Camera Tripod Reviews

Get the most out of your cameraphone
With the right approach, your phone can sometimes replace a camera.

Make the Most of Camera Accessories

All professional photographers have a “bag of tricks” or a set of auxiliary equipment that helps them take the best pictures that they possibly can. If you have the correct budget, you can purchase your own set of accessories and use them to improve the quality of your photographs. Simply consult the list below to find out what accessories are right for you.

o Tripod. It’s very difficult to keep the camera perfectly still in many situations. You really have to train your hands and muscles to be completely still. If you’re taking pictures and they absolutely demand that you be perfectly still (such as portraiture and sports photography) then a good tripod can absolutely be your best friend. A tripod secures the camera via a turn-screw mechanism and can be moved left and right (as well as tilted up and down) by handing the arm of the tripod.

o Studio Lights. There are literally endless lighting combinations that you could use to increase the expressive effect of your photographs and really pull the viewer in to your world. Studio lights are specifically designed for photographers to manipulate the lighting in their workspace and create whatever effect you need. If you’re really looking to increase the quality of your photos through light, studio lights are the way to go. They’re reasonably affordable and can be obtained for under $200 if you look in the right places online.

o Lenses. All prosumer camers generally have detachable lenses. The quality of your lens has an enormous impact on the quality of your photograph, as the lens is the thing that refines and focuses the light and reflects it on the back of the camera, which translates it into a photograph. The quality of the material and the focal length (measured in millimeters) determines if the lens is good at taking close-ups or wide-angle pictures.

o Filters. A set of filters can help a photographer cancel out the sun (ND Filter), reduce the glare on glass (Polarizer) and many other important functions. If you’re looking to take a larger range of great-quality pictures, look into a filter package.

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A camera technician explains

This is not the usual camera test report, which ends up with a list of camera recommendations to buy. Rather, I would like to give you camera advice and the tools you need to choose your next digital camera today and in five years from now. Let’s face it, there are hundreds of different cameras to choose from and the manufacturers release new models every month. To make matters worse, most retailers stock different models, which makes price comparison almost impossible. 
When it comes to choosing a new digital camera, you want to have knowledge on this subject, which can be applied as a foundation, before you start choosing brands and models.

extendable lens                          shook and watter proof             inbuilt lens

Choose the type of camera first!
It happens all the time – I see it almost every day. People come and see me with faulty point and shoot digital cameras, which have self induced faults. The good news is, that most of these expensive problems could have been avoided, when you had chosen the right camera type, which fits your lifestyle, and had taken the right precautions of course. The bad news is, these faults are not covered under warranty and are often uneconomical to repair!

What is a self induced fault? Sand -, liquid- and shock damage

Sand damage can easily happen at the beach without realising it straight away. A couple of sand grains in the right spot can malfunction an extendable lens mechanism.
The most common liquid damaged cameras we have seen are affected by rainwater, beach and swimming pool and believe it or not, drink bottles stored in the camera bag.
Shock damage is a tricky subject, in particular when the camera is handled by multiple users.  Often it is not realised, as there are hardly any signs of damage on the outside housing of the camera, but the damage is done inside.

What is an uneconomical repair?
The most common symptoms, or let us say parts, which brake, are LCD displays and extendable lenses. LCD’s are made of glass and exposed often without any protection. Lenses are in most cases none serviceable items and need to be replaced as a whole unit, which is extremely expensive. Spare part prices can make up to 50% and more of the price you payed, when the camera was new! Given the price decline and the improved performance of new cameras, you can work out by yourself, were you want to spend your money.
What to look out for when choosing your new camera?
To get the most out of your investment, choose the type which suits your lifestyle best. Let’s put the earlier paragraph about self induced faults into consideration and assume we distinguish between 3 types of point and shoot cameras. Cameras with…

extendable lenses
inbuilt lenses
water and shockproof

If you have a personal preference for a camera with an extendable lens, you must take special care of it, to avoid any damage to the lens.
In case you have kids and multiple users, who might be a little rough with the handling of the camera, the best return on the investment is given with a water and shockproof camera. Personally I use a camera with an inbuilt lens, which hasn’t given me any problems whatsoever.
Accessories
Do you want to upgrade your camera with a newer model of the same brand and hoping to use your old accessories like battery or memory card? In most cases you can’t. Different physical shapes and electrical specifications make it impossible. 
Features
Now, we are talking purchase price. More megapixels and optical zoom is not all! Often specifications are pushed to the limit and performance is sacrificed. Let me explain: to take a good shot with a high megapixel and let’s say 10x optical zoom camera without tripod requires a lot computer power. Often it can take a few seconds of shutter lag and the results are still not satisfying. What I am saying is, to have a good performance/specification camera you have to pay the price and go for a semi-professional or DSLR camera. However, the most shots indoors are taken in wide-angle lens setting and outdoors you use the same, most cameras handle these shots without any issues.
The best insurance from disappointments is to test the camera by yourself under different light conditions and zoom settings.
Test reports
Make sure, the cameras tested are readily available and the test topics make sense and are relevant for you. See it as a guideline only.
What is a good brand?
This is hard to say from a repairer’s point of view, we only see the faulty ones. When looking underneath the brand badge and housing, it is almost impossible to see if a ‘brand name’ stands out with better workmanship. All  I can see is, that mechanical components seemed to be done more out of plastics and the way they have been put together looks and feels cheaper as it used to. All the improvements, which lead to better specifications, go into more powerful electronics and computer chips.  Therefore manufacturer costs can be reduced to a minimum. Today, it is not as expensive as it used to be to manufacture a relative good new camera or release new models, which explains the ever increasing flood of new cameras.
What the reliability of the different brands concerns, I couldn’t recommend one or the other, as long as you compare cameras in the same price bracket. A lot of spare parts have Chinese writing on the boxes, which makes me wonder, where there are coming from and where the cameras are manufactured.
Summary
Here you go – this is an opinion and camera advice from a repairer. I hope, it was helpful and has shed some light on this almost overwhelming task to purchase a new camera. There are certainly a few points above, which should be elaborated on. To get the full picture, visit me on my blog for a few more pieces of the puzzle.  At the end of the day you want to educate yourself to be able to apply more common sense to make better decisions.
It is not always the cheapest price what matters, you want to have the right type of camera and value for your money.

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I was looking buy a new tripod for my flip video. The 3 inch one i have doesn’t do the job and that is only one flip video makes. But i noticed that same tripod works with a sony video camera i had. So does any tripod fit any camera?

I was looking for a point and shoot digital camera that comes with a remote control but apparently they don’t exist. I was wondering what the smallest camera with a remote control is? I want to be able to put the camera on a tripod and take multiple pictures without having to go back to reset the timer.

Which type of tripod (tall / straight-legged or with bendable legs) should be most useful for my Kodak Easyshare (C433) Digital camera?

My earlier SLR cameras (Minolta and Canon) have their own tripods, which have a different type of connector.

I’m seeking a tripod that is more stable and versatile for my Kodak digicam.
Thanks for suggestions.

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Digital cameras can take many photos giving you much ease in selecting the best shots and erasing what you don’t need. Ensure to always carry a spare memory card and camera batteries since you need spare batteries when using flash outside.

Most Professional photographers use a tripod as part of their standard set up. This is invaluable in low light conditions especially for night shots in city streets, or when shooting fast action sports. A tripod also slows you down giving you enough time to gauge your sorroundings and shoot good images.

Try playing with the IOS settings of your digital camera which controls the camera’s sensitivity to light. Always use a low IOS setting and allow for longer shutter speed when taking shots of small objects like say flowers, to get sharper images. For shots of fast moving objects, try using a higher IOS setting of say 400.

When you set your camera’s exposure and focus to auto, it will take 2 – 3 seconds before your digital camera adjusts for white balance and focus. To avoid this, hold the shutter release half way down then keep your finger held that way until you get the perfect shot. Alternatively, use lock exposure feature on your camera to keep exposure settings locked until when you want to take a shot, mostly of people and or kids.

Make sure to always have enough memory space in your digital camera. Take full advantage of your digital camera’s ability to erase photos to create extra space in the memory card.

Another option is to try and get a larger memory card or copy your images to a card or PC storage unit. A 2 MP camera requires at least 64 MB memory card, 3 MP camera need at least 128 MB memory card, 4 MP camera requires at least 256 MB memory card, 7 – more MB cameras requires at least a 1 GB memory cards, and finally, consider purchasing at least a 2 GB memory card if you have a Pro Digital SLR camera. Memory card prices have dropped over the last few years, it makes great sense to always carry spare memory in your photo shoots.

By now everyone knows about blogs. The crazy online journals complete with spelling mistakes and gorilla news . I still remember the special on the Katrina blogger who broke the “in the water” stories and was interviewed live on CNN. Currently most blogs consist of text and pictures with the occasional audio clip, but with the popularity of broad band and increased storage capacities, video blogs are the new rage, and why not? Who wants to scan through pages and pages of small text if you don’t have to right? Unfortunately there are some serious problems with most video blogs making them almost unwatchable.

No cohesive script

While writing lends itself well to a bunch of unrelated tid bits for the user to jump around on and search between, video does not. You can’t easily skip through all the different postings and in general the user will watch everything in chronological order. There aren’t video hyperlinks. I’m disregarding flash here, but you understand my point. The average video blog jump all over the place doesn’t have any specific purpose. I don’t have time for that and neither do you.

They don’t use a teleprompter

Um.. ahh… daaa…. That’s what happens if you don’t have a teleprompter. An average video blogger says Ahhh, more times then Jenna Jameson in her last movie. Ok that was a bad joke, but you catch my drift. Even though video blogs are produced mostly by amateurs, you have to use a teleprompter. Professional journalists use them, The president uses one. On camera, very few people can recite a script from memory or improv without stumbling all over themselves.

Most people can’t act.

Everybody wants to be famous. In a world with billions of people, it’s understandable, but please face it, most people can’t act, as soon as the camera is turned on, here comes captain monotone.

Non variation of camera shots or subject matter.

Video needs variation to be interesting. Video needs variation to be interesting. Video needs variation to be interesting. Should I go on? Don’t use a single framed tripoded shot for a 10 minutes broadcast, it’s boring.

Most people are boring

Do you want to watch regular looking person sitting on a couch looking back at you holding a remote and drinking a beer when you watch TV? I have a hard time understanding what makes people think creating a video blog with their ugly mug shot, in a tight frame, with low light, as they sweat and talk about golf clubs was a good idea. Video bloggers should try to put themsevles in our shoes, would you want to sit through that?

There are a lot more things I could go off about, but I think I’ll stop here. As long as the average video blogger falls victim to these short comings, I wouldn’t expect video blogs to replace or even compete with normal text and image based blogs.