In our previous article“Get a tripod for your digital camera”, we have said that a good tripod is a valuable investment for your digital camera. But what tripod brands are available in market, and how are they? Now, I’d like to introduce some famous tripod brands:
 
Gitzo: Produced in France, and partly in Italy, Gitzo is the most famous professional digital camera tripod industry in the world. And it is well-known for its stability and dexterity. In material, it has aluminum and carbon fiber two main series. The classic models are 1227 and 1228.However, the price is rather high.

Manfrotto: Produced in Italy, it is a tripod industry that entered Chinese market early. It also has aluminum and carbon fiber two main series. The main feature is stability. And 055 series products are its classic models.

Velbon: Produced in Japan, the main features of Velbon are dexterity and convenience. And the price is comparably low.

Slik: Produced in Japan, it is also stable.

Benro: Produced in China, it is famous for its stability and high cost-effective.

Do you have a digital camera, and do you have a tripod for it? If not, get it as soon as possible, which is a valuable investment.

The obvious use for a tripod is for taking night shots. Night shots need much longer shutter speed times, to let more light in. If you try taking a photo using a long shutter time without using a tripod, you will just get a blurry mess. Fine, if that’s the artistic effect you were going for, but not for most serious photography.

But it’s not just night or low-light photography where a tripod can come in handy. There are other situations too. For example, if you were taking a photograph of a waterfall, you may want to get that popular smooth effect on the water. To do this you need a long exposure, and again that means using a tripod.

But not only that, what if you wanted to take a shot with you in the picture? A tripod enables you to frame up your scene and then set the timer going and then jump into shot.

Even standard landscape shots can benefit from the stability of a tripod. By using a tripod you can more precisely frame up your shot. You can then use a remote shutter release, so that you don’t shake the camera at all while taking the shot. This ensures the camera remains perfectly still, resulting in an extremely sharp image.