tripod shopping- advice?

E

evergruven

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
acquired an extra phone I thought I could use to record play..dims are 5 x 2.5
shopping for something adjustable, that I could use on a table or on ground, and travel with
never shopped for one before, anybody got any advice 'bout it?
 
I use a Manfrotto Carbon Fiber I bought about 20 years ago. Used it all over, including a photography course on the Big Island of Hawaii. It has served me well but may be overkill for what you are looking for.

Recently used it to get a shot of how my eyes hit the lens of my glasses when shooting a shot. The Ophthalmologist asked if I could get that shot before he made me some pool glasses.

I found a holder for my iPhone that will integrate with the tripod when I want to use that. But, I have so many specialty additions I bought during my photography hobby phase that I don't know if everything that works together is standard.

I also have an inexpensive table mount tripod I found on Amazon that works with the iPhone mount. In fact, I think the iPhone mount came with it.

 
My experience is that there is one thing in a tripod that until you have it you are going to wish for it over and over and over again. Height. There will be so many times (filming pool will be one of them) where you will want a higher angle view but you will be aggravatingly limited by your tripod being too short. The other benefit of a tall tripod is that there will be times where you will need to be able to shoot over obstructions like say a standing crowd or over some other object that is somewhere in between you and what you are trying to film. Don't even consider a tripod that doesn't go at least 72" high, and the higher the better. For your purposes of amateur videography, using it primarily with a phone, and needing it to travel well, the model below would probably be a good choice but shop around as you could stumble across something even better.

I would also get one of those tiny short ones as was linked to in post #2 for those times where you already know exactly where you are going to shoot and know that there is a perfect place to put it to get the perfect shot. Sure is convenient to be able to stick it in your front pocket and go when you already know for sure that it will do for the shot that will be desired. They can tend to tip over pretty easily though so they won't always be the right choice even if you had a good spot for it to get a good angle.

If you were only going to get one type or the other though, get a tall one as you are constantly going to be wishing for a higher angle, especially filming pool. It still fits in a large suitcase easy for travel and is also pretty light and easy to carry around but you are rarely going to find yourself having to carry a tripod far anyway.
 
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