360cameras

I mostly do photography with my Ricoh Theta X 360° cameras. The photos I prefer are those in which I'm not in the shot, and the tripod isn't visible in the image's nadir. Here are my favorite tripods to minimize touching up the nadir to get the perfect shot.

All 360 cameras have a blind band at the seam between the front and rear images. But the stitching software that combines both images is clever enough to hide that blind band, provided whatever you photograph isn't so close that it's hopelessly invisible in the blind band.

This is why you can't see the camera's body in the photo, and this is also why you can't see the selfie stick if you use one to hold your camera, because it's narrower than the camera's body, and therefore entirely hidden in the blind band.

Unfortunately, if you use a tripod, the legs of the tripod become visible in the nadir of the image, and they need to be airbrushed out if you want the sphere to be "perfect": I find any artifacts left by whatever I used to take the shot - including myself - incredibly intrusive and distracting in what I'm trying to capture.

The smaller the tripod, the higher it is, the less tripod legs need to be airbrushed.

• The first tripod I like to use is the Benro BK15: it's really a selfie stick that turns into a mini-tripod. When I have nothing else, I keep that little guy in my backpack.

It's 20 cm in length when it's folded, and 81 cm fully deployed. Even better: it comes with a small Bluetooth button to trigger the camera remotely. Really handy to go hide somewhere and take the shot remotely, so I don't have to airbrush myself out of the shot later.

This is what it looks like with the camera on top:

And this is what the nadir looks like:

The legs aren't too intrusive, so it's not too difficult to remove them. If the ground is very flat and there's no wind, like inside a room, it's possible to keep the legs halfway closed to reduce their footprint in the image even more. But of course, the whole installation tends to become somewhat precarious.

• My second favorite tripod isn't a tripod at all: it's a modified monopod. The monopod in question is a Dörr Cybrit Medi 16: I picked it up years ago in an airport in Europe, but I suspect this model isn't made anymore. Any monopod would work equally well I guess.

Normally, monopods are supposed to be used with the camera screwed onto the fat end, and the thin end resting on the ground. I modified mine by screwing a 135mm aluminum base onto the fat end, installing a camera quick release on the thin end, and using it in reverse:

This monopod brings the camera to eye level, so it's great for POV shots. The small base makes it surprisingly stable, even outside on a windy day provided the ground is level.

The base is very small in the nadir, because the camera is high and quite far from it, and it's very easy to remove:

The folded monopod and its custom base are heavier and bulkier than the little Benro mini-tripod. While it fits just fine in my backpack, I only take it with me when I'm specifically going out to take photos.

• Finally, because the modified monopod's base is thick and threaded all the way through, I can also screw it on top of a regular tripod on the other side. The monopod then becomes an extension of the regular tripod.

I have to be careful not to break the head of the regular tripod with this arrangement. But with a bit of care, I can place the camera well over 3 meters high:

This is great for unusual points of view without a drone, and to photograph something higher up, like the beams above the ceiling in your house if you need to inspect the insulation for example.

But I only take the second tripod with me in my backpack if I absolutely have to, because it, the monopod and its base aren't light.

The regular tripod's legs are of course visible in the nadir, but they're far enough down that they stay rather thin and easy to airbrush: