A tripod for low shots

When shooting macro pictures of flowers recently (see here), I found that the small tripod that I had could not hold the camera steady, and in fact I threw it away, as it was not good enough even to give away. My main tripod for routine use with less demanding lenses has also begun to be unreliable, with one leg slowly sagging under weight and another leg falling out when opening the tripod for use. I dis-assembled parts of it, tightened and reassembled, but the “service” did not last. I realised that after forty years of use, the nylon blocks that were used for locking had worn down.

I do of course have the Berlebach UNI 14, which is reported on in detail here. It is superb for ultra-heavy and ultra-long lenses, such as the 1000mm Carl Zeiss Jena Spiegelobjektiv. However, it is not designed for working with the camera very near to ground level, and is rather bulky for taking on trips and routine use.

So now the search was on for a new tripod.

The Challenge

Ideally, the new tripod would be suitable for multiple purposes:

with a range of the normal heights (approximately 1.5m to 1.8m)
plus suitability for ultra-low shots (for instance, of flowers, not just looking down on them from above, but straight on from near ground level).

It also needs to be reasonably small and light when packed up, so that it could be taken on trips with me, and possibly even in cabin luggage for air travel.

It should go without saying that a tripod should hold the camera outfit rock-steady, but this is particularly true when using ultra-long lenses or shooting macro shots, because in both of these cases:

the depth of field is extremely shallow
the only way of increasing this is by stopping down the lens, often to a very small aperture
this will usually result in the need to use an extremely long (slow) shutter speed
with these massive degrees of magnification, the effects of any movement by the camera outfit will also be magnified, resulting in unsharp images or even what appear to be multiple images.

Also, the tripod needs to support a medium format camera with either an ultra-long (and therefore heavy) lens or with bellows, focussing slide, angle finder, etc. This is not going to be light, and a light-weight tripod definitely won’t be up to the job. Here are some sample weights:

	Novoflex 6 × 6 bellows with Schneider-Kreuznach 180mm f/4.5 Xenar with front cap Novoflex Cross-Castel Q without Quick-Release plate Pentacon Six with metering pentaprism, film, Novoflex bellows with 180mm Xenar as above and Novoflex Cross-Castel with Arca-Swiss ³/₈" QR plate Above outfit with Arca-Swiss B1-G ball head				1 kg 1 kg 3.4 kg 4.9 kg
	(all weighed with a luggage scale – probably not as accurate to the last gram as scientific scales, but definitely accurate enough!)

I have included here the Arca-Swiss B1-G ball head, as I already have this, so the total weight with that shows the load that a tripod must comfortably be able to bear without risk of movement.

The weight on the previous line shows the load that a tripod head needs to support. Many reviews indicate that ball head manufacturers often make exaggerated claims for the loads that their products will support. However, the real test is not what the ball head will hold still when the weight is carefully and evenly distributed when the centre of gravity is right above the ball head, but what it will hold totally immobile when the outfit is tilted at an extreme angle – for instance, up, to shoot birds in flight or down, to shoot plants, butterflies, etc., all of which inevitably shifts the centre of gravity.

What you get when you buy a tripod

As with the Berlebach, I discovered that the more “serious” tripods do not come with any sort of head, so I would need to find a suitable head, which might be a pan-and-tilt head or a ball head. (Or there is another possibility – see near the bottom of this page, here.) Again, I do still have the superb Arca-Swiss B1-G ball head, which is also reported on here, but I may appreciate having a smaller, lighter head for some situations or trips.

I looked at a friend’s tripod from a major European tripod brand, purchased a year or two ago, and discovered that carbon fibre tripods are a lot lighter than my 1970s aluminium tripod, but just as stable – or even more so. Some current ranges of tripods are available with a choice of carbon fibre or aluminium, with the carbon fibre ones being lighter and the aluminium ones being cheaper.

A tripod that goes really low down

One of the problems in getting near ground level with some tripods is that, no matter how far out the legs are splayed, the centre column eventually touches the ground and one can’t get any lower. Some tripods will take the camera upside-down at the base of the centre column, or by turning the column upside-down (see, for instance, here, near the bottom of the page). That may work fine in the studio, but is not very practical out “in the field”, especially if it is a real field, or a garden or park, or a shore with waves splashing nearby.

After significant research on the internet, in March 2019 I was able to go to the annual Photography Show at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham (U.K.). Here I was able to see vast numbers of tripods from brands both famous and unknown.

My on-line research had revealed that some, at least, of the Benro tripods (blue seems to be the company colour) were supplied with both a standard and a short centre column. This might be the solution.

At the Mac Group Europe stand I was able to see a wide range of Benro tripods. Internet research had suggested that a tripod from the light-weight Benro “Travel Angel” range might be suitable, but I had taken a Pentacon Six with me, along with Novoflex bellows and the 150mm Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar lens (see here), and it was clear that something sturdier was required. An extremely helpful Mac Group representative (Mark) recommended a tripod from the sturdier Benro Mach 3 range. As far as I could see, these were available in three sizes, the 28, 38 and 48, with the higher numbers indicating greater maximum height, and obviously an increase in weight and in the minimum folded size. The higher ranges towered above me – fine for a professional photographer with a small stepladder who wanted to set up behind a crowd, but not necessary for my requirements.

I tried my outfit on a Benro TMA28C and it seemed spot-on, so I bought one from a retailer at the show.

My internet research had also revealed a special low-level tripod, the Induro GIHH100CP, although I could only find them for sale in the U.S.A. It turns out that they are no longer distributed in the U.K., but I have been able to buy one and so report on it here.