David Pogue's Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Set Up a Tripod

Built-in stabilization can take you only so far. It might permit you to choose a slightly lower shutter speed, or it might make the difference between a crisp shot and a blurry one in twilight.

The built-in stuff can't perform miracles, though. It can't give you a sharp shot of the constellations, or of city lights across the river at night. And it can't keep the forest sharp but blur the babbling brook when you're using a very slow shutter speed on purpose (The Silky Brook).

In these situations, you need to bring in the big guns: a tripod.

A tripod does wonders with some kinds of photography. It makes a camera stay perfectly still even for very long exposures, including those nighttime shots when the shutter stays open for seconds at a time. And even everyday shots often come out razor-sharp when the camera is tripod-mounted.

Every camera has a socket underneath where you can screw on a tripod mount (a little plate that snaps into the tripod itself). And while the nicest, smoothest, easiest-to-adjust tripods can be expensive, the simpler, occasional-use ones can be as cheap as $20.

Tip

A tripod is even more important if you also own a camcorder, by the way, or if you plan to record video with your still camera. Nothing screams "amateur" like unsteady video.

Now, there's not an advanced photographer on earth who would head out into the field without a tripod. But let's admit ...