Is a tripod a "MUST" for night photography??

[Peter Petrelli]

to me its not a question of wether to get a tripod or not, but what tripod to get.

those simple tripods wont cost you much, and every once in a while, you'll surely need it, not only for night photography. say self portraits.

 

[scorpioh]

I would beg to differ that a tripod is a must for night shoots. Depending on conditions, it is possible to handhold:

 

[tehzeh]

I love to use tripod when I take photos of the moon. Because I will be using BULB mode.

 

[TheChef]

I would beg to differ that a tripod is a must for night shoots. Depending on conditions, it is possible to handhold:

I second that. I don't use a tripod for night street shots most of the time. My shots are sharp enough just by using D50 and 16-85 VRII most of the time, as Singapore's street are quite brightly lit and my hands are quite steady. But, if I need to shoot the Merlion at night, I definitely need to bring one. Somehow, I find the Merlion to be spooky dark at night.

 

[android17]

well TS maybe u will be interested in the tamron 17-50 f2.8 with VC. Fast aperture, has stabalizer and wide angle too, not to mention the tamron 17-50 is pretty sharp.

Take a look at this thread for sample pics.

http://www.clubsnap.com/forums/showthread.php?t=617378

 

[Wurdelak]

I have tried to shoot without tripod...and all my pictures so blur and distorted...so a tripod is a must?? Night photography at smaller aperture and the shutter speed will be very slow..so hand held is impossible???

Need some advise thanks

what advice do you still need? you've already proven it to yourself, and your poor blurry shots done at night is the evidence... so the answer is very obvious! :what:

 

[denniskee]

I would beg to differ that a tripod is a must for night shoots. Depending on conditions, it is possible to handhold:

it actually up to individual, while u find these 2 photos acceptable, others may not for various reasons

on the other hand, if setting up tripod will make u loose alot of "moments", than at the point of time, yes.

but if ur intend is to have nice detail, sharp, clean images that can print to 8R or bigger, than tripod is a must.

 

[Jeremy1]

what does FX mean?? i have a setting in my camera that can reduce high ISO noise..and i set it to strong...hope it will reduce noise with high iso setting...

FX Body = Full Frame Body with Big Sensor.

U can up ISO as high as 12800 & the picture can still be acceptable ( depend on individual expectation ). But I stress that lower ISO is always better for night shoot if you really wanted the best PQ.

Low ISO - U will need a tripod definitely as the shutter speed will be slow with your aperture setting at F4.

U can always set your Aperture to lowest to compensate for the shutter speed but the picture will not be as sharp as higher value.

Trying to share what I learned.

 

[geekbrains]

there are 2 types of image stabilizer technology. Lens stabalization and Sensor stabalization.

Take a look at this video to better understand them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPdy52mR6Io

Canon and Nikon uses the lens stabilizer. This technology requires the lens to hv stabilizer build into their lens. And due to this reason, the lens will be very expensive, not to mention that every lens u buy, u hv to think hard on whether to buy stabilizer or not, and where to pay extra. And of cos the worse problem is, even if you have tons of money, there are alot of lenses that dont come with stabilizer version.

Sony and Pentax uses a better stabilization technology, the sensor IS. With this sensor Is, the vibration compensation is done on the sensor. As such, any lens that is attached to a Sony or Pentax DSLR automatically becomes an IS lens. It doesnt matter if its an ultra wide angle 10mm lens, or a super old manual focus only lens. They all become IS lens. So if a Sony user buys a 50 year old manual focus lens and mount it onto the Sony Alpha DSLR via adaptor, the lens becomes stabalized. This sensor techology also saves money for the user as they wont have the need to buy IS lens at all. For example, recently Tamron released the VC version of the 17-50mm f2.8 lens which im sure you know, is a popular lens among Canon, Nikon and Sony users. Canon and Nikon users will need to pay $940 to buy a Tamron 17-50 VC lens, whereas Sony users just buy the non VC version for $610 and still enjoy image stabalizer.

Im pretty sure Canon and Nikon can build IS into their camera body. It isnt a new technology. However they will never do something like that, as it will mean a very big lost of profit for them from the sales of IS lenses.

Dude, did you watch the video completely before you posted? Try some range above 200mm with an in body stabilized system and tell me. The YouTube link that you've provided clearly says it all. He does say that the lens stabilization is optimized and fine tuned for each lens and indeed it works better for longer tele range where the In body stabilization fails miserably.

I'd rather trust this from the horse's mouth like Leica, Nikon and Canon than others who have little or no long history in lens making.

Apart from the OT, an image stabilization system can never replace a tripod. Period..

 

[Kit]

TS shoots 0.6secs without IS and pics came out blurry. So i used slightly slower, 0.5secs.

Both shots taken a few mins ago, handheld. Picture resized but no other PP was done.

And im NOT using any IS lens. This is purely my camera's sensor IS.

Ive left my Exif info intact, just incase u need proof that i did indeed shoot at 1/2s shutter speed.

Without IS

With IS

Focal point is the P sign

and your point of showing me pictures of a bottle is?.....

 

[giantcanopy]

I have tried to shoot without tripod...and all my pictures so blur and distorted...so a tripod is a must?? Night photography at smaller aperture and the shutter speed will be very slow..so hand held is impossible???

Need some advise thanks

Tripod . Or some other devices that stabilises, could be a bench for instance .. if available. Otherwise tripod is pretty much an SOP.

ryan

 

[DonnyDan]

Just get a tripod to complete your kit. A tripod is important at many occasion, you definitely need one during night shot. IS/VR will not help much during night photography. Get a good tripod and it will stay with you for very long time. BTW i have a PPCP V1 tripod, it is good but PPCP is not producing it anymore. =(

 

[android17]

and your point of showing me pictures of a bottle is?.....

and I would really love to see that 1/2 sec photo of yours......

I don't have to take a look at anything to tell you that your claim on using a shutter speed of 1/2sec with IS is absolutely hogwash.

U claimed that its impossible to use a shutter speed of 1/2s handheld and capture photos that are usable. And since you wanted to see a picture taken using 1/2s, so i took one to show u that 1/2s pics with sensor IS is still sharp, unlike what u claimed

I'm don't know how much better a 1/2sec exposure with IS is better than one without but I sure know both will not yield useable results. Your mileage may vary.

And obviously, u hv no idea and do not even understand how sensor IS performs, and thought that using sensor IS is as good as not using sensor IS as the results will be similar. So i hope u know now, the results of using sensor IS and not having IS is totally different.





So there you go. I know u probably feel sharp images is impossible at 1/2s due to ur personal experience. However do note that while u cant do take sharp pics at 1/2s, it doesnt mean its impossible.

 

[ZerocoolAstra]

I would beg to differ that a tripod is a must for night shoots. Depending on conditions, it is possible to handhold:

Heavily post-processed and noisy, exactly how I don't want my night scenery photos to turn out...
A tripod is still the essential tool to carry around for such situations.

 

[rysouke]

Just get a tripod to complete your kit. A tripod is important at many occasion, you definitely need one during night shot. IS/VR will not help much during night photography. Get a good tripod and it will stay with you for very long time. BTW i have a PPCP V1 tripod, it is good but PPCP is not producing it anymore. =(

Actually I got a tripod and the brand is vanguard...not a bad tripod..just that din know the results can be so bad without a tripod hahaha at least i learn a lesson for it...

However i tried to shoot my home backyard using tripod with 10s shutter speed and f8 and ISO 100, the picture come out seem abit overexposed but the camera exposure bar is in the middle...i dont understand why it is so...

 

[android17]

Heavily post-processed and noisy, exactly how I don't want my night scenery photos to turn out...
A tripod is still the essential tool to carry around for such situations.

Tripod is still the best way to take nite pics of cos. But I think what scorpioh is trying to say is that if there's no tripod available, it is still possible to take pictures if you control the camera's settings well.

And from his pics, he is probably on a holiday. Depending on who and where he is, its not possible to always bring tripod around

 

[ijnek]

beside nite shots, a tripod can be useful for day shots with a ND filter.

eg capturing water flow, movement etc

 

[rysouke]

beside nite shots, a tripod can be useful for day shots with a ND filter.

eg capturing water flow, movement etc

ND filter??

 

[egnaro]

what is interesting for night photography?

I think star shape form(call star burst?) by street lamp, that is possible with small aperture. how to get it without Tripod?

smooth and nice reflection is something interesting as well, these are to be done with tripod as well.

Yes to capture certain composition, u can have place it on the bench, parapet wall, etc, somehow I find that it is limited. whereas Tripod will give more flexibility.

I came from ex-IS Body user, I also using IS lens. come on, face it, whether it is lens IS or Body IS, it will not help much in night photography unless you boost your ISO to the max.

I dun think many buy fast lens it for night shoot I believe mainly use for indoor instead.

 

[IsenGrim]

it seems that night shots hold different meaning for some of us. hahah

night shots for me is not something hand holdable. hahahah. i like to put in effort for my stuff.

eg scenes with water: exposure must be around 20-30secs for shimmering lights in water or a clear reflection if there are no water movements.
eg with some lights: aperture must be small to get a certain flare.
eg scenes with very little: exposure have to be around 4-5mins to even get something.
eg astrophotography: my new fetish.. name suggests itself

so luggin a tripod around is a must for me hahhaha. you can notice me easily as im the only one using a old army pants to wrap my tripod. outside got pockets somemore. can hold my shutter release wire and other accessories like super clamp/umbrella swivel