Gadget Bag: Sharpness Is Easy

We’ve said it before and we‚’ll say it again: If you‚’re looking to improve your photography, the single most useful tool you can use is a tripod. As photo gear goes, tripods fall somewhere between a sandbag and lens-cleaning tissue on the "cool equipment" scale. Compared to exotic optics, advanced filters and new ubertech SLRs, what‚’s less sexy than three sticks connected to a hinged plate? And yet the tripod remains the device that’s most likely to have an immediate, positive impact on your imagery.