About a month ago I decided it was time to buy a tripod. I was going on a trip and I didn’t want little light to stand in the way of a good shot.
Why need a tripod?
You need to use a tripod if your shutter speed is getting in the area of 1 / the focal length of the lens. So if you have a focal length of 50mm you stand a good change of shooting a good picture at a shutter speed of 1/50s. If you use an image stabilizer you might be able to get a sharp image at 1/30s or slower, but if you need to shoot at slower speeds or want to be sure of a sharp picture, use a tripod.
D60 sigma 70-300mm at 170mm F/7.1, 1/50s, ISO 200
Which tripod?
Of course tripods are a pain in the <insert body part of choice> to carry around. You might be tempted to leave it at home, especially when you are just stating out and are not yet so sure if you really need a tripod. So the most important thing is to pick a tripod you will actually take with you. Any tripod in your bag is better than the one at home. However they should still be able to carry the weight of the camera. So with this in mind I started to hunt for my tripod; small enough to fit in my bag, yet strong enough to support my camera and lenses.
After some looking around and trying them out in the shops I settled on the Manfrotto 785SHB.
Manfrotto 785SHB
It is a small yet sturdy tripod. Collapsed it only measures 36.5 cm. It is small enough to fit into my backpack! So no problem to carry it around. The ball head and joystick grip is handy and easy to operate. It also comes with a bubble so you know when it is level. Extended it reaches 114.5 cm which is high enough for almost all situations. As you can screw off the lower part of the center column it can go very low as well, 15.5 cm.
The big question however is if it can support my camera with lenses. It is rated for 1 kg. This means that my Nikon D60 with my 50mm prime or 18-55 zoom should work perfectly fine but the D60 with my Sigma 70-300 zoom would exceed the weight limit (with about 200g).
And true to the spec I had no problem whatsoever with the 50mm or 18-55 zoom. It carried is nicely. It also carries my D60 with the 70-300 zoom lens fine, but with some limitations: It will not lock when the camera is in vertical mode. The weight will simply make it point down. It does however work when the camera is horizontal, though you have to push the lock tight so it does not slip. With the 70-300mm zoom it is also recommended to use either time delay or remote shutter press as it is sensitive to vibration. The price is about €70 so not expensive
Conclusion
I recommend it without hesitation if you keep the limitation in mind. It works very well for me.
pro:
- small
- light
- sturdy
cons:
- only carries 1kg
Hope this helped you, if you have any comments well put them in the comment 
Happy shooting
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