A tripod is a portable tripod or shelf that serves as a platform for supporting weight and maintaining the stability of other objects. The tripod provides stability against downward and horizontal forces as well as movement around the horizontal axis. The position of the tripod is far away from the vertical center, which can make the tripod better resist the lateral force.

Many cultures, including ancient Chinese and Greek peoples, used tripods as decorations, trophies, altars, cookware or cauldrons, and decorative pottery. Since the earliest Neolithic culture of Cishan and Peiligang in the 7th to 8th century BC, tripod pottery has become a part of Chinese archaeology. The sacrificial tripod was found and used in ancient China. It is usually made of bronze, but sometimes in the form of ceramics. They are often referred to as "jingles," usually with three feet, but in some cases with four.

In modern times, Chinese people use sacrificial tripods symbolically. For example, in 2005, the central government presented a "national unity tripod" made of bronze to the government of Northwest Uygur Autonomous Region of China to commemorate its 50th birthday. It is described as a symbol of the unity of traditional Chinese sacrifice ship.

In ancient Greece, tripods were often used to support legs or pots, sometimes for cooking and other purposes, such as supporting vases.

In photography, a tripod is used to stabilize and lift a camera, flashlight, or other photographic device. All photo tripods have three legs and a mounting head that can be coupled to the camera. The mounting head usually includes a wing screw matched with the female thread socket on the camera, and a mechanism which can rotate and tilt the camera when the camera is installed on the tripod. Tripods are usually made of telescopes to save space when not in use. Tripods are usually made of aluminum, carbon fiber, steel, wood or plastic.

Tripod can be used for both static and dynamic photography to prevent camera movement. They are necessary for low-speed exposure or when using a polar lens, because any camera movement when the shutter is open will produce a blurred image. Again, they reduce camera jitter and therefore help to get the maximum clarity. Tripod also helps to achieve accurate composition of images, or when shooting multiple images in the same scene, such as when surrounding exposure. Using a tripod may also provide a more thoughtful way to photograph. For all these reasons, for professional photography and some video use, a tripod is usually required. Tripod can also be used as an alternative photography accessory for C-frame.

There are several types of tripods. The cheapest, usually made of aluminum tubes, costs less than $50 and is mainly used for consumer grade still cameras and cameras. These usually come with an additional head and rubber feet. The head is very basic and is usually not fully suitable for camera translation. A common feature (mainly designed for static cameras) allows the head to turn 90 degrees sideways so that the camera can take pictures of people rather than landscapes. A small pin is usually included in front of the mounting screw to stabilize the camcorder. This can't be found on the more expensive photography tripod.

The more expensive professional tripod is stronger, stronger, and often does not have an integrated head. The separated platform enables the tripod platform combination to be customized according to the needs of photographers. There are expensive carbon fiber tripods for applications requiring lightweight tripods. Many tripods, even relatively inexpensive ones, include horizontal indicators for the legs and head of the tripod.

Many of the more expensive tripods also have other features, such as reversible center struts, so the camera can be mounted between the legs to allow shooting from a low position and the legs can be opened to several different angles.

The head is the part of the tripod that is attached to the camera and aimed at the target. It can be integrated into a tripod or a separate section. There are usually two different types of headers available.

The ball head uses a ball and socket joint to allow all rotating axes to move from a single point. Some ball heads also have a separate panoramic rotation axis at the bottom of the head. The head has two main parts, one is fixed on the camera and the other is fixed on the tripod. The camera is attached to the ball with a quick release plate or a simple UNC 1 / 4 "- 20 screw. The socket is where the ball rotates and also contains controls for locking the ball. There is a slot in the socket. The side so that the camera can rotate to the longitudinal direction of the ball head has a variety of complexities: some have only one control for locking the ball and panning the lock, while others have separate controls for controlling the ball, panning and rubbing the ball. Spherical PTZ is used in the situation where the camera moves freely. Compared with PTZ, they are more stable and can bear more load. However, the disadvantage of spherical PTZ is that only one control can be used to control PTZ. Prevents all rotation axes from moving, so if the camera is tilted on one axis, there may also be a risk of tilt on other axes. When you need to move or rotate one or two axes, you need to rotate the head of the pan tilt.

3-way rotating platform on tripod, displaying panoramic rotation, lateral tilt and forward tilt control

The turntable has a separate axis and controls for tilt and pan, so you can control one axis without affecting the others. There are two and three types of nozzles. The two-way head has two axes and controls, one for panoramic rotation and the other for forward tilt. The tripod has three axes and controls, one for panoramic rotation, forward and roll. The controls on these heads are usually handles that can be rotated to loosen or tighten specific shafts. This allows no movement in one, several, or one axis. Use the ball head when you need all the movement of the axis of rotation. Some pan tilt tables use gears to precisely control each axis. This is useful for some types of photography, such as macro photography.

Other types of cloud platforms include cloud platform, fluid cloud platform, gear cloud platform, altitude azimuth and equatorial cloud platform. The movement of fluid head and gear head is very smooth, avoiding the bumps caused by stick slip effect in other tripod heads. Pan tilt pan tilt is a single axis pan tilt used to keep the camera and lens in balance motion. It turns out that this is useful in wildlife photography and in any other case where long and heavy telephoto lenses are used: the gimbal head rotates the lens around its center of gravity, so it is easy and convenient to operate when tracking a moving subject.