If I had a film mailer for each time I have heard “what tripod should I get” I would be blanketed in images and could probably afford a new camera or lens. When I think of a platform on which to place my camera attached to a long lens, I think of a Sauropod. A Sauropod is a very large quadrupedal reptile which during the zenith of its time, during the Jurassic about 180 million years into the past, was the largest animal known that walked on the Earth. The largest Sauropod was likely 120 feet in length and weighed somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 tons. So now you are saying “why is this nut talking about dinosaurs in a tripod article.” Easy answer . . . BIG BONES! A sauropod was a leaf eater that needed to get its head up off the ground at the level of the tree canopies. To get a massive head up high enough to eat, the animal had to be big which causes the animal to be heavy. To support the enormous weight needed it have to have big beefy bones.

How does this tie in with tripods? Well, when doing any type of wildlife photography with long heavy lenses, the supporting platform needs to also have big beefy bones, just like a sauropod. Ok maybe not nearly as large, but I think you get the picture. Add the weight of ball head, camera, lens, and flash together and one could easily have a load of twenty odd pounds. Now before we go any further, we need to remind ourselves of the goal. Now what can that be? <Theme to Jeopardy playing in the background>. Oh yes, to take photographs!

There are two very basic things one needs to have for a successful photograph. One would be exposure. However, tripods do not affect exposure. The second and most important for the current needs of this article is sharpness. Sharpness, as defined by my Jurassic Webster’s dictionary is among a bazillion other senses, is “clear in outline or detail.” One way not to achieve this definition with your photographs is to choose a slow shutter speed and let the subject move while the shutter is open. Many people actually do this on purpose, go figure. The other way to not achieve our desired goal is to wave the camera around madly while the shutter is open. Some people actually do this on purpose also, but for me, I want my camera to be as steady on its legs as a Sauropod would be. We cannot do much about the former except wait for better light, use a faster shutter speed, or use a faster film to stop the motion. The latter we most certainly can do something about. That something happens to be a tripod and a tripod is a must if you want to achieve the “clear in outline or detail” photograph. For even the most unobservable movement of camera and lens while the shutter is open will cause some amount of un-sharpness in the image.

So what kind of tripod do we need? A big rigid beefy one of course! There are many brands and types of tripods, so which one do you get? After trying a large number of them, it all comes down to one brand, Gitzo. Go spend your hard earned cash on a Gitzo 1300, 1400, or 1500 series Pro aluminum tripod. I know you can pick up a bar of gold on the current market at a cheaper price, but in the end you will save money by getting one of these models. They range from $400 to $600 and you can get them with or without the center column. I recommend you purchase one with the center column as it can be removed and you never know when you might need the column. It comes in handy for fending off noisy people, your significant other (especially when they find out how much you spent), and for getting more height from your tripod. Most of the time you will want to mount the ball head right on the base without the center column for this makes the entire platform even more rigid. Now some people are going to say “NO don’t get the aluminum. Get the Carbon Fiber models.” I say that is just a bunch of silly nilly as all you gain with the carbon fiber model is a little bit less weight in both the tripod and your pocketbook. The price is still out in orbit for carbon fiber models and the minuscule benefits are not worth it.

In the long run you will save money purchasing a Gitzo tripod as it will last a life time and provide you with many more sharp images. Then when someone asks you what gear you use, you can tell them what I do. I use a dinosaur of a camera with a set of sauropod legs.