Tripods, Heads, & Mounts While you can sometimes get away with not using a tripod during the day, you have to use a tripod at night. You'll be shooting long exposures that cannot be handheld without blurring the image. Tripod Legs Gitzo Carbon Fiber Gitzo carbon fiber tripods are top-of-the-line tripods. They can be a bit pricey, but in my opinion they are well worth the cost, as they should last a very long time. Make sure to get one that is tall enough for you to use without stooping over and without raising the center bar. Feisol Carbon Fiber Tripods Feisol carbon fiber tripods are a little less expensive then the Gitzo and usually of a little lower quality. But they are still excellent tripods. BONFOTO Carbon Fiber If you're looking for a less expensive tripod, the BONFOTO tripods are of good quality. Tripod Heads Acratech Nomad Ball Head I love the Acratech ballheads due to their great build quality, durability, and light weight. They also has degree markings and a rotating base, which are very important for capturing stitched images at night. Manfrotto MHXPRO-BHQ2 XPRO Ball Head This is a less expensive ballhead that also has degree markings and a rotating base. Neewer Pro Metal Tripod Ball Head This is a budget tripod head but still has pretty good build quality. It also has a rotating base with degree markings, which is important for stitched images. Leveling Base A leveling base can be used to make sure your tripod head is mounted on a level surface, which is important when shooting big stitched images.. Equatorial & Robotic Mounts Sky-Watcher S20520 Star Adventurer The Sky-Watcher rotates your camera so that it follows the motion of the stars, moon, or sun. This allows you to take long exposures and still capture celestial objects as points of light. It will, however, blur any foreground, so you'll have to blend multiple exposures to capture nightscapes. The Astro Package can be used with a little heavier and longer lenses than the Photo Package version. Sky-Watcher Star Adventurer Mini This is a miniature version of the Sky-Watcher. It isn't quite has stable, but is a great otion if you need a light and portable equatorial mount. GigaPan EPIC Pro Robotic Camera Mount The GigaPan EPIC Pro automates the task of taking stitched images. I'd only recommend for those wanting to do a very large number of stitched images. When you get the hang of it, it's not too hard to manually take stitched images at night, and you may find that you don't need a robotic mount. [   Cameras   |   Lenses   |   Tripods   |   Accessories   |   Lighting   |   Clothing   |   Survival   |   Websites   |   Software   |   iTunes   |   Android   ] Back to Night Photography Resources Home Page Back to Collier Photography Home Page