UKC

How many of you use a tripod for climbing and mountain photography? I guess that in these days of low noise at high ISO and shake reduction tripods ma not be as essential as they once were? On the other hand good quality carbon fibre tripods seem more portable than ever?

Comments and advice welcome

In reply to kevin stephens:

I (sorta) do. I am by no means a professional photographer (some of pics are in my profile), but enjoy taking photos. As a result, I can't justify a full sized tripod.

The potential issue with conventional tripods is that they are either heavy or too light to feel stable in windy conditions. You can hang a bag or something else heavy (like this: http://media.digitalcameraworld.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/123/2013/04/Ca... ) which should not be a problem given there are usually rocks around and you could have some simple (shopping) bag in which you stuff some rocks.
Other problem is that the ground is usually uneven. Hence, legs of tripod must be adjustable as much as possible. Some stupid designs (like this: http://www.kreitzspace.org/IMG_0662.jpg ) which does not allow to adjust the angle of a separate leg.

My approach for half a dozen years was Manfrotto MP3-D01 (a decent review here: youtube.com/watch?v=b8QTNWOf6a0& ). It takes virtually no space/weight and easily supports bigger cameras (used it with up to 1kg cameras). However, it is really short and will not work on grass. Still good for rocky terrain and general travelling though. The best thing about it is that you can just keep it on all the time and deploy it in a second or so.

I am currently using a Gorillapod which gives me quite few options on how to place the camera, it is rather sturdy and works great in different environments. I didn't notice it freezing up in winter (I usually attach it to a rucksack's strap), but it might happen. It is yet not too heavy, has a little bit better tripod head and could be used in quite few different ways. It has rubber feet, too, which help to keep it stable. Out of curiosity, I also managed to wrap the Gorillapod around the trekking pole which made a "selfie stick". It worked in field conditions, but I never found the need of doing it (it was purely for fun!) and holding a trekking pole with a camera attached to the far end is quite scary.

In reply to kevin stephens: I use a tripod for most of my mountain photography, climbing shots are all hand held.

In reply to kevin stephens:
A couple of months back I was looking for a tripod in a half-hearted kind of way (hassle to carry vs. better quality images) and came across the Manfrotto Off-Roader. http://www.manfrotto.co.uk/off-road-outdoor-photography-tripod-blue

Not cheap, but Currys were selling them for £69, so, thinking that must be a pricing error, I ordered one in to my local branch, took a look and bought it. They've now put the price up to £119!

They are light and stable enough for a CSC. The ball joint at the top needs careful use, but it's robust and sensitive enough that you can move it without loosening it so much that the camera flops unexectedly. The expandable (walking pole) legs don't have adequate nearness-to-end markers but can easily be modified with some light filing. The tube sections are not as easy to undo as they could be. But, at this weght, and for reasonable quality, anything's going to be a bit of a compromise and I'm content with my purchase. Whether I would be if I'd paid full whack, I don't know.

I haven't used it much yet, but it carries well on the outside of a rucsac for walks and is reasonably quick to erect. For multi-day trips where every gram matters, I use a mount on top of my walking pole.

HTH

In reply to kevin stephens:

The xsource q-666 is very good- light, compact, stable, cheapish

In reply to kevin stephens:

The hama traveller mini pro tripod' is pretty good. I picked one up for £25, its light and stable/usable. I take it out sometimes when bouldering or walking. Use a gorilla tripod when mt biking - which works well and is same enough to carry and works better than trying to balance the camera on the ground/wall etc.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I think a lot of people are slaves to tripods. Unless you're doing a long exposure there really isn't any need. For a long exposure you'll either be looking to soften water, get a cloud moving effect or be taking a night shot. You could argue tripods are useful for HDR but with the advances in RAW data there's rarely a need for more than 1 image to be taken now. For climbing photography a tripod definitely isn't required unless you plan on using a 600mm+ lens, which is probably a bit overkill!

For the above I use a Gitzo GT3542LS Series 3 6X Systematic Tripod with an Induro BHL1 Ball Head. A superb setup, but expect it to cost around £1k.

In reply to kevin stephens:

I picked up a cheap tripod from Lidl (looks identical to a hama star)... I mostly find it useful for videoing myself climbing, but occasionally use it for stills in low light, or as a hand held pole to change the angle of the shot.

In reply to kevin stephens:

My tripod is big and heavy. Sometimes I'll go out purely to take photos and won't walk so far (just a few miles) and I'll use the tripod for every shot. Otherwise, I'm going out for bigger walks and I leave it at home.

I'd like to afford/justify a carbon fibre one which I might then take out all the time.

Another criterion is time of day. If I were going out for sunrises or sunsets I'd definitely want the tripod and I'd also then use a graduated filter.

So ideally I want to save up for a very expensive carbon one.
Anthony