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Recommended Travel Friendly Macro Tripod

Started 5 months ago | Questions thread
maggiemole Senior Member • Posts: 1,987
Re: Shooting upside down? Use an "L" bracket.
2

Shinyschnapper wrote:

EarthMurmurs wrote:

You are unnecessarily making this complicated for yourself. Right now, today, at this moment, you could be photographing fungi at ground level with the gear you already own. Using the camera upside down is not as convenient, but it's hardly a rare and unachievable skill. By all means the earlier suggestion of an L-Bracket is a great one, but until you buy one, plus the necessary head, plus a tripod to accommodate, why not start your fungi hunting with the inverted column tripod ? You may find that crawling around in the dark, dirty forest floors is not so appealing after a few outings, and may not have to spend any money on gear you may not use in the long term.

Are you planning to shoot for focus stacking ? That's one ONLY reason I use an inverted tripod. If I were taking single shots, the previous suggestion of a small 'sand' bag is enough to stabilise the camera at ground level for a single shot, and far less cumbersome to carry on long hikes through the forest.

I'm a firm believer in using what we already own. And, you already own everything you need right now.

I re-iterate my post above that @earthmurmers was referring to. Don't over complicate it. Especially as mushroom season for us is quite short and not a year-round pursuit. A small bag or cushion to put the camera on at ground level works fine. I even saw a youtube video of a respected macro photographer filling a childrens pencil case with bird seed and using that. I can auto focus stack just fine from this. I will caveat that by saying a manual focus stack would be better with the tripod.

Well, I guess I should give you the personal story which adds greatly to my feeling I need to change some gear. I'm 76 and after two lots of heart surgery last year I just can't seem to recover my stamina. So that drives me to want to carry less weight. The 76 years also contribute to my worsening arthritis in knees and hands, so I do not want (indeed I can't) to crawl around at ground level any more. Despite that, I have taken almost 200 mushroom shots in the last month (mostly not very good), and in our terrain, they are all at or very close to ground level. I can't keep bending over to that degree. I've tried putting the camera on the ground with a beanie as support, a beanbag with rice in it, and using a mirror (recently). But all of these need lots of adjustment which I'd prefer to do standing up and moving the tripod a bit. (Oh, and I do prefer to be referred to as "she" rather than they. Too old to get upset about traditional pronouns.)

I have a mini iPad and the Lumix App so I can see what the composition is like. and I can alter the DoF (my biggest problem with macro lenses) from that position too. And to do that I need to have the camera rather a long way away from my eyes.

Yes, I shoot for focus stacking using Helicon Focus.

I love EarthMurmurs images on Flickr, by the way. If only England could produce those colours ...

So ... I have a tripod which is too heavy for long walks. I have a great camera (Lumix GX9) and 2 short-is macro lenses - but maybe I'd be better off using telemacro sometimes, if I don't want to get under the gills. I have a smartphone for when I do, except the knees haven't helped so far.

I'm about to buy an L-bracket and see where I go from there. Thanks for the encouragement. If only mushrooms grew on trees around me !

Maggie

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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ300 Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX7 Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 9-18mm F4.0-5.6 Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm F4-5.6 R +8 more
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