How to Choose a Tripod

Let's talk about tripod selection for an outdoor photo shoot. You want a tripod that's going to give you the stability that you need but that's also lightweight and portable. Now my material of choice for my tripods is carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is strong, er, very stable, it's very lightweight compared to other materials like aluminum, but it does cost a bit extra quite a bit extra in many cases, but I still think it's the way to go for outdoor photo shoots, especially if you're gonna be carrying your tripod any sort of distance. Now, another thing you want to consider is the height of the tripod. So this tripod, once I have it fully extended, as you can see, comes up to just about eye level. Now I'm not always going to be shooting at eye level. Sometimes I'll be shooting lower than that sometimes even a little bit higher but it's nice to have as many options as you can in terms of camera height. So without the center column, being extended with a tripod head in the cameras on top of here this is coming up pretty much to my eye level, or a little bit higher. If I need a little extra height for a shoot I can always raise the center column. I try to avoid doing that because the center column makes the whole set up a little less stable, little less sturdy er, but if you need an extra few inches it does the job perfectly in a pinch. Another thing to consider is ah, having adjustable legs. So here you can see that if I pull this little clip out I can change the, the level of the leg. That way If I'm working in uneven ground I can optimize my camera position. A final thing to consider when you're choosing your tripod is the type of connection you have, between the extendible tripod legs. This particular tripod has what is known as a collar lock or a twist lock. And the twist locks are very stable, they're very sturdy, they're very durable. The one downside of the twist lock is that if you get saltwater or gunk up inside of the twist lock itself, ah, quite often the tripod leg might get stuck, and you can't get the leg in or out, or you can't get the twist to turn at all. That's a problem that I often have when I'm shooting in saltwater in particular. So when I'm shooting in a dirty or wet environment I'll often switch from the twist lock tripod to another type of connection, which is called a clip lock. The clip lock, because it's powered basically by this clip on the tripod leg has a less chance of getting gunk or salt up into the tripod, making the leg stick. The downside of the clip locks is that they're a little less durable. These clips have a tendency to come loose. I'm always tightening up the clips whenever I'm out in the field. But if I'm working in a really messy environment if there's a lot of salt water or a lot of mud the clip block is the way to go because they never get stuck. Finally, if you think you might be doing a lot of outdoor adventure, like backpacking into the wilderness, you might want to consider a smaller tabletop tripod. And these tripods are obviously a lot smaller than the ones I just showed you, but they're also very lightweight. They virtually weigh nothing. so it's great if you've got a heavy load. as you can see, they really don't come up very high, come up to waist level, I can always bring up the center column a bit, if I, if I need to, to get some additional height, the downside of these very lightweight tripods is they're not very stable. So if there's heavy winds or if you're working in moving water, you'll find that the tripods are more prone to vibrate or even tip over. So you have to be very careful with them. But if you're doing any real extensive wilderness adventure the tabletop tripod is the way to go.