the 055C because it can handle reasonable loads up to
about 12 lbs but is not particularly heavy and it can be raised high
enough so even people 6 feet and taller do not have to stoop. The
055C is not particularly expensive either at around $175 CAN and it
is probably the best selling tripod in North America with constant
references to it by amateur photographers in their equipment bios.
- If you are pushed for money and only
have a lightweight 35mm kit then buy Manfrotto's 190 tripod and be
happy. This tripod combined with a small quick-release ball head such
as the Manfrotto 352RC, can happily accommodate a lens the size of
Nikon's 80-200mm f2.8 attached to a moderately sized body such as
the Nikon F90x or F100. I would NOT try to support a 300mm f2.8 lens
on these small legs and ball head though, despite the theoretical
load bearing being capable of it. I always like to leave room for
comfort and big 300mm lens on the 352/190 would NOT make me comfortable
at all. Even the larger 055C would be questionable with such a large
lens on it.
 Gitzo
tripods are well known among the professional and serious amateur markets.
Their sturdiness and long-life reliability is legendary with the moniker,
buy a Gitzo for life. They are also depressingly expensive and even
an average tripod in the Inter Pro Studex line can set you back a good
chunk of change but it is all in perspective.
- If you buy aluminum Gitzo tripod and
if you have chosen it with care and future needs in mind, then buying
for life can be a very real possibility.
- Gitzo has many, many models of tripods
to choose from with five major groups. Each group is based upon the
largest diameter of the tripod legs.
- If you can afford to look at a Gitzo
then you should not be overly concerned about cost so buy the one
best suited to your requirements now and for future use if you have
visions of 600mm f4 lenses in your head. I personally have many visions
of large, fast super telephoto lenses in my head but my bank account
provides a slap across the face for a reality check. I also do not
need a super telephoto for the images I like to create and can therefore
live with a mid-level Gitzo from the 134x series. However, your future
600mm f4 lens will require at the least, a tripod in the next series
up, the 14xx and probably in the 15xx series for maximum stability.
- Gitzo tripods are quite stiff to spread
apart compared to Manfrotto tripods but this is a good thing actually,
as you do not want a tripod to be easily splayed or compacted, especially
when heavy loads on sitting atop of it.
- Gitzo tripods require the user to
pull a tab outward to spread the legs apart and this is not exactly
the easiest thing to do even in warm weather without gloves on your
hands. Just accept it as part of Gitzo's desire for sturdiness.
- Most Gitzo tripods come in models
with and without center columns. A center column is not necessary
unless you happen to be as tall as Shaquille O'Neal and even then,
he could just buy a 15xx tripod that can go as high as 10 feet tall.
Do not bother with a center column, as it will allow you to get down
very low to the ground for macro photographer and new perspectives.
- Many Gitzo tripods also have the option
for three or four sections per leg. The more sections per leg, the
shorter the tripod can be compacted to but be aware that compactness
comes at the cost of stability. I chose a four-section tripod for
my own use because I favored compactness for packing with my backpack
over the last little bit of rigidity from the tripod. My four-sectioned
Gitzo 1345 is still well within comfortable tolerances for load bearing
my heaviest equipment.
Carbon fiber tripods
If you thought Gitzo's aluminum tripods
are expensive, just look at the price for their carbon fiber models.
Even the cheapest 12xx series is still nearly a $1000 in Canada and
the largest 15xx series will set you back $1500 CAN, about a $100 per
kilogram of load bearing on top of the high tech material. There are
other makers of carbon fiber tripods but these tend to be in the lower
end range in price and load bearing.
- Manfrotto has a couple of models to
choose from at prices a little less than Gitzo's 1228 model. I would
spend the extra $100 and just buy the Gitzo instead as the Manfrotto
does not seem as robust as the Gitzo (my opinion only of looking over
and handling the tripods in the store - not from actual use).
- Slik and Mamiya also have carbon fiber
tripods but I have not seen let alone handled them.
- If you require a tripod with lightweight
qualities but with superb load bearing then there really is no choice
but the Gitzo 13xx or 15xx series. Many nature and wildlife photographers
have taken these two series of Gitzo tripods for use with their big
lenses or medium and large format systems.
- Ask yourself if you really need a
carbon fiber tripod. My 1345 tripod is 2.8kg in weight for its 10kg
of load bearing compared to 2.2kg and 12kg for the 1348. Is 0.6kg
and 2kg really worth more than double the cost over an aluminum tripod?
I decided it was not and went for the classic metal Gitzo tripod.
It does not stop me from continuing to desire a carbon fiber tripod
but I will not put my money where my desires are in this case.
Although Gitzo and Manfrotto are the
two most popular brands for photographic tripods, there in fact many
other companies to choose from, some offering unique capabilities. If
you have the opportunity to view and demo these products, do so. Just
because a company has the biggest distribution network, does not mean
the products are the best. Manfrotto and Slik probably have the biggest
dealer network in Canada but I think most would acknowledge Gitzo tripods
as being superior overall.
There are also tripods made from material
other than metal or carbon fiber, such as wood. Wooden tripods are a
rare sighting these days and in the days when they were more widely
used, you would have seen a large format system sitting atop of it.
Ansel Adams working his big cameras on wooden tripods is a classis image
of this bygone era.
Wood is known for its superior vibration
channeling properties over metal. When vibration is a problem, there
are two main ways of dealing with it, dampening or tuning. Dampening
involves the use of mass to minimize vibration as much as possible.
Using high-end hi-fi equipment stands as an example, some models use
hollow tube construction for the frame but allow for mass-loading with
sand or metal shot to make the stand as heavy as possible. Some stands
weigh 500lbs or more once they have been mass-loaded. The equipment
itself can also be mass-loaded with weights sitting on top of them to
further dampen vibration or resonance in the chassis. The idea is to
dampen the vibration to such a low level that it no longer embellishes
itself upon the audio signal.
That would be the idea with massive metal
tripods, to create such a large mass that vibration is pushed way down
in levels to not inflict any loss of sharpness on the image. However,
note that I never mentioned the elimination of vibration. Some believe
that vibration is not something that can be dampened away but can be
tuned down with a lot less effort than mass-loading.
 Using
another audio example again, speakers are sometimes very large and heavy
and hence have a lot of mass. That mass, even for 500lb speakers still
does not eliminate unwanted vibration or resonance and spikes are recommended
for tuning the resonance and vibration to an even greater mass, the
floor of your house. You will also note that most stereo speakers are
made from wood products. This is because wood offers the best cost effective
compromise over other materials for helping to tame most (but not all)
of the speaker's vibration. Gitzo tripods even have spikes to help with
this although the main reason is to couple the tripod more firmly in
soft ground.
My educated guess about wood tripods
is that they act similarly to channel or tune vibration from the camera
equipment to the tripod and ultimately to an even more massive entity,
the ground the tripod is sitting on. However, there are also some very
massive wood tripods and are not particularly practical in the field
for most people.
Whatever your tastes or needs from a
tripod, get a good one and even if that tripod seems to cost an arm
and leg, just be aware that you may well be using it the rest of your
photographic life.
Tripod Heads
These companions to tripods come in two
flavors for photographers, ball heads and pan/tilt heads (pan heads).
Both have their place on top of a photographers tripod but for your
first one, buy the type of head that will most fit in with what you
wish to photograph.
The consensus is that ball heads are
more flexible for all around use than pan heads, and especially for
nature and wildlife photography, you will most often see heavy-duty
ball heads in use. The king of ball heads is Arca Swiss. Arca Swiss
designed their elliptical ball head decades ago and has merely refined
the basic design over the years. It is the ball head that all others
are compared to. It is also atrociously expensive, costing more than
most photographic tripods but just as with some tripods, you buy for
life, so to the Arca Swiss ball head.
- Arca Swiss has an excellent reputation
thanks to their vice grip-like clamp that secures the quick release
plate like no other system available. It is a much-copied design with Kirk Enterprises being one example of a third party manufacturer of the venerable Arca
Swiss B1. The Kirk head is well regarded and used by many pros. Kirk
makes their adapter plates for the quick release system but the best
plates are made by Really Right Stuff. Kirk plates are a bit more
generic whereas RRS makes plates specific for the body or lens you
use. Update - Kirk has improved their product line
in recent years and now their products seem to be the equal of Really
Right Stuff products, in fact the two companies seem to copy each
other with similar products.
- As mentioned, the Arca Swiss ball
head is not wholly round but is actually elliptical. This design is
a blessing as well as a curse for some as the design allows the ball
head much stability in handling heavy loads but is also the cause
of the infamous lockup of the ball.
- There are reports of the Arca Swiss
B1 head (the one that most refer to) as being capable of handling
up to 90lbs loads. In theory perhaps but most users of big lenses
would agree that the B1 is not up to the challenge of handling a 600mm
f4 lens with any pretense to obtaining consistently sharp images.
600mm f4 lenses typically weigh in at 14lbs and if the B1 cannot provide
sharp results with that much weight, how on earth do you expect it
to handle five times that much weight?
- Also, consider that the 90lb theoretical
load capacity is only for when the ball head's clamp is upright and
probably only in the dead center of clamp. Imagine how massive your
tripod would have to be in order to support 90lbs if the ball head
were flopped onto its side. Ignore the 90lb capacity bovine excrement
and keep in mind that the real world load capacity of the B1 is probably
a 500mm f4 lens.
- Users of the 400m f2.8, 600mm f4,
and larger lenses prefer the larger Arca Swiss B2 or B1G. The B2 is
a unique design that can be described as a ball head within a ball
whereas the B1G is a giant version of the B1.
- It seems like vast majority of the
professional nature photographers use an Arca Swiss head on top of
a Gitzo tripod. There is good reason for this so think about the reasons
why before blanching at the price required for your own rig.
Contact Really
Right Stuff for their catalogue, which includes lots of information
about ball heads and tripods as well as other photo tips.
There are of course other makers of ball
heads and Manfrotto is a leader in this field too. Studioball, Giotto,
and Gitzo are some other known brands of ball heads but I am not familiar
with their offerings. Manfrotto use to be an also ran to Arca Swiss
for quality ball heads as Manfrotto heads were massive designs for strength
but two factors made them less favorable to photographers.
- The Manfrotto quick release system
uses several different sized and shaped plates, utilizing a spring
loaded locking system to secure them in. This release system is actually
very fast and easy to use but simply not as secure as the Arca Swiss
vice grip clamp.
- The smaller plates do not provide
much confidence in handling large and heavy loads as they use a cork
pad to keep the plate secure without a safety lip. The lack of a lip
means the camera or lens can slip and become insecure if you have
not applied enough torque to keep the plate on.
- The larger hex plates are too big
for pretty much all 35mm bodies and again, the lack of a lip makes
slippage a constant risk. John Shaw use-to-use Manfrotto products
and custom modified his hex plates to provide a lip. I am not sure
if Manfrotto has corrected this and offer a lipped version of the
hex plate or not. An expensive option is to buy Kirk's Manfrotto to
Arca Swiss adapter, which is a heavy-duty hex plate with an Arca Swiss
style clamp mated on top of it. Not perfect, as it is still a two-piece
design but nice to have if you wish to convert a Manfrotto head to
the superior Arca Swiss system.
- The other major problem with Manfrotto
ball heads is that their choice of material requires thick grease
to lubricate the ball and the well so they do not stick. This means
gumming up of the ball head out in the field and eventual drying out
of the lubricant necessitating a service call to apply new grease
if you do not do it yourself.
- Manfrotto has attempted to compete
against Arca Swiss in a serious way with a new line of ball heads.
They are massive heads and use self-lubricating materials, however,
their quick release system is still based upon the old system and
is still the critical weak point in the head. If the Manfrotto quick
release were easy to disassemble then replacement with an Arca Swiss
clamp would be a nice upgrade.
Pan/tilt heads are not favored by nature
and wildlife photographers because the long handles get in the way for
packing and can be caught up in bushes and branches. For general-purpose
photography pan heads are actually superior to ball heads as pan heads
offer more precise placement of the camera/lens in relation to the subject.
Pan heads can really come into their own when doing macro photography
in which tiny increments of placement changes can result in major compositional
changes. I use to own two pan heads and although I do not miss the smaller
and cheaper pan head, I do miss the larger and more brutish head. Both
were from Manfrotto and I had even gone to the expense of buying the
ridiculously expensive Kirk adapter to convert the hex head to Arca
Swiss quick release.
The 229 3-D Pro head is massive and weighs
a reassuringly solid four lbs. This head was so well built it could
easily handle a large format system and placing my medium format system
on top was nothing to it. I am confident this head could handle a 500mm
f4 lens with ease if not a 600mm f4 but the hex head system would not
be how I would choose to mount such big lenses.
Where I do really miss the 229 head?
When I shoot portraits or weddings in which control of camera and lens
axis are so much easier to do than with a ball head, even one as good
as the Arca Swiss. The 229 have two built in levels to easily allow
for correct orientation. With the ball head, I always have to carry
around a hot shoe spirit level to ensure correct placement of the camera.
In addition, when a medium format body with its laterally revered waist
level finder is used on a ball head, it can make for pretty disorientating
viewing. The ball head's positioning versatility works against itself
in more prosaic shooting sessions.
Dedicated sliding macro platforms with
ruler measurements are available for ball head users. They are an expensive
accessory but are available from Kirk Enterprises and Manfrotto.
 What
makes the Arca Swiss the king of ball heads?
1 - Arca Swiss quick release plates have
safety lips that prevent slippage - the best plates are from Really
Right Stuff and Kirk Enterprises
2 - A vice-like grip on the quick release
plate makes for a very solid clamping action to secure the plate
3 - A massive ball head that does not
require external lubricants to keep the action smooth
4 - Not marked out in the image but on
the side of the main release knob is a small tension dial that controls
the amount of drag allowed when the main release knob is loosen
5 - Absolutely solid construction that
provides much satisfaction and confidence
Chapter
8 - Camera Bags
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