Im traveling to costa Rica and need advice on what tripod I should get to take on the trip. I use a nikon z7ii. We are planning to do trail walks to look for Sloths and birds. Mostly sloths my wife is kinda a fan
- What lenses are you bringing? Focal lengths and weight are important to decide this.
- What is length limit for packing for the ways you will travel?
- What type of head do you want to use on the tripod? Ballhead or gimbal? Some heads fits some tripods better, e.g. tripod might have built-in leveling head for gimbal use. Some heads fit into reverse folded legs of travel tripods.
- What is your weight limit for the tripod and head?
- Do you expect to do long exposures? Will you record video too?
- If the exposures are shorter to avoid animal movement and no video, then maybe monopod might be better (less weight).
- There are tiers of tripod brands. Do you want cheap (but good value) brand or do you want to maximize stability per weight but price is not a big concern?
There is a website called The Center Column. Look it up, it has some measurements that indicate how good are the tested tripods and heads in stiffness and vibration damping.
I went for 10 days in January and never brought the monopod out of the luggage. I hand held on all of the jungle walks with a 300mm and TCs. Only used the tripod with gimbal at feeder locations and all of the haciendas had viewing/feeder stations on the property. The other locations in CR where you can go eat and shoot hummers are pretty small and tripods were annoying there. The hummers move so fast you'll really want to hand hold. As others have stated you need to specify what your equipment will be and your spend limit. We only went on one hike that was strenuous enough to make me feel the weight. I took an Induro 4-section *x CF tripod with the Oben gimbal head....
I always bring a tripod and gimbal head to Costa Rica for the longer lenses like 500/4 or 600/4 often with a TC. A shorter lens like 100-400, 100-500 not all the time. If you are waiting a long time or at feeders you want the setup to be ready. If you are constantly moving, then either a smaller tripod or lens. It can be quite dark under the canopy so slow shutter speeds and fast lenses are useful.
I also bring flashes and at least one macro lens setup, box diffuser and/or AK diffuser etc. There is a lot of wildlife and different options from multi-flash hummers, to toucans, bats, snakes, etc. depending on the location. I don't use ultra-wide lenses too often, but there are some waterfalls around that could use at least 24mm. So much depends on the type of trip; if it is dedicated to serious photography or just for general purposes, and how much effort you want to put into it.
