I have a Canon EOS 1000D plus a 70-300 zoom lens … realistically will I need a tripod for telephoto shots?

I was asked this question recently by an artist friend of mine, and the automatic response to this sort of question is usually, yes, you should use a tripod. That’s not a terribly helpful answer however, as you then have to consider what sort of tripod, and what compromises using a tripod would entail. A cheap tripod may give little if any benefit, and the better tripods may be specialised to particular uses. (and note the difference between ‘need’ and ‘should’!)

Why is a tripod desirable?

stability

The most obvious reason for using a tripod is to stop (or at least reduce) ‘camera  shake’, and so to get less blurred photos. The assumption is that because a tripod is an inanimate object, it won’t shake, and there for the camera won’t either, and for a good tripod this will hold reasonably true.

This matters more with a telephoto lens (or more accurately a lens with a larger focal length). From 35mm film, the rule of thumb was that you should use a shutter speed faster than the reciprocal of the focal length, so for a 300mm lens you should use a shutter speed of 1/300th second or faster. With the smaller sensors in most digital SLRs this ought to reduced further – for the Canon camera mentioned here the equivalent would be about 1/500th second at the 300mm setting. This general rule of thumb takes no account of intended usage, or how stable a grip the individual user has.

other reasons

There are other reasons for wanting a fixed stable position for the camera:

• you want to include yourself in the photograph
• you want to take a time-lapse series of images
• you want to take a long exposure photograph (to show star trails in the night sky, or to get a silky smooth appearance to flowing water, for example)
• you want a series of images with changing exposure to extend dynamic range

What are the disadvantages?

cost

A cheap lightweight aluminium tripod may be suitable for a compact camera, but is unlikely to give much benefit with an SLR and a telephoto lens, and could be worse than no tripod at all. There are three reasons for this:

• unlike a compact camera, an SLR generates significant vibration itself when a photo is taken. This is in part a result of the internal mirror being flipped up out of the way, and in part the operation of the shutter.
• your hands will dampen the vibration somewhat because the connection between your hands and the camera is less rigid than the connection between tripod and camera body
• the off centre weight of the lens will reduce the stability of the tripod/camera combination

Small ‘table top’ tripods are of little use … they’ll probably be completely overbalanced by the off-centre weight of the lens! (I do have a small table top tripod that was given away free somewhere – it does get used occasionally to hold a small slave flash for macro setups.)

time

It takes a little time to set up a tripod. If you like to be spontaneous then that’s not going to workout!

weight

A well made aluminium tripod suitable for an SLR camera and large lens is going to be heavy. For many people (probably most casual photographers) it will be heavier than they want to lug around with them all day, so after the first  couple of times it will probably get left at home. If its not getting used, its not going to help!  A heavy tripod may also be a problem on budget flights to your holiday destination – baggage limits are getting increasingly restrictive! They are also not cheap, plus you need to budget for a head to put on them (they’re not built in on the better tripods).

You can cut the weight by buying a carbon fibre tripod (or slightly cheaper and slightly heavier basalt fibre) but these are even more expensive than the good aluminium tripods.

What are the alternatives

For many people, a tripod isn’t a good first step to improving photographs because of the relatively high cost of a suitable tripod. There are other things things one should consider first.

There are two types of motion that affect the camera, translation and rotation. If you simply shift the camera 1 inch to the left, keeping it pointing in exactly the same direction, you’ll see no noticeable difference in a photograph of a distant landscape. If you rotate it 1 degree either vertically or horizontally, there’ll be a noticeable difference, so holding the camera in a way that keeps rotation to a minimum is important.

how do you hold the camera

If you grip the camera body one hand on the left, and one hand on the right, you’ll reduce lateral movement and rotation in the horizontal plane most, but rotation vertically least. In addition when using the lens at the telephoto end the weight of the lens is unsupported and will be trying to twist the camera downwards. The vibration induced in the camera by the shutter and mirror is also mainly in the vertical plane (the shutter and mirror both move vertically).

You’ll probably find that you can get somewhat less blur if you hold the camera body with your right hand (because the shutter button is on that side!), and use your left hand to support the front of the lens.

One of the advantages of digital cameras is you don’t need to pay for film and developing … so practice, and learn what works for you before you take the shots you want to keep!

Change the film speed

While your camera probably gives its best results at ISO settings around 100-400 don’t be afraid to use higher ISO settings. Higher ISO settings allow faster shutter settings, and so less blur from shake. You’ll get a little more noise in the image, but that may well be an acceptable trade-off. Again try it and see! (They used to make ‘high-speed’ colour print film, for much the same reasons).

monopod

A monopod is both cheaper and lighter than a tripod (there’s only one leg, not three!) It won’t give as much stability as a good tripod, but it will add much more than hand holding. It won’t allow you to set it up and then join the group for a group photo though … it’ll just fall over. I often take a monopod rather than a tripod if I’m just walking round locally.

anti-shake camera bodies or lenses

and last but not least – modern technology to the rescue … internal stabilisation, vibration reduction, anti-shake or whatever else its called is also a possibility. Different manufacturers make competing claims about their technology, but the extra cost of an IS lens could be less than the cost of a good tripod and head, and it’ll definitely weigh much less (and you won’t decide its too much faff and leave it at home!)

It won’t solve all the problems a tripod can, but it will allow you to hand hold at somewhere around 1/100th second rather than 1/500th second on the 300mm lens, giving you more options for aperture or ISO settings