At first, you think the camera is the most important thing in your photography world. Then, you realize it’s the lenses. But if you’re a landscape or macro photographer, you’ll quickly learn that the tripod is just as important (if not more). And you either learn that the easy way or the hard way.
Buying the best tripod for photography is a rite of passage for the beginner photographer. You’ve got the camera and the kit lens, so you go out and buy a camera bag and a tripod. But more often than not, the tripod is a cheap, plasticky implement that’s – for lack of a better word – completely useless…
A beginner might not understand the foibles of a cheap tripod until it’s too late. In fact, they might merrily capture soft shot after soft shot without realizing that they deserve better. I myself made this mistake; I didn’t know what camera shake was when I started, and I certainly didn’t realize it could happen on a tripod. In fact, I blamed my camera or myself when it was my tripod all along.
Cheap tripod, cheap performance
Anything can be bought cheap if you’re in the right place at the right time, of course. When I say cheap, I mean cheaply made. You know, the kind of unbranded tripod you can pick up from Amazon or a department store or comes bundled with your camera. These kinds of tripods might look inviting enough, but they are usually an absolute nightmare to use.
I’m talking about being hard to adjust and refine: knobs that never seem tight enough, axes that stutter as you try to tilt or pan to refine your composition. Weak legs that wobble or don’t even splay wide enough for secure outdoor use. Legs that catch when you try to extend or collapse them. And light payloads that are entirely inadequate for longer zoom lenses or bigger cameras when it comes time to upgrade.
Tripod red flags
Let’s talk about how you identify a cheap tripod.
- Plastic components: The main thing I’d advise you to look out for is an abundance of plastic components, particularly plastic threads. In my experience, plastic threads simply cannot be tightened enough to prevent slippage, and on top of that, they can easily wear or even break over time.
- Leg braces/struts: Another giveaway is plastic struts between the legs. A quality tripod doesn’t need any extra stability; it will stand firm with the legs splayed out. If a cheap tripod has plastic struts, assume that the legs aren’t particularly sturdy to begin with. Don’t get me wrong, some expensive heavy-duty video tripods do feature struts, but they’re designed to be as stable and heavy as possible.
- A poor quality head: Do not ignore the tripod head. A tripod is only as good as its head. You can have a sturdy trio of legs, but if the head is plasticky and cheap and suffers from many of the problems I listed earlier, you’re in for a frustrating ride, and your photography will suffer.
A quality tripod, on the other hand, will just feel effortlessly sturdy. Threads boast good friction to prevent overtightening, joints move smoothly and intentionally, legs can be splayed to varying degrees and are stable, setting up and collapsing the device feels effortless, and it features a quality head.
Is cost the compromise?
You’re probably thinking, great Mike, but what about the cost? I’m not suggesting that you pay hundreds of bucks for a tripod, but I am suggesting that you reframe the way you think about budgeting for kit. A lot of photographers will pay around $100 / £100 for a lens and consider it a bargain. You can pick up a quality tripod for a similar price.
The Manfrotto Element MII Aluminium Tripod is selling for $132.95 at B&H Photo and £99 at Wex Photo Video. This is a tripod I used for years. As long as you don’t exceed the 8-kg payload and are using lenses up to 200mm, it will serve beginner photographers very well indeed. And trust me, the difference between a tripod like the Element MII from a reputable brand and a cheap tripod is huge.
The only reason to spend more is if you’ve reached a point where you have identified specialist needs. For example, general tripod usage tends to favor portability over stability, but a serious macro photographer may wish to invest in a larger, sturdier tripod since the effects of camera shake are more prevalent at higher magnifications. A travel photographer or landscape photographer who hikes may be happy to pay more for a lighter carbon fiber tripod. And so on.
You may also wish to turn to the used market. Most tripods don’t tend to hold their value in the same way that cameras and lenses do, so you could end up with a real bargain on used marketplaces. So, there you have it. Tripods aren’t the most exciting bits of photography kit in the world, but a good tripod is worth its payload in gold.
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