Tripod dying soon?


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jitkiat

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Jul 16, 2004
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Do u think tripod is getting less useful nowaday? Reasons I can think of:

1. Advancement of IS/VR/AntiShake/OIS technologies which offers 3 stop advantage. Antishake on camera body is coming soon too.

2. With DSLR, noise at ISO400/800 are acceptable so can always shoot at higher speed to get sharper pic.

3. Thanks to the smaller sensor size, you are getting more DOF even at large aperture like f2.8. So you can shoot at higher shutter speed than b4.

Any comments?
 

Two reasons why I think tripod will not become redundant in the face of IS/OS/built in stabilizer in body and what have you:


1. For night scene or fireworks photography, a tripod is still a very essential piece of kit, due to long exposure times.

2. When using long lens (i.e. 300mm and above) a tripod is mandatory, not only to help stabilize the long lenses but to support them. Just imagine handholding a 4 or 5 kg lens for more than five minutes. :D

There are surely more reasons why tripods will be around for much much longer than you think, anyone else care to share?
 

film shooters can't apply your reasons. :) especially dinosaur fully manual shooters like me.

But then, you think about the conditions on why one requires a tripod in the first place. To name a few, 1. low-light land/cityscape 2. night photography 3. nature photography 4. intended effects of long exposures 5. studio shoots (portrait/product) 6. marcos

So if you need to shoot slow, you have to use some kind of support. Speed ain't everything.
 

Well until image stabilisation technologies get good enough for me to shoot 20s handheld for sunsets and such, i think i'll hang on to the tripod :D
 

Just curious, do you have any sunset shot that requires a shutter speed of 20 seconds ?
 

jitkiat said:
Just curious, do you have any sunset shot that requires a shutter speed of 20 seconds ?

I have some 15s ones.
 

Hey... wat about shooting a pic that the photog himself needs to be in the pic as well?? U know, those set 10s count-down timer, then run quickly to join the group of pple kind of shot? Need tripod lor... ;)
 

tripods can be considered as important a piece of equipment, as, say, your lens, camera body etc. it's not surprising to hear of people spending hundreds, if not thousand, of dollars on a good sturdy tripod. i used to think of tripods as being cumbersome and unwieldy, but i have learnt its advantages, especially when it comes to composition. one of which, is holding down the camera in a fixed, unchanged position. it's hard to think of doing an interior shoot, still life or product shoot without a tripod. often you have to change positioning of elements within the frame before you even press the shutter button. that alone, i think, will already gurantee the longevity of the use of tripods in photography. will post again when i think of more (there ARE lots more reasons)
 

Tripod also useful when u wanna take self-potrait :blah:
 

jitkiat said:
Do u think tripod is getting less useful nowaday? Reasons I can think of:

1. Advancement of IS/VR/AntiShake/OIS technologies which offers 3 stop advantage. Antishake on camera body is coming soon too.

2. With DSLR, noise at ISO400/800 are acceptable so can always shoot at higher speed to get sharper pic.

3. Thanks to the smaller sensor size, you are getting more DOF even at large aperture like f2.8. So you can shoot at higher shutter speed than b4.

Any comments?

1. Not everyone uses 135 format to make use of these technology advancement. Also, to think that these can actually replace tripods is seriously misguided. For twilight scenes, I can go as slow as 15 to 20 secs. With 3 stops "discounts", you are still using a 2 secs shutter. Try handholding for 2 secs..... Frankly, I don't even like the idea of handholding anything slower than 1/30th.

2. Noise acceptable? How accpetable is acceptable? I don't see the point of compromising here, unless a tripod is really out of place.

3. Not everybody uses sensors. Some still use this thing called film.

Other situations I can think of and constantly using a tripod for are landscape and architectural photography. You need a stable platform to align those verts and horizons. Tripods are a must.
 

(1) Tripods are useful in "chope-ing" places.
(2) Can use your tripods in the wild to fight off animals (instead of using your stupid camera); Girls can use them to ward off "lurking beasts"
(3) Can use tripods to "pia zui" (Canon users and nikon users face off)
 

tripods just belong with photography. they can come in handy all the time and are very comfortable to use. i would never give up my tri/monopod for some cheesy image stabilization thingy even if it lets me take 30 sec exposures with my left hand.
 

Stoned said:
Well until image stabilisation technologies get good enough for me to shoot 20s handheld for sunsets and such, i think i'll hang on to the tripod :D

Or until image stabilisation technologies get good enough to support my arms for those half hour exposures!!
 

jitkiat said:
Just curious, do you have any sunset shot that requires a shutter speed of 20 seconds ?

Yes! Try using Velvia and see!

Edward Weston's exposure ran to three hours! What is 20 seconds!! Ah, I understand, the instant everything syndrome!
 

actually think there is one more reason....you might wanna take some pictures of you and your friends in a picture together and save the hasle of getting someone to take...he/she might not be good and thus spoil the picture...so think the tripod will help you too...
 

REASONS WHY TRIPODS WILL OUTLAST ALL THE MODERN DIGITAL GADGETS

1 For ultimate sharpness. Do not imagine that because you can shoot at 1/250 your picture will be sharp. The question is what is acceptable sharpness? At a 4R prints, even relatively unsharp pictures are acceptable to the undiscerning eyes

2 For including your self in the picture

3 When taking pictures such as landscapes. You arrive at a location, scout your best vantage point, choose the right lens, frame the picture, then wait for the right light, right clouds, wind to stop etc. Then you trip the shutter. Try to do that without a tripod! Once I took a series of pictures running up from an underground station. I set the camera up, prefocussed everything, determined the exposure, put in a cable, and waited for people to run up and then clicked! Nobody even knew that I was taking those pictures!

4 When the cameras are just too darn heavy! I am talking about view cameras. Not withstanding modern digital marvels, digital cameras still are light years behind in terms of absolute resolution compared to large and for the uninitiated, ultralarge format cameras. With a 8x10 camera, the resolution is equivalent to your 1000+ megapixels. And I am not talking about 11x14 or larger! Er, how many mega pixels does the 1Ds have? or the medium format digital backs? Er 20? 25 megapixels? Another reason for these sort of view cameras is precise framing and correction of perspective. You need to put the camera on stable tripods to make adjustment

5 When cameras are just too darn heavy! Here I am talking about you Canon 1Ds with lenses that require three persons to carry. Saw them in football fields and the coming oylmpics? Can you hand carry them to shoot! Even Magnus cannot do it without creating photo that looks as if an earthquake had occurred at the time you click the shutter!

6 When you do macro

7 For long exposures. These are VERY VERY common. For photogs doing fine art, landscapes and night photography. For those whose photography is limited to fashion shots with popping flashes, perhaps these are not apparent to you.

8 For photographing fireworks. Bring your tripods this weekend!

9 Last (perhaps there are more!) for self protection. This actually happened. A guy was photographying some place overseas, and a couple of blokes with apparent unfriendly intentions approached him, he quickly dismanteled his camera from the tripod, put the legs together and show the spickes at the end of the tripods. Cursing, the unsavory blokes walked away!

10 Oh, I miss that one Yildun wrote. To "choop" places!! Ah, very "Singaporean"! Very "kiasu". But very practical! :bsmilie:

:) :D :cool:
 

oh yah man! i like the "choop" place one. A good way to put as one of the reason! cheers!
 

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