In my last article on supporting the camera, I have talked about how to hold the camera for maximum steadiness and how you can use other available supports (like wall, car, tree..) to improve it.

Today I’m going to talk about different accessories that you can use for even greater stability.

There are many types of accessories available that vary in how and where you can use them, as well as the steadiness they provide.

Tripod

Tripod is one of the most well known supporting accessories for cameras. It has three legs (as the name suggests) and it comes in different sizes, weights and materials.

It provides the best support for your camera but due to its size it can be difficult to use in crowded places or when you want to change your position frequently. In those situations monopod would come handier.

To learn more about tripods, I have written a series of articles about them describing its individual features in detail.

Tabletop Tripod

They can be also called: table pod, low-level, miniature, or mini-tripods.

They are a miniature version of tripods and are popular in macro photography, but can be used in other types of photography as well.

They are light, compact and easy to carry around, mostly designed to use with light compact cameras. If you want to attach a SLR camera on it, make sure it is sturdy enough to hold the weight (additionally you can support it by bracing it against the wall). When you don’t want to carry a tripod with you, but you want something “just in case you need a tripod”, they can provide a good solution.

Their obvious disadvantage is their height: they are only about 20cm / 7.8" tall (depending on the model) and cannot be used to shoot from higher angles.

There are many different variants of mini tripods, one of them is the gorilla tripod, developed by Joby. Its legs are very flexible and can wrap around a fence, post or a tree branch, which allows more flexibility and higher angles of shooting.

Gorilla tripods are quite cheap, but if you prefer to make one on your own that would mimic its functionality, you can find instructions here.

With tabletop tripods it is easy to take horizontal pictures. But what about vertical position? In that case, get yourself a L-bracket accessory for a tabletop tripod.

String tripod

It is known under different names: string tripod, string bipod, string monopod, stringpod, chain tripod, chainpod, etc.

They are a bit less stable than a monopod, but much more compact and come useful in situations when tripods and monopods are not allowed or when you have nothing better at hand.

They come in different variations:

• They can be made from a string, cord, strap, rope or a light chain. It should be about your eye-level length.
• The camera and the string are attached through a quick release plate (which must have something where you can tie the string on) or a thumbscrew that fits your camera’s tripod connector hole.
• On the other end, the string can be stand-alone, attached to an object (on which you later step on), it can have a loop where you put your foot through, or it can even be attached to a stick.
• They can use one or two strings. I find one more comfortable to use.

To use it, attach the camera to the quick release plate or a thumbscrew, and strain the string by stepping on it (or the object attached to it) and pulling your camera upwards. I find it the most comfortable to step on a string with my left foot, while the right foot is a step backwards and my arms against my chest for the best support.

For detailed instructions on how to create one yourself, you can visit instructables.com or for a simplified version with a video click here.

Monopod / unipod

It is similar to a tripod, but it has only one leg (therefore called “mono” as “one”).

Because of this characteristic it is used in situations when there is not enough room for a tripod or when you want to move around quickly. They are also much quicker and easier to set up (obviously you have to adjust only one leg) than tripods.

Additionally, it is much lighter than a tripod and therefore easier to carry. However, its advantage of being more mobile strikes back because one leg makes it less stable. They cannot stand on their own. This problem becomes evident when you want to use longer exposures.

I am describing monopods in greater detail in a separate monopod article.

Chestpod / chestbracket

When a monopod is braced against your chest or waist in order to steady your camera, it is called a chestpod or a chest bracket.

It is light, mobile and very simple to use: just place the strap around your neck, mount the camera (mounting is the same as to a monopod or a tripod) and you are ready to shoot. The weight of the camera is transferred to your body instead to your hands which makes it ideal when you are on the field for longer times (to not get tired).

Since it braces against your body, it can still create some shaking (make sure you stand as steady as you can) and is therefore less steady than a monopod or a tripod, but more steady than being hand-held.

Another advantage is that it can support the camera even with no use of hands (which make them free to do something else) and that it can be used when tripods or even monopods are not allowed.

A variation of a chestpod is so-called GoPod, designed by Cory Shubert which offers a very steady shot and is easy to use with longer lenses as well.

Bean bags

Use bean bags!

Yes, it is simple as it sounds: bags filled with beans.

Well, usually – they can also be filled with other similar material, like rice, bird seed, polyethylene beads, buckwheat hulls, grain – any pods really that are NOT dusty (dust is the biggest enemy of the photographic equipment!). You can also fill them with plastic beads. What filling you will use will influence the weight of the bag.

Tip: Instead of carrying them while travelling, you can empty the bags and refill them when you arrive at the destination itself, with grain bought in the local market. And after shooting – you can eat them ; )

Bean bags can come handy and are very easy to use when you want to place the camera on any uneven surface for support, like fence, car (hood, roof, and window), rock, window, tree branches, floor, etc.  Simply put a bean bag under your camera, push the camera in the bag to conform a shape to hold the camera steady.

They can be used with SLR cameras as well as compact cameras and provide a very steady support for longer lenses as well.

You can buy them (ones specially designed for photography; inexpensive) or make them yourself if you know how to sew: use a rough sturdy unelastic material and sew a 30×30 bag with a zipper opening to fill the bag with pods (usually half the bag, but to be sure, try it out by placing a camera on the bag).

C-clamp and G-clamp device

C-clamp is a simple device that can be clamped on a fence, parking meter, tree branch, table, window of a car, steering wheel of a bicycle, or on any other solid object really to create a simple tripod-like device. It is really up to your imagination where you clamp it on (objects from metal or wood are the best)!

You can buy a simple one that can fit into your pocket (for compact and light SLR cameras), or more heavy and robust one if owning a SLR camera (especially when using heavy lenses). However, if you are a bit of a technical person, you can create one on your own.

If you already own a tripod and you would like to shoot from a different angle and position that your tripod does not allow you, you can buy yourself a small c-clamp device that can be attached on the tripod itself.

A variation of a C clump is a window mount, specially designed to be clumped on a car window. It comes useful when observing from a car, i.e. wildlife.

Copystand

Whenever you want to take studio pictures of small objects (like book pages, photographs, film, coins, stamps and similar) from top down, copystand can come handy.

The objects are placed on the copyboard, while camera is mounted on the column and can be slided up and down, closer or further to the subject.

It can be simple with only a stand and a column or also with arms to hold lights which can evenly light the object from all directions (especially helpful when the object is not completely flat).

Bottle cap tripods

Bottle cap tripods are small accessories that you screw over a (full) bottle. They are appropriate to use with only small compact cameras. The angle can be changed.

Using a camera/lens with image-stabilization technology

Nowdays many digital cameras and lenses offer an image stabilization technology that help you with horizontal and vertical shaking. They are not perfect (depending on the conditions), but can often improve the sharpness of your photos.

I highly recommend them, but keep in mind that they cannot (by far!) replace accessories like monopod or tripod. Saying that, make sure that whenever you are using a tripod to turn the image stabilization off.

Conclusion

The best and ultimate support for your camera is a tripod. But there are also other supports available that you can use when you don’t have tripod at hand.

In this article I have tried to cover as broadly as I could the difference accessories that can help you steady the camera. If you know of any other such accessory or you have experience using any of the above, please share with us your experience.

In the next article I am talking about a monopod in greater detail.

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