Just realized my cheap tripod was the reason my star trails kept coming out wobbly

I spent like 3 hours last night trying to get a clean 30 second shot of Orion. Every single frame had these little jiggles in the trails, even though I used a remote shutter. I finally checked the tripod head and one of the little plastic leg locks was totally stripped, so it was slowly sinking the whole time. I had to duct tape it solid just to finish. Has anyone else had a tripod totally fail on them mid shoot?

4 comments

4 Comments

thompson.julia25d ago

My old one collapsed like @the_nora's buddy's. Total junk.

the_nora25d ago

My buddy had a leg snap clean off his old tripod during a long exposure once. The whole rig just tipped over into a creek.

shane16514d ago

Actually, that's a leg lock failure, not a snap.

johnson.betty25d ago

Ugh, that slow sink is the worst. I had a leg lock give out on a cold night, basically doing what @thompson.julia described. My whole camera just dipped for like an hour of shots. I ended up using a rock from my backpack to prop the leg up, then wrapped my scarf around the whole joint to stop the shimmy. It looked ridiculous but it got the job done until I could replace it.