Approaching The Scene 008: How to Protect Your Tripod

all right so I just got a package delivered with my brand new kind of dream tripod I'm replacing my big tall set of legs that's ultra lightweight I'm gonna talk in this approach in the same video about wide this is my favorite tripod and I'm gonna go through how I set it up how I protect the carbon fiber on the legs some real simple cheap kind of DIY way of protecting and making a tripod more comfortable to carry and use as well as you know what I'm gonna do for maintenance on this tripod and what I'd suggest you do for maintenance on your tripods so it's gonna kind of be all about setting up and maintaining your tripods and it's just as applicable for those of you with ball heads and aluminum tripods as it is for carbon-fiber approaching the scene is a series of videos that I'm doing each and every Thursday I really want it to be a conversation about all things photographic so if you have questions don't hesitate to send those to questions at Hudson Henry comm or you can log on to the website at WWE tonight comm slash ATS if you're enjoying these videos please click like please click subscribe share it and with that let's get to rigging this tripod I've had this older get to a tripod with me my absolute favorite tripod has been around the world with me a number of times I probably been using it for about 14 years a couple trips to Africa to the top of Denali you know I'm mountaineering trips and other mountaineering trips in Alaska South America it's just been an awesome tripod but I think it's about time to get another one I've got a lot of you know things starting to kind of go a little bit wrong with it and so I ordered what I think is kind of the ultimate tripod right now the get so 35 43 XLS and I'm going to show you how I'm gonna set it up protect it lubricate it make sure everything's dialed in with it and and all the pieces that I put together on a brand new tripod just to sort of set it up it would be the same for a ball head but I'm gonna set it up with my fluid head and you know how you can do some simple things to protect a good set of carbon legs whatever set of carbon legs you have with just you know some some bicycle road bike handlebar cork wrap a little bit of gaffers tape some good synthetic lubricants some some grease that will just kind of go over where it's a good spot to grease your tripod basically all these carbon fiber tripods are pretty much the same even the aluminum tripods and I'm going to show you what feet I really like to set a tripod up with so I'm just gonna jump ahead dive in the first thing I want to do you get these beautiful carbon-fiber legs I don't care whether you're using a get so or really right stuff or a you know any other tripod Beisel you name it the first thing I want to do is kind of protect these carbon legs so that when I'm bouncing around through the wilderness or you know kind of climbing around on rock or whatever setting my bag down with the tripod attached to it I'm not gonna bang up this carbon also you know I don't find carbon the nicest thing to grab a hold of and work with and I know that they sell you know really nice foam rafts that you can buy for these they're kind of expensive the other thing about is they're kind of bulky they make your tripod you know bulk up considerably I like just using a good cork handlebar wrap that rope bikers would use for their bikes and generally I start down here near the bottom I leave a little gap for the velcro my tripod hammock and also if the water gets in here I don't want it to kind of get into the metal part in the leg locks so I'm just gonna start by kind of wrapping this leg and I'm just doing the outer leg obviously the inner legs are inside and I'm just gonna kind of just barely kind of overlap it each run around and so you just got to kind of keep the tail wrapping around to and you just want to keep it kind of a tight pull with some pressure I clamp it with my pinky finger as I go around just so that it's not getting loose on me I wrap it around I'm gonna do the whole leg like that thing I like about the griptape this stuff is that it's ultra lightweight if you buy them more expensive kind of specially made tripod foam covers they add about a half a pound to your tripod thing I love about this tripod and I'll show you in a minute is that it gets nearly 80 inches tall at 79 inches tall without a center column I really can't stand Center columns anybody following me knows my thoughts about center columns it weighs almost nothing you know because Road bikers are super super finicky about weight this stuff doesn't even add but a you know a few hundred grams to your tripod if that and it's nice and low-profile and thin and it feels good on the hand it's cork you know if anybody riding a road bike knows you don't want to have an uncomfortable bunch of grip tape on your handlebars while you're riding so I'm gonna kind of trap that I've got it fully wrapped I'm gonna peel a piece of this gaffers tape I've stopped short of this metal up at the top not by a longshot but by a little bit and you know right now I realized that I've neglected to have a pair of scissors here so I'm just gonna grab the end of this and secure it with this gaff tape for a second Wow I run over and get a pair of scissors off my desk one nice thing about gaff tape is you know you can always remove it without leaving any sticky residue it costs a bit of money but it's worth its weight in gold when you don't want to leave the same kind of sticky residue that duct tape would have so I've got a little bit of a tail here I'm just gonna snip that so that I don't have a bulky spot there at the end I'm gonna grab this gaff tape and secure it nicely to the end of that loose piece a bicycle grip tape I'm going to but around that it's not going anywhere and I'm not putting it right on the carbon I'm just putting it around the handlebar wrap so I'm only you know I'm not putting any sticky stuff on the carbon and I need one good long wrap I'm not using the whole roll of tape either I'm just using a little bit of it so it's not that really fat bunch of tape I'm just gonna wrap it all the way around once ah there we go and then I'll use the skinnier tail this stuff is wrapped over the top of itself but I still want to make sure it doesn't come loose so I'm going to just take that excess and just give it a good wrap down here at the base to wrap it around there just to kind of secure that tail that's loose down there boom and now I've got a nice cork surface to grip it's protecting that beautiful carbon so that it's not going to get banged up bouncing around on the rocks and whatnot and the thing I love about this new get--so is these automatic locks you pop them out they stay out you go to the end they lock you can come down to the second lock they lock it's really nice for putting your tripod more splayed out so boom there you go and then you know as long as I'm working on this leg they've got these nice feet great for studio stuff great for working in the city not my favorite for working in rocks and streams and stuff gets uh sends this little package along with their tripods and all I gotta do is reach through here it's a little Torx screw thread that foot right off there and what I like to use these days I'll keep that around just in case I'm doing studio work I like these little metal rock claws that really write stuff is put out and I'm just gonna squirt a tiny bit of grease here so I don't want corrosion to get in there I've got this synthetic / Lube I'll give you a link to that the synthetic super lube grease it's really nice for working with carbon and I'm just gonna I'm gonna be using a glove when I really do a grease job on my tripod but it's gonna use the gloves surface there and kind of rub that on and that's gonna thread right in where that old foot was and then it's got a hole all the way through it so you can take an Allen tool and just get it nice and tight or get it back off really easily boom now that works really well on rocks and in sticky streambeds and stuff it just has a nice grip eNOS to it if I'm working out in sand I'll pop that off and I'll thread on one of these spikes just because you know in sand if you set your tripod in deep and root it with spikes and it's a lot less likely to shift as waves are rolling back and forth so these are basically the two kinds of feet that I carry out in the field I keep these these these rubber feet around for if I'm gonna do studio work it works someplace with nice wood floors or something really like these little metal claws though that's my favorite thing right now so that's wrapping up one of the legs setting up one of the feet I'll also show you one of the nice things that this tripod has is kind of a built-in rationing mechanism this is what's known as their that's why they call it systematic tripods I think enduro calls it the grand stealth enduro get so calls it the systematic you've got this little ratcheting mechanism in this top plate that's removable and there's a button that you press in and go ahead and grab this if I was using a ball head I would just leave this in place thread this little protector off and thread the ball head right onto this plate but I want to use it with a fluid head so I went ahead and got a Sun way photo 75 millimeter bowl which is quite a bit cheaper than the get so 75 millimeter Bowl and you know I like an order of twice as cheap and I'm gonna go ahead and drop that bowl into that place that that systematic top plate was sitting there's a number of things that you can fit in here grab that little ratcheting adapter you just press it it grabs the little screw I'm going to tighten that up and now I've just converted this tripod get it tight mmm and then walk it over just converted this tripod to a 75 millimeter bowl so it's gonna be set up for my fluid head so I won't make you guys sit through and watch it maybe I'll speed it up but I'm gonna go ahead and do that leg wrap on each and every one of these tripod legs and then I'll show you how I lubricate it just to make sure that it's properly lubricated from first time out you know I know getso probably did a good job of this but I'm gonna show you that Plus how I'll set up the fluid head on the tripod [Music] you all right and so as I is I kind of grease up this last rock claw and I'm gonna have links to all the lubricant that I'm using here this super lube and rock claws and thus tripod everything else but you know again whatever tripod you're using if you're using a carbon tripod even if you're not using a carbon tripod I just think that this cork bicycle grip tape is a really nice thing to have on there it gives it a nice feel it protects your tripod it weighs almost nothing and it's not that expensive I think these are about you know nine bucks for a 2-pack on Amazon I'll put a link to that too I love the rock claws they're not super cheap but they're a great thing to have as are these little spikes which are easy to slip out put on they just have a little thin wrench on there pair of pliers along and the the kit and then really the only other thing I'd say is you know as long as I've got these gloves on I'll show you the technique for making sure that your your tripod is properly lubed you're just gonna pull your leg out here and squirt a little bit of grease on this thread and it looks a little light on grease to me just on that thread right there it's where that tightening mechanism screws into the leg and I'm gonna go ahead and do that on each of the legs now that I've got a greasy gloved hand you get these gloves any true value hardware store you know they're just they're just sort of surgical latex gloves for those of you that have a latex allergy they make non latex variety too for people that have a sensitivity but essentially just using a gloved finger and getting a good amount of that synthetic grease into those into those threads really is nice and protective it keeps you from getting dirt grime and saltwater through the threads into the internals of your tripod now get so I've noticed puts a little o-ring on here too which is awesome but a little grease on the threads that's your general maintenance you know if you get out working in salt water with your tripod you ought to probably disassemble it and make sure that all the grease and dirt and debris are out of it and then grease these threads like I'm showing you with this good non corrosive silicon lubricant I'm just gonna put those loosely back together and I'll do the other legs I'll speed it up a little bit and get right back at you nice thing is you can just turn that glove inside out when you're done and everything's nice and clean I got no grease on my hands in that process I do a lot of work on mountain bikes so that's why I have that gun with the grease if you buy this grease it's just gonna be in a tube and I'd say just squirt it on your finger wipe it into the grooves really recommend using the glove as it's just gonna keep you from getting grease all over your hands and everything else and if you've got greasy hands then everything else you do is gonna get all greasy and disgusting and so I really like just having some cheap latex gloves around for that kind of work so again the reason I love this 3543 XLS is that it gets to be extremely tall without a center column so this thing gets much taller than me it goes up to 79 inches you can't even see it in the frame here you know it's just absolutely phenomenal for for doing work let's say you're on a hillside and you want to just stretch that one leg out down the hillside and get the tripod level at eye level well having that extra leg section that takes this thing out to 80 inches makes that a breeze so the last thing I need to do here I'm just gonna open them about one and a half sections last thing I need to do is set up the fluid head and I'll show you how I do that it'd be the same way for a ball head so I'm gonna set it here beside my favorite old trusty head a little careful since I'm wood floors with the rock claws I'm not going to move it around too much and my fluid head I already have attached to this 75 millimeter Bowl adapter so this is the knob that you're gonna turn to loosen the fluid head you know once more probably should have done this before I took the gloves off I want to lubricate these threads on the adapter anytime I've got threads I'm putting together I really like to put a bit of grease on so I still have this glove I'll just use the glove to kind of wrap it into the threads wrap that up call it good and so basically the tripod you know stops right here and it's threaded into this piece I already have it set up from my from my last tripod and one of the nice things about these enduro or Manfrotto adaptors is they've got some sweet little set screws in here that lets you just lock your tripod in without torquing it down so by loosening these little set screws like this you'll see what I'm talking about loosen them up I can just thread this thing right off the head and it's just gonna look like a flat head here so essentially you know this is gonna sit in here and let me level that head all I got to do is thread it on like I just showed you boom and torque down those set screws a little bit that one's tight they don't even need much there's three of them and they're digging into the base of that head keeping it from turning on you when you pan there's two there's the final one so these three little set screws in here both the enduro tripod adapter that I recommend and the Manfrotto one have those set screws all you got to do is Mount the head on that little adapter screw the handle up from below and you can do the same thing again with a ball head or just use the plate that comes on top of the systematic tripod I think if you're buying enduro those grand stealth tripods that have this removable plate if you're buying get so or Manfrotto the systematic ones that you can remove the plate and switch to a bowl just gives you a ton of flexibility if you want to use a ball head it's a piece of cake if you want to use a fluid head it's a piece of cake if you want to get level really easy boom piece of cake and with the fluid head obviously you need to be able to level at the head and then you can just you know this is the plate that comes with that Manfrotto tripod and I've got my long hope arca-swiss clamp mounted to that with just the single screw tighten down it's perpendicular to that plate so I can drop my L bracket in I set it here in the top of the fluid head I loosen this little screw and tighten it back up and we're locked in place and I can put my camera in the head is level no matter what I do put my camera in horizontal pan and tilt you know make micro adjustments without losing level or if I want to flip to vertical boom flick to vertical so that's it that's how I setup that's how I maintain my tripod I would go through that process of loosening making sure everything's clean andrey lubricating those those tightening knob adjusters on whatever type of tripod you have get so Manfrotto faisal really write stuff they all basically need about the same treatment love and care I really think that the handlebar grip tape is a great way to protect your legs particularly carbon legs and you know to I guess the final thing I'd say is just that you know if you want to give it a fluid had to try you won't regret it so there you go I got my brand new tripod all set up ready to use you know one thing I didn't mention is one of these little tripod hammocks it's a really cheap affordable way to make your tripod even more stable and it can be convenient to set lenses or filters in but if you're up in high winds you can just drop a big stone in here and your tripod suddenly becomes way way more stable if you want to move the legs in different dimensions that's as easy to remove is just pulling a piece of velcro off real simple so again I'll have links to all of these maintenance tools and lubricant that I use as well as the bicycle grip tape everything in the 80s and links I'll have a link to that if you look at the text on this video so I hope you guys enjoyed again if you have questions for a future approach in the scene it's questions at Hudson Henry comm is the email you can also go to the website at www.canineheadstart.com you know I think my very first tripod was kind of a cheap 3-axis tripod the kind that you'd get at Kmart or Walmart and I think probably a lot of people have that experience with those first ones where one adjustment is to just do panning and other is to do tilt and then there's another adjustment that kind of tilts the camera up into a portrait position for me that's that's sort of one adjustment too many one thing I love about the fluid head is the simplicity of the way that the thing moves you loosen those two adjustments and you can kind of pan and tilt gimbal style anywhere that you want to point the camera simple to lock simple to open and I like the fluid inside that head because it just makes really simple easy movements that that are just fluid and nice and if you do any video it becomes this great benefit and even if you're not doing video now you might find yourself doing video before you know it and the fact of the matter is at a hundred and thirty dollars for one of these heads at two pounds it's really tough to beat the deal and simplicity and usability of this I can't think of a single three axis one that's as easy to use as light weight is dead simple or that much cheaper so I don't see a reason to go with a three axis tripod head alright so if you've enjoyed this video I hope that you'll click like click subscribe and we'll see you next week you

Channel: Hudson Henry Photography

Views: 8,627

Rating: 4.9529409 out of 5

Keywords: Gitzo Tripod, Photography Gear, how to, Hudson Henry Photography, Camera Support, Tripods, Gitzo, Hudson henry, tutorial, salt water, Photography Class, fluid head tripod, Photography Training

Id: KEQAO9swZ20

Length: 22min 55sec (1375 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 13 2018