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Tripod & ballhead & technique test

I have got a new tripod and ballhead that are supposed to be better than the old ones. To get most out of it I have tested various configurations and techniques to see how they affect image quality for telephoto use.

Contenders

• Tripods:
  • Velbon Ultra Luxi L tripod (without lever head that came with it).
  • Feisol CT-3442 Tournament tripod.
• Ballheads:
  • Joby Ballhead X.
  • Sirui K-30x ballhead.
• Techniques evaluated:
  • Direct viewfinder shooting (mirror slap, hand on shutter button).
  • Liveview shooting (no mirror slap, hand on shutter button).
  • Liveview and delayed exposure shooting (no mirror slap and no hand on camera).
  • Liveview with ML-L3 infrared remote (no mirror slap and no hand on camera).
  • Using Tamron optical stabilization (VC) instead of ballhead and tripod.

Introduction

Velbon Ultra Luxi L tripod is a 5 section tripod with 127 cm height without extended center column. I got it in 2009 as a gift. It is quite compact especially with the Joby Ballhead X, unlike with lever head with which the tripod was sold. It has center column - of course it is clear that the column is not stable for telephoto use. Transport length is 34.5cm plus head. Weighs 895g without head.

Feisol CT-3442 Tournament is my new tripod. It has 4 sections. Mechanics felt solid so far and build quality is perfect. Transport length is 48cm, with ballhead it is same if ballhead is small to fit between legs. Weighs 1157g without head and without hook.

Joby Ballhead X is a ballhead I got with Gorillapod several years ago. It is quite small and light. I use it on the Velbon tripod. Ball is about 30mm in diameter, weighs 227g plus 29g plate. Plate is in X shape, pretty small, 46mm square envelope, but contact area few mm smaller and of hard rubber material. Arca-Swiss compatible. Release is knob screw and works well with spring-loaded pin inside the rail. Specification says it can take 5kg.

Sirui K-30x is my new ballhead. Ball has 44mm diameter. Weighs about 503g plus 65g plate. Plate (TY-70-2) is 60mm x 70mm at the top. There are rubber contact areas on the plate. Arca-Swiss compatible. Release has knob screw. There is a spring-loaded pin that can be released by a button press. Plate has bevel in the center of rails to slide-in over the pin, but to prevent accidental slide-out. Plate also has red plastic levers to prevent rotation. Specification says it can take 30kg. Works well so far.

Here are the tripods with ballheads in transport position (click on image to see it large):

Sirui K-30x ballhead can fit inside folded Feisol CT-3442, however legs are spread. It still fits the Feisol tripod bag like that. Larger K-40x can also fit into folded tripod like it is visible here though I don't know if it would be still easy to put it in the bag. This German thread documents how various ballheads fit into folded Feisol CT-3442 tripod.

Here are the ballheads side to side (click on image to see it large):

Plates are here:

Tests

There are several tests, in following order:

1. In-door test of ballheads (using the new tripod and in most stable configuration) and techniques for t=1/15s.
2. In-door test of tripods (using the new ballhead) and technique for t=1/15s.
3. Outdoor test of technique only (with the new tripod and ballhead) for t=2s.
4. In-door test of tripods, ballheads and technique for t=1/60s.
5. Outdoor test of tripods, ballheads and technique for t=1/1.6s.
6. Outdoor test of tripods, ballheads and technique for t=1.3s. Added 2015-04-05.

In-door tests

In-door test environment

• Indoor, ceramic floor on concrete, temperature around 22 C, night.
• Camera: Nikon D610 a 24MP fullframe camera. Every picture in test is in M mode, f/7.1, ISO 200, t=1/15s which is most critical, not fast enough to avoid mirror slap, not slow enough so that few seconds of vibrations would be just a small part of full exposure.
• Lens: Tamron 70-300vc at 300mm. I never felt limited by older tripod for wideangle and normal focal lengths. I was interested in telephoto use so that is why 300mm is used. The lens extends a bit in 300mm setting further shifting a center of gravity. It has no collar and feet so it may be more sensitive to technique and support gear than say 400/5.6 lenses with ballhead attached to collar. VC stabilization is off for tripod tests. If VC is left on, the image will slowly but significantly drift (my samples has shown 5.5% of image height shift) and VC did not help to counter mirror slap. Lens was autofocused in liveview when needed (usually after tripod or ballhead change) but not during 10 picture samples.
• Target: test image (download here) displayed on phone with 720p display, it uses RGB matrix (not Pentile), image is displayed 1:1, not blurred by scaling. Maximal brightness is used to ensure same exposure. Density is 312 pixels per inch. Closeup of target:

1. In-door ballhead test

For testing ballheads I have used the Feisol tripod with completely collapsed leg sections that I expected to be most stable. I did not experiment with leg angle though.

I measured target was 307cm from sensor plane, though this value may vary a bit between series for heads, say +-20cm. For each series I took 10 pictures to have something representative of behaviour. While I liked this German test of 37 ballheads, I did not get idea how repeatable are the results from it. So I will present all 10 pictures (1:1 crops). Each series has name composed of abbreviations that are summarized in list just below.

Ballhead legend:

• bh-joby: Joby Ballhead X that I got with Joby Gorillapod Focus.
• bh-sirui: Sirui K-30x ballhead.
• jobyplate: Joby Ballhead X has Arca-Swiss compatible plate & release. This is the original plate that comes with Ballhead X. It is in shape of X letter.
• siruiplate: I used Joby Ballhead X with Sirui plate TY-70-2 (that comes with K-30x head). It is much larger than Joby plate.
• vf: viewfinder mode: hand is on shutter, there is a mirror slap causing more vibrations.
• lv: liveview mode: hand is on shutter, no mirror slap.
• lv3s: live mode with exposure delay: hand is no longer on shutter during exposure, no mirror slap.
• strong: For Sirui ballhead I have originally tightened the ball with knob with enough force I felt necessary, but I have got idea later that with higher force it may or may not be better so tightened it more strongly and re-tested.

Here are the measurements as static unorganized image showing 1:1 crops. Or can use this dynamic page to select different area of interest (it does not work on touch-only devices).

How to interpret such raw measurements? Series are presented in alphabetic order which does somewhat hide the obvious.
Let's group by technique (click here for dynamic page):

Now it is visible that technique is most important. Liveview mode that prevents mirror slap (not all cameras have such mode, say older Nikon D90 has mirror slap in LV, but recent Nikon and Canon cameras should be ok) is crucial. Mirror lock up modes are probably same as this liveview mode. And it can be further improved by delayed shutter so that during exposure there is no hand on camera. Remember this is for 1/15s. With liveview and 3 seconds exposure delay, picture is perfect for both ballheads.
In viewfinder mode, the Joby's original plate shows its limits - picture is better with Joby ballhead but with larger Sirui plate. See how small part of camera is supported with the small plate:

Conclusion: once you get big plate the Joby ballhead can get you as good image quality as with bigger Sirui ballhead for camera and lens of similar weight. Technique is most important.

2. In-door tripod test

For testing tripods, I have used the Sirui K-30x ballhead. I did not experiment with leg angle - everything was tested with smallest leg angle.

I have also tested without tripod using Tamron VC. Conditions were otherwise similar as in above ballhead test. For each series I took 10 pictures to have something representative of behaviour.

Tripod legend:

• velbon-5section: Velbon Ultra Luxi L tripod, used with Sirui K-30x ballhead. Center column locked in lowest position. All 5 leg sections were used. Height from floor to ballhead mount was 127cm. Leg angle was the smallest that locks.
• feisol-3section: Feisol CT-3442 Tournament tripod, used with Sirui K-30x ballhead. No center column. 3 of 4 leg sections were used, the most thin section was not used. Height from floor to ballhead mount was 106cm. Leg angle was the smallest that locks.
• feisol-4section: Feisol CT-3442 Tournament tripod, used with Sirui K-30x ballhead. No center column. All 4 leg sections were used. Height from floor to ballhead mount was 141cm. Leg angle was the smallest that locks.
• vc: no tripod, but Tamron VC stabilization turned on (in other tripod tests it is turned off)
• vf: viewfinder mode: hand is on shutter, there is a mirror slap causing more vibrations.
• lv: liveview mode: hand is on shutter, no mirror slap.
• lv3s: live mode with exposure delay: hand is no longer on shutter during exposure, no mirror slap.
• bag: hook was attached to tripod and a 2.2kg bag is hanging on it, not connected to floor.
• day2: these has been captured in same environment next day.

Here are the measurements as static unorganized image showing 1:1 crops. Or can use this dynamic page to select different area of interest (it does not work on touch-only devices).

How to interpret above data? Series are presented in alphabetic order which does somewhat hide the obvious. Some series were repeated next day and they are quite similar. Bag did not help, it actually made results a bit worse - of course this is on sturdy ceramic tile floor, it might be different on soft ground.
Let's reorder by technique (click here for dynamic page). Here is static image (with bag and repeated series omitted):

Now it is visible that technique is again most important. Liveview mode that prevents mirror slap (not all cameras have such mode, say older Nikon D90 has mirror slap in LV, but recent Nikon and Canon cameras should be ok) is crucial. Mirror lock up modes are probably same as this liveview mode. And it can be further improved by delayed shutter so that during exposure there is no hand on camera. Remember this is for 1/15s. With liveview and 3 seconds exposure delay, the picture is perfect for Feisol tripod in both configurations. Velbon is slightly worse, but still better than all other tests with hand on camera. If exposure delay could be set to longer duration, it might have equalized results, but D610 has only 3s maximum. With remote shutter and liveview it might be better.
With liveview and no delay, the picture is best on Feisol with 3 sections, 4 section get slightly worse result, Velbon is shows even more blur tough 1 of 10 pictures is almost perfect.
With viewfinder mode that includes mirror slap, the picture is blurry with either tripod, though 3 section Feisol is better than 4 section Feisol and this is better than 5 section Velbon.
As a special case there is Tamron VC stabilization. It works very well at 300mm 1/60s, but this is 1/15s, 2 stops more. In viewfinder mode it occasionally produces very good picture, it is better than 5 section Velbon and 4 section Feisol. VC could probably work with LV, but I could not handhold camera 30cm in front of me well.

Conclusion: Technique is most important, but good tripod can increase chances. 3 second exposure delay is not enough to completely stop vibrations of Velbon. There is a difference between all 4 or just 3 sections of Feisol being deployed. If you can get by with 3, don't use 4. VC can be as good and occasionally better than tripod with improper technique at 1/15s.

3. Outdoor technique test - Prague Castle from Manes bridge

Environment:

• Location: Prague, Manes bridge, east side, near south stairs leading from bridge to a park. Time near end of evening blue hour. The main tower (tallest) of St. Vitus Cathedral is about 980m from this point. Vibrations from traffic on bridge are present so even good technique will not always bring good results. Occasionally group of tourists surrounded me and tried to get same picture with cellphone cameras ;-) Btw, there is a better place to get wide angle pictures, just few tens of meters south, but this time that area was closed due to reconstruction. My older picture from that spot won this DPReview challenge: http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Entry.aspx?ID=705210
• Feisol CT-3442 Tournament tripod with Sirui K-30x ballhead. I did not test others. Tripod has all 4 sections expanded to get over low wall.
• Manual exposure, 2 seconds, f/7.1, ISO 200, autofocused in liveview before test, no refocus during test.
• Techniques compared:
  • vf: viewfinder, includes mirror slap and hand on camera during 2 second exposure.
  • lv: liveview mode, no mirror slap, but hand still on camera during 2 second exposure.
  • lv3s: liveview mode, no mirror slap, 3 second exposure delay, hand removed just after pressing shutter, before exposure.

Here is best photo (sharpness) of all captured. It is the second from lv3s series. Click on it for full 24MP resolution. This one is processed in LR (shadows, highlights, wb, sharpening) unlike the crops under it. This is not the best composition, it is also 1deg tilted and tight so that correcting for tilt would obscure tower tip.

Here is a crop 1 from samples:

You can use this dynamic page to select different area of interest. It does not work on touch-only devices.
Here is a crop 2 from samples:

You can use this dynamic page to select different area of interest. It does not work on touch-only devices.

Conclusion: Technique is most important. Liveview with exposure delay is best, however various vibrations (car and trams going over the bridge) sometimes spoiled even good technique. Btw, at 2 seconds VC did not have chance.

4. In-door tripod, ballhead and technique test

This one is very similar to other in-door tests, but it is for t=1/60s. There are no other significant differences in how camera was set up, except that ISO was raised to 800 to keep up with higher speed (and to keep aperture same) and I made it several days after the first tests.

Here are the measurements as dynamic page (it does not work on touch-only devices). Of course it is better to see this data in more organized way. Here it is:


I also tried VC on tripod (not shown above), but it was unusable because it was slowly drifting and affecting composition too much.

5. Outdoor tripod, ballhead and technique test - Prague Castle from Dobeška

Environment:

• Location: Prague, Dobeška. Time near end of evening blue hour. Tripod is on wooden planks that are part of lookout platform residing on the top of rock above Vltava river. Distance from Dobeška to Prague Castle is about 5.4 km.
• I tested two combinations:
  • Feisol CT-3442 Tournament tripod (all 4 sections extended) with Sirui K-30x ballhead.
  • Velbon Ultra Luxi L tripod (all 5 sections extended) with Joby Ballhead X, but used with Sirui TY-70-2 plate.
• Manual exposure, 1/1.6 = 0.625 seconds, f/7.1, ISO 200, autofocused in liveview before series.
• Techniques compared:
  • vf: viewfinder, includes mirror slap and hand on camera during 2 second exposure.
  • lv: liveview mode, no mirror slap, but hand still on camera during 2 second exposure.
  • lv3s: liveview mode, no mirror slap, 3 second exposure delay, hand removed just after pressing shutter, before exposure.

I did this series twice (marked as dobeska1 and dobeska2). You can see how sky is much darker in second series. It was quite hard to focus accurately as LVAF was not reliable and focus ring is quite short and there was some noise in LV for precise LVMF.

Here is one of the sharp results (a bit processed: WB, tone curve). Click on it for full 24MP resolution. This is not the best composition, it is just what I used for the test.

Here are crops:

You can use this dynamic page to select different area of interest. It does not work on touch-only devices.
(or this dynamic page with different view).

There is no big difference between tripods and ballheads tested in this test in live view with 3 seconds exposure delay. And if there is some minute difference, it is likely caused by inaccurate focus. For the other techniques where hand is on the camera, the Feisol 3442 + Sirui K-30x is better than Velbon U.Luxi L + Joby Bh. X + Sirui TY-70-2 plate.

6. Outdoor tripod, ballhead and technique test - Charles bridge and towers from Petřín

Environment:

• Location: Prague, Petřín. Below chapel of St. Ludvik in Sedminařská zahrada. At start of night. Tripod is on path from rocks. Path is not level, so for both tripods I shortened one leg (bottom section) to have it level. Distance from the place to tower on the east side of Charles bridge is about 940m.
• I tested two combinations:
  • Feisol CT-3442 Tournament tripod (all 4 sections extended, except for one leg to level it) with Sirui K-30x ballhead.
  • Velbon Ultra Luxi L tripod (all 5 sections extended, except for one leg to level it) with Joby Ballhead X, but used with Sirui TY-70-2 plate.
• Manual exposure, 1.3 seconds, f/9, ISO 100, autofocused in liveview before series.
• Techniques compared:
  • vf: viewfinder, includes mirror slap and hand on camera during 2 second exposure.
  • lv: liveview mode, no mirror slap, but hand still on camera during 2 second exposure.
  • lv3s: liveview mode, no mirror slap, 3 second exposure delay, hand removed just after pressing shutter, before exposure.
  • lvremote: liveview mode, no mirror slap, Nikon ML-L3 infrared remote (AF off on lens), activated at least 5 seconds after last touch on camera.

It was quite hard to focus accurately as LVAF was not reliable. I found out that if I continue to re-activate AF it will after several tries focus well enough. Also I had to AF at f/7.1 not f/9 at which I was taking pictures.

Here is one of the sharp results (somewhat more processed than other in this test as I was exposing for highlights and had to push shadows: LR: shadows +100, highlights: -43, whites -10, contrast +10, exposure +1.79, temp 2764, tint +6, clarity +14). Click on it for full 24MP resolution. This is not the best composition, it is just what I used for the test. I did not correct slight rotation to lower sharpness for this test. More processed version follows after test.

Here are crops:

You can use this dynamic page to select different area of interest. It does not work on touch-only devices.

You can use this dynamic page to select different area of interest. It does not work on touch-only devices.

There is no big difference between tripods and ballheads tested in this test in live view with 3 seconds exposure delay. For live view with remote, I like results more from Velbon in first crop, but from Feisol in second crop. Probably slightly different focus caused that. The first crop from tower is about 940m and the second from church is about 1580m from camera. Is remote worth it over 3s delay mode? In my opinion it is not worth for landscapes, I have to pixel peep a lot to see difference. Maybe with higher megapixel camera or longer lens difference will become bigger. On the other hand, for action you get immediate response compared to exposure delay and same superior image quality. For the other techniques where hand is on the camera, the Feisol 3442 + Sirui K-30x is better than Velbon U.Luxi L + Joby Bh. X + Sirui TY-70-2 plate.

The same image as above, significantly more processed to my likes is here (click for full resolution):

Conclusion

Most important is technique. Ballhead does not seem to be very important for image quality as long as it is not sagging too much or sliding, still there are usability aspects that I have not covered here. Tripod is somewhat important, but sturdy tripod with poor technique is worse than less sturdy one with good technique. Best image quality requires both technique and sufficiently sturdy tripod. With poor technique a very sturdy tripod may give you an advantage compared to less sturdy one. Mirrorless cameras probably have advantage by having less vibrations in their only mode, the liveview, while DSLRs often have liveview with limitations. Nikon D610 I used does not have electronic first curtain shutter so I could not test its effect. VC can be effective occasionally even at 1/15s and it is better than poor tripod technique. VC is quite good at 1/60s for 300mm if you need to use viewfinder (sports, fast AF). In fact for viewfinder use at 1/60s it is better than any other tripod-ballhead combination I tried because it eliminates mirror shock.

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Legal

Images presented in this article are copyrighted. Copyright (c) 2015 Jakub Trávník. You can use them personally, but further distribution is not allowed.

Related links

• Series of tripod tests by Jeffrey Friedl.

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