Best Practices when using a Tripod

[Pieter12]

With the 500mm lens on the Hasselblad it use the lens's tripod mount and the camera which is much lighter hands on the end.

Yes, but not all long lenses have a tripod mount.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Yes, but not all long lenses have a tripod mount.

Only the ones that need it. Also one can put a tripod mount on any lens with space for it, but normally that is not necessary.

 

[Old_Dick]

I keep a spare short cable release in a plastic tube, and taped to one of the legs.
It's just an emergency spare but has been very welcome a few times.

Good idea BobUK

 

[bags27]

A spare cable release is kept in the hollow centre column of my Manfrotto CF190X tripod. Obviously a disc lock type (Gepe), as the winged cable releases won't fit in there!

Thank you and BobUK. It never occurred to me to somehow carry the extra cable within/attached to the tripod. duh!!

 

[BobUK]

I never thought of the hollow centre column. Much tidier than my original method. You have a convert gents.
Thank you.

 

[DREW WILEY]

First thing I do if there is a center column is permanently remove it. Maybe if you're in the jungle and want to hunt monkeys for food with poison blowgun darts it might have a realistic application. Otherwise, my pack has plenty of pouches for spare cable releases etc.

 

[Sirius Glass]

First thing I do if there is a center column is permanently remove it. Maybe if you're in the jungle and want to hunt monkeys for food with poison blowgun darts it might have a realistic application. Otherwise, my pack has plenty of pouches for spare cable releases etc.

I use the center column to raise or lower the camera as necessary. Also I can hang a weight from the center column for stability. Your practices may vary.

 

[Pieter12]

First thing I do if there is a center column is permanently remove it. Maybe if you're in the jungle and want to hunt monkeys for food with poison blowgun darts it might have a realistic application. Otherwise, my pack has plenty of pouches for spare cable releases etc.

Except for a camera with movements, a short center column is useful to fine-tune the camera's position for composition. And in the field, there are very few ways to practically add height beyond having and using a center column. But I do agree that my camera bag or backpack has plenty of room for a cable release, no need to go to extremes of stashing one in the center column. With a view camera, I generally use the longest cable release I own (about 18") and that would be tough to stuff in a center column anyway.

 

[Jim Jones]

First thing I do if there is a center column is permanently remove it. Maybe if you're in the jungle and want to hunt monkeys for food with poison blowgun darts it might have a realistic application. Otherwise, my pack has plenty of pouches for spare cable releases etc.

To stabilize long lenses on a tripod with a center column. set the tripos up with TWO legs facing forward. Secure a strong line to the feet of those two legs with a loop or two around the front of the lens. Raise the column until the line is taut.

 

[Sirius Glass]

To stabilize long lenses on a tripod with a center column. set the tripos up with TWO legs facing forward. Secure a strong line to the feet of those two legs with a loop or two around the front of the lens. Raise the column until the line is taut.

Right on! I do not understand the center column antipathy.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Bunji jumping? I prefer something far more solid than the kind of string a cat plays with, though it certainly sounds better than nothing. And two legs facing forward - what if you're overlooking a cliff with the camera pointed downward, and the wind to your back? Not hypothetical at all; I've been in that situation many times. And I have no "antipathy" to center columns. In fact, I treat them very nicely, well-protected inside a drawer I never open. We get along well. They never complain.

 

[Pieter12]

To stabilize long lenses on a tripod with a center column. set the tripos up with TWO legs facing forward. Secure a strong line to the feet of those two legs with a loop or two around the front of the lens. Raise the column until the line is taut.

Not an expert, here, but it would seem that to get enough tension to do any good you would be adding undo stress to the camera body at the lens mount--that is already being taxed by the weight and length of a long MF lens.

 

[Doremus Scudder]

I think a center column is a useful tool. Yes, it's somewhat less stable in windy situations, but with lightweight cameras and lenses and a little care, one can use a center column fully-extended and still have everything hold still just fine. I use mine all the time and don't see any movement blur at all in my negatives.

Each lens I carry has a dedicated cable release attached. I usually carry three or four (or five) lenses. If a cable release goes bad in the field, I've got several spares with me already. My spare part bag, which lives in my car on road trips or in my studio when not, has a bag of spare cable releases in varying lengths, spare tripod feet, leg locks and knobs for the heads I use plus the tools I need to mount them. It took losing a lock knob for my three-way head once for me to start stocking up.

It pays to learn how to disassemble and clean your tripod, as well as how to replace leg locks, etc. My Manfrotto (and Bogen) tripods all come apart easily and get cleaned and lightly lubed (mostly a bit of light lube on the legs and the three-way heads) as needed. Then I don't have to worry about using them in sand, water, mud, etc. I just clean them after heavy use just like I would with cameras and lenses after being exposed to sand, dust, sea spray, etc.

Best,

Doremus

 

[wiltw]

Not an expert, here, but it would seem that to get enough tension to do any good you would be adding undo stress to the camera body at the lens mount--that is already being taxed by the weight and length of a long MF lens.

One can obtain lengths of coated steel cable (such as what is used for boat rails) to be used in lieu of stretchy hardware store rope, or even get low-stretch small woven line used for sailboats, and the amount of tension on the line can be minimal.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Bunji jumping? I prefer something far more solid than the kind of string a cat plays with, though it certainly sounds better than nothing. And two legs facing forward - what if you're overlooking a cliff with the camera pointed downward, and the wind to your back? Not hypothetical at all; I've been in that situation many times. And I have no "antipathy" to center columns. In fact, I treat them very nicely, well-protected inside a drawer I never open. We get along well. They never complain.

Have you tried cordless bunji jumping? It is without all that bulky equipment to drag around. One can make a great impression and get great coverage on the same jump.

 

[Pieter12]

One can obtain lengths of coated steel cable (such as what is used for boat rails) to be used in lieu of stretchy hardware store rope, or even get low-stretch small woven line used for sailboats, and the amount of tension on the line can be minimal.

But would that offer any reasonable additional support or minimize the vibration caused by using the center column extended? A few inches of center column really shouldn't merit any additonal measures, and adding some sort of cable seems a poor solution to a badly balanced long lens/MF camera set-up. Plus it may make focusing and setting the lens trickier. A tripod-mount lens collar or a cradle makes more sense to me. After all, those lenses are not inexpensive, why cheap out and go with a makeshift work-around?

 

[BobUK]

"great coverage on the same jump." Priceless.

Reminiscent of the chap who fell off the shot tower in Tom Sawyer, "they buried him between two barn doors."

 

[eli griggs]

I forgot to mention that the spare Gepe, being stainless steel braided wire, can make a mighty loud din inside the column as the tripod is ported about (by hand). This was noticed a couple of years back on a bushwalk where fellow walkers were getting antsy over the tick-tack-tick-tack noise! Thusly, the cable enclosed in a piece of 700c bicycle tube, sealed at each end and nudged in the column, just far enough to provide a bit of a grip to pull it out if and when it is needed. The sound of silence...

Hole the center of a couple of wine corks (natural material) and slide the first to the top by the release and the second at the top.

If the cable makes noise, you could divide a third cork to center the cable in-between.


It might no be pretty, but it will be quite.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Extra weight redundant equipment? That's what a center column is. And those increase vibration risk. They're not a viable replacement, in my opinion, for having longer tripod legs.

Cordless bunji jumping? Happens rather often, over five hundred times in the last several years if you factor in places like Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, and cliff-edge selfies.

 

[wiltw]

But would that offer any reasonable additional support or minimize the vibration caused by using the center column extended? A few inches of center column really shouldn't merit any additonal measures, and adding some sort of cable seems a poor solution to a badly balanced long lens/MF camera set-up. Plus it may make focusing and setting the lens trickier. A tripod-mount lens collar or a cradle makes more sense to me. After all, those lenses are not inexpensive, why cheap out and go with a makeshift work-around?

I am thinking about the situation of using a long lens, which sticks out in front of the pivot point and can be readily blown to one side by a gusting wind. Had that happen to me while shooting out on a beach on an island.
Having a steel cable limit the side sway of the lens would have signifcantly resolved the effect of the wind against the lens. OTOH, that creates a problem of inability to pan anywhere, once the steel cables are anchored between the lens and the two tripod legs...so not so practical a solution to sideways motion!

 

[eli griggs]

I am thinking about the situation of using a long lens, which sticks out in front of the pivot point and can be readily blown to one side by a gusting wind. Had that happen to me while shooting out on a beach on an island.
Having a steel cable limit the side sway of the lens would have signifcantly resolved the effect of the wind against the lens. OTOH, that creates a problem of inability to pan anywhere, once the steel cables are anchored between the lens and the two tripod legs...so not so practical a solution to sideways motion!

Plus a wind of any note will induce harmonic vibrations in a single, stressed cable, IMO, but, I can say I've never had taught straps or linen cords in very high winds, which should also suffer from this fault, chosing never to shoot on high ground wind days.


All my old bird shots have been with 300mm, hand held (Canon F4 L 300mm) and if I had one today, I would no change that for most shooting of that topic.


A

 

[DREW WILEY]

A cable? One more thing to trip over, as well as add weight and delay. Smarter to have a length of climbing rope. Rather that it be me that doesn't go over the cliff ! And one cannot always find an attachment point for a temporary line. I've been in a lot of precarious places over the years with big cameras. I'm not against tethering gear; but sometimes all one gets is a tiny platform of rock overhanging several hundred feet of thin air, or maybe several thousand feet. That's the whole point - if you go over, you at least won't end up crippled. And dead photographers don't worry about the replacement cost of lost gear either. In the meantime, I think I'll do my best to both keep myself alive and my gear intact. But there is something special about spending the night roped to a ledge and then waking up to a dawn shot with a serious view camera. Now, at my age, I'm not going to have any more of those opportunities; but at least I can keep printing the shots themselves.

 

[Kilgallb]

A cable? One more thing to trip over, as well as add weight and delay. Smarter to have a length of climbing rope. Rather that it be me that doesn't go over the cliff ! And one cannot always find an attachment point for a temporary line. I've been in a lot of precarious places over the years with big cameras. I'm not against tethering gear; but sometimes all one gets is a tiny platform of rock overhanging several hundred feet of thin air, or maybe several thousand feet. That's the whole point - if you go over, you at least won't end up crippled. And dead photographers don't worry about the replacement cost of lost gear either. In the meantime, I think I'll do my best to both keep myself alive and my gear intact. But there is something special about spending the night roped to a ledge and then waking up to a dawn shot with a serious view camera. Now, at my age, I'm not going to have any more of those opportunities; but at least I can keep printing the shots themselves.

The only thing I tether is Me!

 

[Pieter12]

All my old bird shots have been with 300mm, hand held (Canon F4 L 300mm) and if I had one today, I would no change that for most shooting of that topic.

They couldn't have been very sharp.

 

[Sirius Glass]

They couldn't have been very sharp.

It ain't necessarily so - "Porgy and Bess" I have very sharp bird photographs taken with a hand held 300mm lens. Just because you can not, you should not project that on others which you often post on other threads.