Why choosing THE RIGHT TRIPOD is so IMPORTANT

okay let's talk about tripods as a landscape photographer what do you look for in a good tripod my first priority is weight especially for long hikes in the mountains it has to be light and compact at the same time you want it to be sturdy and reliable no matter what terrain you're using it on unfortunately we all make the same mistake when we first start out we buy a cheap no-name aluminum tripod That's Heavy not sty at all and breaks if you look at it the wrong way I made this mistake three times before I decided to invest a little more money and buy a proper one and this was theora c253 this was a game changer for me it's made out of carbon it's super lightweight and strong the were quick and easy to extend and it stood on on the ground like a tank I used it intensively for several years I put it in water snow mod volcanic scent you name it it worked like a jarm but unfortunately it broke at some point I had to quickly find a replacement for a trip to Switzerland so I bought a the manoto element traveler carbon tripod this is a bit heavier at 1.4 kilos but I had only heard good things about Mano products so I decided to give it a try unfortunately I quickly ran into problems with this tripod during my weekl long trip to Switzerland two out of the three legs were difficult to extend like right now and I lost one of the rubber knobs at the bottom also although the tripod was heavier it didn't feel as stable and the problem with extending the legs got worse with each use to the point where they just stuck and I had to use brutal force to get them out so after this FCO I decided to go for something a little more expensive and that's the fisol CT 3,442 €450 is a lot but you can really feel the high quality it weighs just over 1.1 Kil yet it is super stable and the legs extend smoothly like a well oiled machine and one of the reasons I decided to buy this was the fact that I can put my camera directly on the center plate by changing the center color this allows me to get much closer to the ground which in turn helps a lot with those wide angle landscape shots honorable mention the manuto Mt 055 X pro fre what a name this Beast weighs in at 2.5 kilos so it's not really suitable for long hikes I use it for office work and mainly for time lapse photography where the tripod has to sit for a long time because this big boy really does not wobble now a few months ago KF concept sent me one of those the a254 C4 another carbon tripod that weighs in at just under 1.4 kg and at € 180 it feels like a good place for a backup tripod although considering the price it does come with some cool features that my expensive main Trier does not have when fully extended da 254 C4 reaches a height of 1.75 m and can support up to 15 kilos which is more than enough even if you're using a big fat Telo lens an important factor that separates the bad tripods from the good ones is how easily you can extend the legs on this model it can be extended three times using these twist locks so far they feel very smooth and I haven't had any problems even after heavy use in different terrains like in this swampie area around water and mud was straight up standing in seawater I really canot stress enough how important this is having previously had to deal with stock legs for me this alone makes the difference between a miserable time and a fun time out in the field by the way if you're ever in a situation where the tripod comes into contact with saltwater you want to clean afterwards to prevent damage as salt water is super aggressive and another mistake that beginners make is turning the locks too tightly this will damage the tripod you want to use the twist locks gently on a good tripod this will be enough to extend the legs now what makes this tripod interesting is not the rather standard maximum height the maximum weight it can carry or how smoothly the legs can be extended it's the minimum height in its basic form you'll be using your camera at 54 cm and you can get a little closer by spreading the legs further apart but you can also do this you can pull out the center column turn it around and put it back in this allows you to position your camera directly above the ground so the minimum height is pretty much the same as with my main tripod but it's much quicker to set up having the camera that low opens up a lot of New Perspectives what I love most about this feature I can now reliably Focus stack images in and odd position and still get perfect results I used to use a send back which is fine in certain situations but it's really far from perfect one problem is depending on the focal length you're using you need to watch out to not include the tripod's legs in the photo composition when setting it up like this as example this was shot at 9 mm to illustrate the problem of course we can still always Photoshop this out if you really need to the center column feature comes with a few more little problems for example if your camera doesn't have a flip screen it's definitely going to be super annoying to set up the composition without lying on the ground because otherwise you'll operate your camera at this weird angle where you can't see anything another problem I had was simple attaching and setting up the camera under the tripod it was super fiddly but I guess that's a problem that gets better with a bit of time and experience I should also say that this is not a unique feature to this model but there are many different tripod manufacturers who incorporate this into their products so of course when we use a tripod we want it to be sturdy usually after using a tripod but for a while you can quickly tell if it's reliable or not and again I'm looking at these jeap noname products that I would never put a camera on again the a254 C4 does what it is supposed to do hold the camera securely in place no matter how I set up the tripod it felt pretty stable every time I used it so far even on Windy days I would not say it is a sturdy as the fisal tripod but it's miles ahead of the tiny manoto travel tripod and another cool feature you can remove one of the legs and use it as a monopod just screw on the orange middle plate attach your tripod head and you're ready to go this is something often used when you don't have much space to work with so think of something like a sporting event it can also be used for landscape photography when you want to be a little more flexible and quicker a monopod can help the a254 C4 does come with its own tripod head right here a fairly Standard wall head with a bubble level however as I use several tripods I also use the same manru tripod head on each of them to be quicker this one right here I have it three or four times and I use it on pretty much every tripod so as I haven't tested this head I can't say much about its quality it looks solid though so this has Now quickly become my backup tripod replacing the old Mano travel tripod although it is not as sturdy and is a little bit heavier than my main tripod there are times where I'm using this one instead for example when I shoot close to the ground as the middle column switch feature lets me quick set up the camera in such way another point where the kf1 beats the fisal tripod is its compact size which makes transporting it so much easier whether on a hike or traveling by plane as an example in fact on my recent hiking trips I solely brought the KF tripod with me to save a little bit of space so in conclusion if you're looking for a good entry-level tripod instead of wasting money on cheap gear that breaks in L consider investing a little more and get something like this not only will you have a lot more fun shooting but your photos will be better and your camera will thank you for not putting it on a wobbly piece of junk so that's it for this little tripod Adventure I hope I could bring in some clarity how to choose tripods and maybe I was able to convince you buying something a little more expensive but also a little more reliable and thank you so much for watching this video

Channel: Christian Möhrle - The Phlog Photography

Views: 4,264

Keywords: photography, photoshop tutorial, lightroom tutorial, photography post processing, lightroom post processing, landscape photography, landscape post processing, photoshop beginner, lightroom for beginner, the phlog photography, christian möhrle, how to edit raw photos, raw photo start to finish, adobe lightroom classic class, adobe photoshop class, tripods, whats the best photo tripod, landscape photography tripods, guide to tripods photography, k + f concept tripod review

Id: MmilDajeWNI

Length: 10min 34sec (634 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2024