Not sure if this counts as ‘Technology’ or not, but I need to get a tripod for my camera, but know shit about photography. Basically I need to take a lot of piccies on my digital camera, indoors, without the flash. They tend to get a little blurry because I guess the camera adjusts the exposure to make up for the lack of light, but my hand movements atre shaking the camera a little. So I figure I shoudl buy a tripod to solve the problem.
My question is this: If I don’t have one of those cable thingies that lets you take the picture without touching the camera, will a tripod help, or will my pressing the button to take the picture just shake the camera anyway?
Pressing the button will probably shake the camera even if you have it on a tripod. I suggest you buy a cord/cable for it if you can. What kind of digital camera do you have? Mine has a remote control which makes it alot easier. Doesn’t your digital camera have a way to set a timer? I think all newer digital cameras have this feature…
Most digital cameras have enough lag time between when you press the shutter release and when it takes the picture, that by the time the picture is actually taken, your hands can already be away from the camera.
Another easy solution is to use the self timer to trip the shutter.
The tripod will come with the cord anyway Bri. Although I don’t use mine with my digital camera, I do use it with my video camera and for the very little price that you’ll pay for a romote controlled tripod, it’s definately a nice christmas present to treat yourself.
I recommend a tripod with a 3-D head, so you can swivel and tilt the camera into any direction you like. A fast opener might also be usefull, leaving some small part (the base with the screw) of the tripod attached when removing the camera.
To avoid blurring the picture when triggering the shutter under poor lighting conditions I use the (self-timer). Works perfectly.
I will get myself a tripod soon for my SLR, but one of those tiny, foldable ones you have to put on a table etc., had a full-sized tripod before but it’s just too much hassle to carry it around (and then the latch for one of the legs broke) …
My friend and I have both bought sony tripods with the cord that runs from the tripod and will connect to our sony video cam (yellow hole). I can therefore take still from my vid cam via the remote handle.
Although I’ve just noticed that it doesn’t work with the sony digital cam, mmm.
[quote=“Bu Lai En”] They tend to get a little blurry because I guess the camera adjusts the exposure to make up for the lack of light, but my hand movements atre shaking the camera a little. So I figure I shoudl buy a tripod to solve the problem.
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What kind of pictures are you taking and how are the pictures blurry? You may be solving the wrong problem because it might not be your hand that’s causing it. It could be that your camera is having problems focusing. However, if you’re seeing multiple images, that is evidence for shaking.
Previous suggestions for using the timer are pretty good. If you’re going to shoot indoors mainly, get a small table-top tripod (around 100-300nt) and use the timer on your camera.
just curious. what kind of pictures are you taking that’s resulting in such blurry pictures? sounds like you are taking pictures with long exposure.
if it’s not important to the shot, try changing up the aperture/exposure setting.(i guess that is obvious)
still those mini-tripods do come in handy and they are very portable. i got one for about 250-300 i think. (but not all the digicams will have the screw-in slot for attaching the tripod, not sure but that might be true for the trigger cord thingy (dunno what that is called)
Thanks for the help. My camera is a Sony P32. It doesn’t have an input for a remote cable, so I don’t see how that would work. Problem with using the timer is that it’s 10 seconds and I have to take a lot of pictures, so it’s a bit of a drag having to wait around. So I guess the tripod might not be a lot of use, but probably slightly better than nothing. I was looking at a stand-up tripod for about 600NT. Don’t need to take it out, so should be fine.
Bu Lai En: You don’t happen to be taking close-up photos do you? The P32 shouldn’t have any problems unless you’re leaving the shutter open for a long time.
