Modern cameras have excellent image stabilization and ISO noise is no longer an issue. We can shoot freely in sunset conditions and get sharp, beautiful photos. So tripods have become obsolete?
In my latest video on YouTube, I discussed the question of whether tripods are obsolete today due to the rapid development of technology. Those of you who regularly watch my videos may know that a few weeks ago, I was hiking in the mountains early in the morning for landscape photography and forgot my tripod, so I had to shoot freely in the fog. This may sound like a photographer’s nightmare, but I got great pictures that day. This has raised questions among my audience whether the use of tripods has become obsolete. Have it? Let’s see why we had to use tripods a few years ago and earlier.
Make motion visible
Whenever we want a longer exposure than we can hold our camera without shaking, we have to use whatever stabilizes our camera. This is basically why tripods were invented. Just think of a beautiful underwater scene where you want to get motion blur in the water or clouds that are blurred due to their motion. We had to expose longer than we could hold the camera quietly in our hands. The solution is a tripod. The camera was fixed on a tripod and with a longer exposure we were able to make the movements visible inside our scene.
Modern cameras offer in-body image stabilization, allowing you to make exposures longer or even more than five stops. Are tripods obsolete? Before I answer this question, let’s look at another use case first.
Amount of light
Especially in landscape photography, where we are used to not taking pictures with artificial light sources, we often face a situation where there is not enough light for a shorter shutter speed. The tripod helps here, as it allowed us to expose for a few seconds without any shake.
But modern cameras support using fairly high ISOs without too much noise, delivering amazingly low exposure times. Combined with image stabilization, the need for a tripod seems to be gone here. So do we still need a tripod? Or has it become a relic from a time with poor technology?
What is a tripod that is still useful today?
I forgot about my tripod a few weeks ago, and I managed to get some great photos, even though it was early morning and we had fog. Some of the photos are even offered as art prints on my website. But I want to be absolutely honest with you: it’s “photography from an angle”. It almost doesn’t work. And the reason was that I had to focus all my images, because I was too close to my foreground. I don’t want to change my compositions, because I’m happy with them. I had to stack focus, but stacking focus without tripod didn’t work. You must take at least two exposures with two different focus points, preferably three or even four. And if you want to blend them in Photoshop later, they have to be aligned with each other. This doesn’t work when you’re shooting freehand, as you change your composition slightly with each exposure. The old camera position could not be found again after changing the focus point. So I’m out of focus, but my photo is very sharp.
I stopped as far as I could to increase the depth of field. For a photo, I had to go down to f/18. I used mine Sony 24-70mm GM my upper lens Sony a7R IV. But this is still not enough, as the foreground is still blurred. So I tried to shift the focus point a bit further to the foreground. That makes the foreground sharp and the background blurred.
If I had had a tripod with me, I would have probably reduced it to just f/14, and then took three exposures with different focus points to focus. Does this lead to better results? Honestly: when we start with pixel-peeping, then you can see the difference between f/14 and f/18. But I had no problem with printing f/18 images at width two meters or something like that. It’s perfectly sharp.
I’m really glad it worked and I went home with some great photos. But I almost failed due to the required depth of field and the fact that focus was not possible. Also, it would be much easier with a tripod. But there is another reason why I prefer using this tripod.
The biggest advantage tripod offer
As camera and lens technology has advanced to the point where it seems like we don’t need a tripod anymore, there’s one thing we should never forget: tripods help us fine-tune our compositions. I’m always looking for a rough layout first, and then I tweak it on my tripod. I can think of all the things we need to consider for the composition, and when I get it as perfect as possible, I just have to wait for the right lighting. This is why tripods will probably never become obsolete for me, even if the image stabilization can stabilize at 20 stops and when we can use ISO 50,000 without interference. It will always be in my briefcase, unless of course I forget it.
We’d love for you to leave a comment below if you’d like to take photos with or without a tripod. And check out the video mentioned above for more tips on the subject, especially for landscape photography.
