Tripod Musings from The Online Photographer

"First of all, the Gitzo is heavy. I felt sure the hammertone gunmetal main leg sections were steel—they look like steel, they feel like steel, they seem to weigh like steel—until Bryan Geyer disabused me of that notion by suggesting that I test it with a magnet to see. What do you know—he's right. They're aluminum. The Gitzo is solid as a rock, but light it is not. It tilts the bathroom scale at better than 7 lbs., unofficially. I was kind of surprised at that, too—it feels heavier. I would have guessed ten pounds. All collapsed, it's an imposing 31" long."

Whoa there, now that's a classic.

Mike Johnston of the excellent The Online Photographer talks a bit about this feeling most of us photographers come to at least once: Why did I buy that tripod, and would a smaller, lighter, more expensive but less stable carbon fibre actually make me carry the damn thing out when needed?

For me, I have always thought that the tripod is an important part of most photographer's toolkit; a few types of photography don't really warrant it, but I have heard of street photographers using it as a prop to make them look more official and less shady. For me, landscapes, cityscapes, and anything that uses my larger lenses means the tripod is generally present, and I generally make the effort to bring it out. So, do you feel like what Mike feels about tripods?

Oh, and I value tripods and camera supports a great deal. While the subject is simple, most photographers tend to underestimate its importance. It's a subject I'll come back to fairly often!