
Joby asked me to select a tripod from their range and to give it a whirl and write about it. I chose, what I hoped would be the ideal tripod for beginners, that was capable of holding a small to medium sized camera or a phone (even the big ones). I selected the Joby RangePod Smart Tripod and having had it for a few months would happily recommend it as a great tripod for beginners.
Read on to find out if you even need a tripod, and if so, what features you should you be looking for.
A great tripod for beginners
If you want to take good photographs you need a tripod, right?
You've got a dSLR or mirrorless camera and you're starting to get to grips with it and the next logical step seems to be to get a tripod.
After all, the pros seem to use them and there are so many available that they must be an essential piece of kit for any budding photographers. But before you rush to buy one, tripods are not actually used as extensively as they used to be, for one main reason. Modern digital cameras perform much better in low light than film cameras. Features like improved ISO and image stabilisation enable you to handhold your camera even when the light is fading.

Whether you need a tripod or not depends on whether you're going to do any of the following types of photography:
Lowlight / night sky / astro photography when you'll use slow shutter speeds.
Long exposure photography where you intentionally blur movement e.g., waterfalls, car tail lights etc.
Landscape photography* to allow you to use narrower apertures without compromising quality, and to give you time to compose the shot carefully.
*I'm not a serious landscape photographer and don't typically use a tripod. But if I had the chance to go to Iceland, for example, I would take one with me.
If you are using heavy, telephoto lenses for wildlife, sports etc., and need to support their weight.
Macro photography - it's very difficult to keep the lens steady when you are shooting close up.
Any techniques where you need to take multiple shots of the same scene e.g., focus stacking, HDR photography.
Still life e.g., food and product photography, where it's useful to keep the camera in a fixed position whilst you adjust things in the scene.

How to choose a tripod
You decide you need a tripod and then you start searching online... and your brain feels like it's going to explode! How can there be so many varieties of three legged contraptions to hold your camera steady? And why are some of them so expensive? Won't that cheap Amazon Basics one do the job at under £30? Or the ones occasionally on sale in the middle of Lidl?
My daughter bought the Amazon Basics one only to discover it had the wrong type of head and wasn't tall enough to do what she needed it for. And I've got a few stories of my own involving tripods that weren't fit for purpose and set me back a few hundred pounds.
Here's my guide to what you should be looking for, drawn from twenty years of experience of buying and using tripods of all shapes and sizes.


Height: look for one that's at least 160cm tall when fully extended. It's better that it's too tall rather than too short.
Load: What's the maximum weight it can support (ideally your camera with its heaviest lens). This is always on the manufacturer's spec.
Stability: How sturdy are the legs? Cheap tripods (i.e. in the middle of Lidl etc.) tend to be very flimsy and may break easily or be easy to knock over. Is it recommended for landscapes where it might have to withstand strong winds? Does it have a hook where you can hang your camera bag to weight it down?
Weight: Do you need it to be lightweight and portable? This can be the difference between budget and top end tripods. Carbon fibre tripods are the lightest, but also the most expensive. Sturdy, solid tripods in aluminium can be quite heavy.
And if it is a travel tripod does it have a bag? The Joby RangePod Smart Tripod does, but it's not practical as it's got thin string handles. This doesn't really bother me as everything else is great about it and it does fit into a small day sac.
Type of head: Make sure this is included. It usually is but always check. The best type for photography is a ball head that moves smoothly to cover a wide range of angles and can be locked firmly in place. Unless you're shooting video don't opt for a fluid head as it doesn't give you the different angles. This is a common mistake made by beginners, as budget tripods often have fluid heads rather than ball heads.
Quick release plate: this attaches to the base of the camera and is then locked into place on top of the head of the tripod. Cheaper tripods may have looser, fiddly plates.
Leg extenders that are easy to use: These can be small levers or a twist lock mechanism. I've used both and the ease of use varies a lot. Levers can be stiff, twist locks can take time to unscrew. One of my favourite features of the Joby RangePod Smart Tripod is that you only need to do a quarter turn to loosen and tighten the twist mechanism. It's really fast and easy.


'How low can you go?' Do you need to use the tripod low to the ground to photograph flowers or wildlife? And how far can the legs splay out? And do the legs lock in position?
Do you need to photograph from directly overhead i.e., the popular flat lay images of food, products etc? If so, you need a tripod with a central column that flips to become a horizontal arm. (The Joby RangePod Smart Tripod does not but read my blog on tripods for food photography to see options that do).
Budget: how much can you afford to spend? Tripods range from £10 to £1,000. If you're set on carbon fibre you're going to pay more than you will for aluminium etc. You want a tripod that suits your needs, is sturdy and is within budget.
Let's go back to the one I've chosen. The Joby Range Pod Smart Tripod at the time of writing is around £130. It ticks all the above boxes for me, as a tripod I can use for most types of still photography, and it will easily bear the weight of my crop sensor camera and lenses. (But I wasn't confident putting my full frame Sony A7iii on it with a larger lens.) It's aluminium (reflected in the price) but surprisingly light and solidly built.
It also comes with a Joby phone holder that is well built and has a locking mechanism on it.


The tripod also looks and feels great. It feels nicely designed and high quality. I'm going to be using it when I'm travelling or on a day out, for my camera and my phone. And also in the studio when I want to do short videos. Just to be clear it doesn't have the optimum head for video (that would have to be a fluid head), but for my needs the ball head will do just fine.
Yes, I was gifted this tripod, but I chose it from a wide range and I genuinely really like it and am looking forward to getting a lot of use out of it.
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