I For One Welcome Our Tripod Overlords

Whether you are using a hefty metal-bodied film SLR camera or a tiny digital point-and-shoot, you will take better photos with it if you support it properly when you open the shutter.

If the person who sold you your camera kit had you pegged for a beginner then there is a fair chance that (s)he tried to sell you some kind UV filter for your new camera’s lens. (S)he might have given you some sales guff how it will cut out haze and protect the delicate glass of your lens. Very few people get up early enough or high enough to have to deal with haze and those who do so on a regular basis are usually landscape photographers who will be far more discriminating about their choice of filters (and cameras, and lenses). As for protecting the glass of your lens: that’s what a lens cap is for.

On top of all this, high-street camera shops will usually try to sell you this kind of add-on filter at a hefty premium over the price you’d pay if you waited till you got home and bought one separately online, but since you’re already handing over several hundred pounds/dollars for your main purchase and are particularly worried about protecting that investment they reckon (often correctly) that you will be less likely to notice or care about the extra expense.

Yes, it should remove certain unwanted wavelengths of light, but any filter attached to your camera lens will inevitably cut down the total amount of light that gets in. This means longer exposures and a greater chance of motion blur. When you first buy a camera a far better way of spending a similar amount of money and achieving the opposite effect—that is, being able to get away with shorter exposures—is to buy some kind of physical support instead. (Here I’m just talking about portable supports as an alternative to hand-holding for everyday photography. I’ll talk about full-size tripods for things like formal group shots some other time.)

Almost all modern camera bodies have a screw hole in the base. Using this you can attach your camera either to a tripod itself or to a base plate that slots into some kind of holder. The screw hole is almost always of the 1/4-20 (1/4″ diameter, 20 threads per inch) standard. Even my Webcam uses the same fitting.

I used to buy dirt-cheap mini tripods or even get them free with multipacks of Kodak film, but I’ve begun to use them more heavily than they are built for so I keep breaking them. Unlike lens filters, when it comes to buying camera supports you have to be prepared to pay extra to get a reliable one. I’m not really a fan of throwaway bendy wirepods any more, but, if you’re a casual snapper you might be able to get away with picking up a couple. They are at least easy to carry and discreet in use.

Another inexpensive choice is a small bean bag. You don’t even have to screw your camera into this; you just sink its body into the material and balance the beanbag on an available surface. You can even buy “pro” bean bags, like The Pod which comes with a lens holder.

There are tens, perhaps hundreds, of different conventional small monopods and tripods you can buy and I couldn’t possibly test or review them all. I have had good experiences with both camera branded (e.g. Hama) and shop branded (e.g. Jessops) ones. If you already have a large tripod by a “name” manufacturer and you want to be able to swap your camera between that and a smaller equivalent then buy your mini tripod from the same company you bought your maxi from. The plate that screws on to your camera base should be compatible with both sizes so it’s just a question of slotting the camera in and out of the respective holders. Do check this first of course!

Monopods are underrated by the way. They’re easy to carry; they’ve no moving parts to go wrong; and they provide a large fraction of the extra stability that other supports do. But the biggest practical advantage of tripods over monopods and beanbags is that you can walk away from them. So, for example, you can set up your camera on some nearby surface, start the timer, and shoot yourself and your friends at more than arm’s length.

Perfect for this kind of thing is the gadget I am currently playing with: the (SLR version of the) Gorillapod by Joby. So far I am pleased with it. Its flexibility comes at the price of the rigidity of a conventional tripod—and it doesn’t come at a small price in cash either—but it’s more than just a neat toy or talking point; it’s a handy tool, and the sort that inspires an unhealthy affection amongst some of its users.

[Perhaps after they noticed the incoming link and read this Joby will give me my next one for free...]