How to Choose Best Tripod for Photo Shoot

"Hi, Rob Mitchell again, for Expert Village. In this segment, we're going to be talking a little more about your support methods: tripods. Now. Let's get to... Remember the mini-tripod I was talking about back in the first episode? This sells for about $10, you can get them at Radio Shack, local camera stores, they're absolutely perfect -- not for a lens this size, but for a standard lens, you know, an 18-35 or a 55mm lens. Yeah, because it's not all that sturdy. But it's perfect if you want to... if you're out someplace and you want to get in the picture yourself, do that group shot, mount this, as I said before, on top of a mailbox, on top of a stump. Again, you can tighten, you can turn it sideways. It also will let you do the vertical picture as well as the horizontal picture. Tighten it up here. Mount it on top of a desk or whatever, push the shutter release button on the timer, you're go to go. This gets into a much heavier-duty, much more expensive tripod. The difference here is that you have handles that are going to allow you to tilt the camera forward and backward, it's going to give you the side-to-side motion, and you can lock it off very securely. This has a mounting plate. This plate mounts to the bottom of your camera, and it's a quick-release plate. You screw the plate right on to the bottom of your camera, and then you just sit it on top of the camera, flick this... bang, you're on. While we're on the topic of this, in case you do start using these quick-release plates, when you put your camera on the tripod, turn the little switch here to make sure it's secure, don't just walk away. Do make sure it's secure. Sometimes these plates do not seat perfectly, or you think they've seated perfectly, and as soon as you walk away, your camera can fall. So, always make sure that it is seated before you walk away. Again, as I say, the nice thing is, you've got it on the tripod, you're shooting, you've got to go and do a location shot... bang, click, walk away."