Removing Smoke Smell from Camera Body

Recently, I purchased a second-hand Nikon D7200.  My D7000 is doing quite a job and pictures are great except for the lack of HDR.  While the D7000 supports Active D-Lighting, there are times I want to push the limit of its dynamic range capabilities.  In fact, my phone's HDR could do a better job with image details than my D7000 in high-contrast situations!  The D7200 supports HDR so I decided to go for it.  I didn't want to invest $1200+ in a new camera body as I've done with the D80 and D7000 when they first came out.  This time around, I decided to purchase a used one with a low shutter count.  I thought I bought an excellent camera, and it is, except that it reeks of cigarette smell!

When I tested the camera, I was outside standing in the cold.  My nose couldn't pick up the smell when I held the camera up to my face.  It wasn't until I brought it home that I immediately realized how bad it was.  My bad.

So, what to do?  I have an ozone making machine but I fear it could damage the plastic and rubber parts of the camera.  I've read about vinegar, activated charcoal and baking soda.  I also happened to have eTSP (phosphate-free) so I decided to use a cotton swab with diluted vinegar and then eTSP to do two first rounds of cleaning.  I applied the vinegar on all surfaces and use a damp microfiber cloth to remove any residues of the vinegar.  I did the same with eTSP.  The cigarette smell was still noticeable.  I then tried baking soda as it was also readily available.

The camera is now sitting in a cardboard box with a layer of baking soda.  The camera body sits on top of rails I made so it doesn't touch the baking soda.  I would then close the box and tie a plastic bag over the box. 

It's been 6 days.  Most of the smell is now gone!  The cardboard box itself was absorbing some of the smell but baking soda must also have absorbed a good chunk of it.

It's working but the camera still smells a little and I doubt leaving the camera body in the box with baking soda like that would remove the smell completely.  The source of the smell is still embedded in the rubber parts of the body and there is no air movement to draw the source out so I think I will have to use a bit of elbow grease to remove it.  I'm thinking to create a paste of baking soda with a bit of water and use a toothbrush or coton swab to scrub the rubber parts.

If that doesn't work, I might get activated charcoal from Amazon here:  https://amzn.to/3Y6WZiq

That's for the next post.

UPDATE:  The paste of baking soda didn't really help to remove the smell.  I ended up using some toothpaste and a toothbrush to rub over the rubber parts.  It doesn't actually remove the smell but it hides most of it with the toothpaste smell! :-)

UPDATE:  It's been almost another week, now sitting outside of the baking soda box.  The rubber parts still smell of the cigarette tar.  Folks, please don't keep your cameras in a smoke filled room if you ever plan to sell it later.  Maybe keep it in a plastic bag.

UPDATE - March 4, 2023:  It looks like the smell is really sticking hard to the rubber parts.  I picked up the camera after three weeks and my hand stinks of tar!  I don't really want to take it outside during the winter now, or the tar will transfer over to my gloves!  It's going to take a long time for this smoke smell to disappear.

UPDATE - March 4, 2023:  Well, I took the camera out for a walk around town.  I used a sling to carry it so it's always slung around my hip.  I used it every now and then.  I think the bit of wind and the handling of the camera outside helped to remove more of the smell.  Now, it still smells of tar but there is also the freshness of winter air!

Cleaning the Sensor

While I wouldn't touch the focusing screen again, cleaning the sensor is still something I'd do on a periodic basis.  If you use your DSLR on a regular basis, there is no escaping from getting dust on the sensor.  (To be more specific, it's not the sensor you'd be cleaning.  It's the sensor filter in front of the actual sensor and shutter.)  I think it's something everyone that shoots on a regular basis need to learn to

do.  Sure, you can send the camera to a shop to have it cleaned but it's really an easy and quick job.  There are many good YouTube videos that show you how to do this but the tools you'd need are as follows:

1. For dry cleaning:
1. Use an air blower first.  You can get one from Amazon:  https://amzn.to/3xU0TAI 
2. If there is still dust, use a statically charged brush.  I bought a Visible Dust brush:  https://amzn.to/3IWGm4R 
3. I haven't tried a cheaper alternative to the Visible Dust brush but this could work equally well:  https://amzn.to/3SxdpiV
2. Wet cleaning:
1. If the dry cleaning methods don't work, the dust bunnies are bonded to the sensor filter.  You'd have to rely on a wet cleaning method.  This kit on Amazon works well:  https://amzn.to/41ozrse

For wet cleaning, you don't need to fear much about touching the sensor filter.  The swabs are very soft and are lint free.  Being lint free is so important--don't even think of using a cotton swab to clean your sensor!

Dust bunnies will sometimes ruin your pictures so it's important that to do regular maintenance of the sensor.

Spec of Dust in the Viewfinder - a Nightmare

The other day, I noticed there was a spec of dust in my viewfinder of my Nikon D7000.  I thought it might have been sitting on the mirror so I brushed the mirror clean, but it persisted.  I thought it might have been on the bottom side of the focusing mirror so I cleaned it, but it still persisted.  I wasn't sure what to do as I thought it must be inside the pentaprism box and it's always scary when you disassemble anything inside the body of the D7000!  I've cleaned the sensor before so I feel confident working a DSLR but have no idea what to do with the pentaprism.

I ran across this YouTube video that was very helpful:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEejMwrRoSM.  The video was for the Nikon D40 but it gave me enough confidence to try the same on my D7000!  It was simpler than I thought but it was at the same time tricky.

Removing the bracket that holds the focusing screen up was simple.  You'd just use a tweezer of my Leatherman Wave tool to nudge the bracket slightly toward the front of the camera and the bracket would flip out.  Putting the bracket back in was more difficult.  I had to use the plastic end of my tweezer and the plastic end of a toothpick from my Wave to push the bracket back into place.  I eventually found later instructions for doing this:  https://www.focusingscreen.com/work/d7000en.htm.

Anyways, after I managed to remove the bracket, the focusing screen would easily drop out.  I handled the screen with a lint-free micro-fiber cloth and never with my fingers!  You use your fingers and I can guarantee you will leave your fingerprints on it!  Tips:  In the video above, they have a tweezer with rubber ends.  That's the best way to handle the screen.

Once you take out the focusing screen, you can use an air blower to blow away any dust that might sit on the screen.  Do this in a dust-free room or you'll likely introduce more dust between the pentaprism and the focusing screen, like I did, and it will become a nightmare trying to remove more dusts out!  I had to remove the focus screen 4-5 times until I gave up with cleaning it!  Now I have more dust specs in the viewfinder.  Gggrrr..

The moral of the story is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!  It was a tiny spec of dust--nothing to fret about and now I've got more dust in there!

Flickr's Future for Me

Well, I've been with Flickr since 2008.  From day one, I've been a Pro user.  With the Pro account, I didn't have any limit as to the number or size of images that I upload.  That was nice, and I've used up about 250GB of disk space so far.  I also liked the stats page (back when you could get more information from your visitors such as what country they're connected in from) but the stats page has changed.  I get very limited information, or perhaps I don't know how to use the new stats page.  Besides those things that I do on Flickr, it's just an image repository for me.  It could also serve as backup storage in case my place burns down.

As most users already know, Yahoo's Flickr was purchased by SmugMug back in the summer of 2018.  Shortly after, prices went up, not just by an unnoticeable trickle but by a large doubling of the numbers!  It's about $50 USD for one year when it used to be just $25 USD.  At $25 USD I didn't mind spending it because I figure in 20 years, that would amount to only $500 and I thought Flickr would still be making money as the price of hard drive keeps dropping every year.  That was a good win-win situation I thought.  Now, for some reason, when they doubled the price, now all of a sudden, it seems so much more expensive at $1000!  The triple digit cost puts it in a new perspective.  I don't feel like spending that much money for an image repository anymore, especially when I have my own server at home that can host my images.  Truthfully though, $1000 is still pretty good.  With my own hardware, I'd still have to spend money for upgrades.  I'm sure I wouldn't have to spend $1000 USD over the next 20 years but it's a bit more work on my end.  I don't mind that.

So, after over 10 years, I've decided to quit.  I'm still going to use the free version of Flickr once in a while but mostly, I'll just be hosting my own images on my server.

Transferring photos from Flickr to PicasaWeb

I haven't had to transfer photos from my Flickr account to a PicasaWeb account in a while.  This morning, I found out the migrate-flickr-to-picasa-nokey.py script no longer works.  I was getting this error when the script attempts to authenticate with PicasaWeb:  "Modification only allowed with api authentication".  Apparently, Google had dropped support for the older authentication method and opted to use OAuth2 instead.  I had to dig around the web for some readily available code to cobble together a solution.

My solution was derived from the following two sources:

• http://www.edparsons.com/2011/06/migrating-from-flickr-to-picasaweb/
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30474269/using-google-picasa-api-with-python

Make sure you read the first.

Well, here it is in its entirety:

#! /usr/bin/python
#
# requires flickrapi, gdata, and oauth2client
#
# It's a little ugly, but it is heavily tested and works!
#
#
#
# Sources:
# http://www.edparsons.com/2011/06/migrating-from-flickr-to-picasaweb/
# http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30474269/using-google-picasa-api-with-python
# https://github.com/MicOestergaard/picasawebuploader/blob/master/main.py
#
# http://photonfarmers.blogspot.ca/2013/02/flickr-to-picasa-web.html
# 

import flickrapi, StringIO
import gdata
import gdata.data
import gdata.photos.service
from getpass import getpass
from urllib import urlretrieve
from tempfile import mkstemp
from threadpool import ThreadPool, WorkRequest
import os
import sys, os.path, StringIO
import time
import gdata.service
import gdata
import atom.service
import atom
import gdata.photos
import getopt
import webbrowser
import httplib2
args_opts, album_title_to_move = getopt.getopt(sys.argv[1], '')
print "Will copy " + album_title_to_move + "..."
from shutil import copyfile

from datetime import datetime, timedelta

from oauth2client.client import flow_from_clientsecrets
from oauth2client.file import Storage

from gdata.photos.service import GPHOTOS_INVALID_ARGUMENT, GPHOTOS_INVALID_CONTENT_TYPE, GooglePhotosException

video_too_large_save_location = os.path.join(os.path.sep.join(__file__.split(os.path.sep)[:-1]), 'picasa_videos')

if not os.path.exists(video_too_large_save_location):
    os.mkdir(video_too_large_save_location)

class VideoEntry(gdata.photos.PhotoEntry):
    pass
    
gdata.photos.VideoEntry = VideoEntry

def InsertVideo(self, album_or_uri, video, filename_or_handle, content_type='image/jpeg'):
    """Copy of InsertPhoto which removes protections since it *should* work"""
    try:
        assert(isinstance(video, VideoEntry))
    except AssertionError:
        raise GooglePhotosException({'status':GPHOTOS_INVALID_ARGUMENT,
            'body':'`video` must be a gdata.photos.VideoEntry instance',
            'reason':'Found %s, not PhotoEntry' % type(video)
        })
    try:
        majtype, mintype = content_type.split('/')
        #assert(mintype in SUPPORTED_UPLOAD_TYPES)
    except (ValueError, AssertionError):
        raise GooglePhotosException({'status':GPHOTOS_INVALID_CONTENT_TYPE,
            'body':'This is not a valid content type: %s' % content_type,
            'reason':'Accepted content types:'
        })
    if isinstance(filename_or_handle, (str, unicode)) and \
        os.path.exists(filename_or_handle): # it's a file name
        mediasource = gdata.MediaSource()
        mediasource.setFile(filename_or_handle, content_type)
    elif hasattr(filename_or_handle, 'read'):# it's a file-like resource
        if hasattr(filename_or_handle, 'seek'):
            filename_or_handle.seek(0) # rewind pointer to the start of the file
        # gdata.MediaSource needs the content length, so read the whole image 
        file_handle = StringIO.StringIO(filename_or_handle.read()) 
        name = 'image'
        if hasattr(filename_or_handle, 'name'):
            name = filename_or_handle.name
        mediasource = gdata.MediaSource(file_handle, content_type,
            content_length=file_handle.len, file_name=name)
    else: #filename_or_handle is not valid
        raise GooglePhotosException({'status':GPHOTOS_INVALID_ARGUMENT,
            'body':'`filename_or_handle` must be a path name or a file-like object',
            'reason':'Found %s, not path name or object with a .read() method' % \
            type(filename_or_handle)
        })

    if isinstance(album_or_uri, (str, unicode)): # it's a uri
        feed_uri = album_or_uri
    elif hasattr(album_or_uri, 'GetFeedLink'): # it's a AlbumFeed object
        feed_uri = album_or_uri.GetFeedLink().href

    try:
        return self.Post(video, uri=feed_uri, media_source=mediasource,
            converter=None)
    except gdata.service.RequestError, e:
        raise GooglePhotosException(e.args[0])
        
gdata.photos.service.PhotosService.InsertVideo = InsertVideo

def clear_input_retriever(setting):
    return raw_input(setting.name + ":")

def passwd_input_retriever(setting):
    return getpass(setting.name + ':')

class Setting(object):
    
    def __init__(self, name, default=None, input_retriever=clear_input_retriever, empty_value=None):
        self.name = name
        self._value = default
        self.input_retriever = input_retriever
        self.empty_value = empty_value
        
    @property
    def value(self):
        while self._value == self.empty_value:
            self._value = self.input_retriever(self)
            
        return self._value
    

FLICKR = None
    
picasa_username = Setting('Picasa Username(complete email)')
picasa_username._value = ""
picasa_password = Setting('Picasa Password', input_retriever=passwd_input_retriever)
picasa_password._value = ""
picasa_oauth_client_secrets_filename = Setting('Picasa OAuth Client Secrets')
picasa_oauth_client_secrets_filename._value = 'migrate-flickr-to-picasa.secrets'

flickr_api_key = Setting('Flickr API Key')
flickr_api_key._value = ""
flickr_api_secret = Setting('Flickr API Secret')
flickr_api_secret._value = ""

flickr_usernsid = None

def flickr_token_retriever(setting):
    global FLICKR
    global flickr_usernsid
    if FLICKR is None:
        FLICKR = flickrapi.FlickrAPI(flickr_api_key.value, flickr_api_secret.value)
    
    (token, frob) = FLICKR.get_token_part_one(perms='write')
    
    if not token: raw_input("Press ENTER after you authorized this program")
    
    FLICKR.get_token_part_two((token, frob))
    
    flickr_usernsid = FLICKR.auth_checkToken(auth_token=token).find('auth').find('user').get('nsid')
    
    return True
    

def get_gd_client():

    gd_client = gdata.photos.service.PhotosService()
    gd_client.email = picasa_username.value
    gd_client.password = picasa_password.value
    gd_client.source = 'migrate-flickr-to-picasa.py'
    gd_client.ProgrammaticLogin()

    return gd_client

#
# Source:  http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30474269/using-google-picasa-api-with-python
#
def OAuth2Login(client_secrets, credential_store, email):
    scope='https://picasaweb.google.com/data/'
    user_agent='myapp'

    storage = Storage(credential_store)
    credentials = storage.get()
    if credentials is None or credentials.invalid:
        flow = flow_from_clientsecrets(client_secrets, scope=scope, redirect_uri='urn:ietf:wg:oauth:2.0:oob')
        uri = flow.step1_get_authorize_url()
        webbrowser.open(uri)
        code = raw_input('Enter the authentication code: ').strip()
        credentials = flow.step2_exchange(code)
        storage.put(credentials)

    if (credentials.token_expiry - datetime.utcnow()) < timedelta(minutes=5):
        http = httplib2.Http()
        http = credentials.authorize(http)
        credentials.refresh(http)

    gd_client = gdata.photos.service.PhotosService(source=user_agent,
                                               email=email,
                                               additional_headers={'Authorization' : 'Bearer %s' % credentials.access_token})

    return gd_client

def do_migration(threadpoolsize=7):

    print 'Authenticating with Picasa...'
    #gd_client = get_gd_client()
    gd_client = OAuth2Login(picasa_oauth_client_secrets_filename.value, 'migrate-flickr-to-picasa.store', picasa_username.value)

    print 'Authenticating with Flickr..'
    flickr_token = Setting('Flickr Token', input_retriever=flickr_token_retriever)
    token = flickr_token.value # force retrieval of authentication information...

    tmp_sets = FLICKR.photosets_getList().find('photosets').getchildren()
    sets = []
    for aset_id in range(len(tmp_sets)): # go through each flickr set
        aset = tmp_sets[aset_id]
        set_title = aset.find('title').text
        # Transfer only this one photo set ...
 if set_title == album_title_to_move:
            sets = [ aset ]
            break 

    print 'Found %i sets to move over to Picasa.' % len(sets)


    def get_picasa_albums(id, aset, num_photos):
        all_picasa_albums = gd_client.GetUserFeed(user=picasa_username.value).entry
        picasa_albums = []
        id = id.strip()
    
        orig_id = id
    
        for i in range((num_photos/1000) + 1):
            if i > 0:
                id = orig_id + '-' + str(i)
        
            picasa_album = None
        
            for album in all_picasa_albums:
                if album.title.text == id:
                    picasa_album = album
                    break
            
            if picasa_album is not None:
                print '"%s" set already exists as an album in Picasa.' % id
            else:
                picasa_album = gd_client.InsertAlbum(title=id, summary=aset.find('description').text, access='protected')
                print 'Created picasa album "%s".' % picasa_album.title.text
    
            picasa_albums.append(picasa_album)
    
        return picasa_albums
    

    def get_picasa_photos(picasa_albums):
        photos = []
    
        for album in picasa_albums:
            photos.extend(gd_client.GetFeed(album.GetFeedLink().href).entry)
    
        return photos

    def get_photo_url(photo):
        if photo.get('media') == 'video':
            return "http://www.flickr.com/photos/%s/%s/play/orig/%s" % (flickr_usernsid, photo.get('id'), photo.get('originalsecret'))
        else:
            return photo.get('url_o')


    def move_photo(flickr_photo, picasa_album):
    
        def download_callback(count, blocksize, totalsize):
            
            download_stat_print = set((0.0, .25, .5, 1.0))
            downloaded = float(count*blocksize)
            res = int((downloaded/totalsize)*100.0)
 
            for st in download_stat_print:
                dl = totalsize*st
                diff = downloaded - dl
                if diff >= -(blocksize/2) and diff <= (blocksize/2):
                    downloaded_so_far = float(count*blocksize)/1024.0/1024.0
                    total_size_in_mb = float(totalsize)/1024.0/1024.0
                    print "photo: %s, album: %s --- %i%% - %.1f/%.1fmb" % (flickr_photo.get('title'), picasa_album.title.text, res, downloaded_so_far, total_size_in_mb)

        dest = os.path.join(video_too_large_save_location, flickr_photo.get('title'))
        if os.path.exists(dest):
            print 'Video "%s" of "%s" already exists in download cache of files over 100MB. Aborting download.' % (flickr_photo.get('title'), picasa_album.title.text)
            return
    
        photo_url = get_photo_url(flickr_photo)
        print 'Downloading photo "%s" at url "%s".' % (flickr_photo.get('title'), photo_url)
        (fd, filename) = tmp_file = mkstemp()
        (filename, headers) = urlretrieve(photo_url, filename, download_callback)
        print 'Download Finished of %s for album %s at %s.' % (flickr_photo.get('title'), picasa_album.title.text, photo_url)
    
        size = os.stat(filename)[6]
        if size >= 100*1024*1024:
            print 'File "%s" of set "%s" larger than 100mb. Moving to download directory for manual handling. ' % (flickr_photo.get('title'), picasa_album.title.text)
            copyfile(filename, dest)
            os.close(fd)
            os.remove(filename)
            return
    
        print 'Uploading photo %s of album %s to Picasa.' % (flickr_photo.get('title'), picasa_album.title.text)

        if flickr_photo.get('media') == 'photo':
            picasa_photo = gdata.photos.PhotoEntry()
        else:
            picasa_photo = VideoEntry()

        picasa_photo.title = atom.Title(text=flickr_photo.get('title'))
        picasa_photo.summary = atom.Summary(text=flickr_photo.get('description'), summary_type='text')
        photo_info = FLICKR.photos_getInfo(photo_id=flickr_photo.get('id')).find('photo')
        picasa_photo.media.keywords = gdata.media.Keywords()
        picasa_photo.media.keywords.text = ', '.join([t.get('raw') for t in photo_info.find('tags').getchildren()])
        picasa_photo.summary.text = photo_info.find('description').text
    
        if flickr_photo.get('media') == 'photo':
            gd_client.InsertPhoto(picasa_album, picasa_photo, filename, content_type=headers.get('content-type', 'image/jpeg'))
        else:
            gd_client.InsertVideo(picasa_album, picasa_photo, filename, content_type=headers.get('content-type', 'video/avi'))

        print 'Upload Finished of %s for album %s.' % (flickr_photo.get('title'), picasa_album.title.text)

        os.close(fd)
        os.remove(filename)
    

    threadpool = ThreadPool(threadpoolsize)

    for aset_id in range(len(sets)): # go through each flickr set
        aset = sets[aset_id]
        set_title = aset.find('title').text
        print 'Moving "%s" set over to a picasa album. %i/%i' % (set_title, aset_id + 1, len(sets))

        print 'Gathering set "%s" information.' % set_title
    
        num_photos = int(aset.get('photos')) + int(aset.get('videos'))
        all_photos = []
    
        page = 1
        while len(all_photos) < num_photos:
            all_photos.extend(
                FLICKR.photosets_getPhotos(
                    photoset_id=aset.get('id'),
                    per_page=500,
                    extras="url_o,media,original_format",
                    page=page,
                    media='all'
                ).find('photoset').getchildren()
            )
            page += 1

        print 'Found %i photos and videos in the %s flickr set.' % (num_photos, set_title)
    
        picasa_albums = get_picasa_albums(set_title, aset, len(all_photos))
        picasa_photos = get_picasa_photos(picasa_albums)
    
        for photo_id in range(len(all_photos)):
        
            photo = all_photos[photo_id]
            photo_found = False
        
            for p_photo in picasa_photos:
                if p_photo.title.text == photo.get('title'):
                    print 'Already have photo "%s", skipping' % photo.get('title')
                    photo_found = True
                    break

            if photo_found:
                continue
            else:
                print 'Queuing photo %i/%i, %s of album %s for moving.' % (photo_id + 1, len(all_photos), photo.get('title'), set_title)

            p_album = None
            for album in picasa_albums:
                if int(album.numphotosremaining.text) > 0:
                    album.numphotosremaining.text = str(int(album.numphotosremaining.text) - 1)
                    p_album = album
                    break
        
            req = WorkRequest(move_photo, [photo, p_album], {})
            threadpool.putRequest(req)
       
    
    threadpool.wait()
    
    
if __name__ == "__main__":
    
    print """
    This script will move all the photos and sets from flickr over to picasa. 
    That will require getting authentication information from both services...
    """
    
    do_migration()
    

I hope this will save someone else a bit of grief.

Me and rain

There is something about me and the rain.  I love it.  There is a feeling of childhood fun when you go biking in the rain, knowing that when you get home, you'll be able to just wash away all the dirt splashed all over you.  There is something else about it that makes it fun for photography.  I don't know what it is but I tend to go into a shooting frenzy head on in the craziest downpour.  I'd be out there with my D7000 and getting my lens all wet to the point I can't shoot anymore--either because of condensation in the lens or the D7000 starts to behave erratically.  Yeah, I'm crazy with rain.  So today was no exception.  The PanAm game will start in less than a couple of months and the torch has arrived in Toronto.  Unfortunately, today was also the first day of heavy downpour.  The month of May has been so dry that this downpour is a big welcome I think for farmers in the area.  And for me.  It was fun standing in the rain with my motorcycle rain jacket.  It protected me from the rain and the wind.  I got wet anyway but the jacket kept me warm as I rode my bicycle down the streets, following the torch bearers.  It was also fun to use my cell phone to take pictures.  I had a thought that maybe I'd ruin it if I persist shooting it in the rain.  It was clearly drenched in water all over it but I kept shooting.  Stupid me.  I will never learn.  I kept shooting knowing full well the phone will die.  Well, it didn't die but it was starting to behave erratically too and the camera lens inside the phone stared to fog up.  Great, I thought.  Another Nova Scotia.  It managed to clear itself up, but I kept shooting in the rain.  I should have stopped using it and wait for the big moment to take the phone out.  I should have.  I should have done that.  It was a big mistake to chance it.  The biggest moment came when Chris Hadfield arrived at the Distillery District on the last leg of the torch run from Canada Square to the Distillery District.  The video was fuzzy with a damn layer of fog in front of the lens!  What an idiot I was.  Oh well, me and rain, it's a love and hate relationship.

Tripod or not on trips

To recap, I have two tripods:  a Manfrotto MKC3-P01and an OPUS OT-1104BH.  I love both.  They are not the best and you know you are compromising when the price is affordable.  You know what I mean--you make an adjustment, you let go, and the camera tilts down a bit.  It's a bit annoying but you learn to compensate for it.  Anyhow, these tripods have gone to faraway places with me, but often, they stay in my backpack.

On a recent trip to New York City, I decided not to bring a tripod.  I knew I'd spend most of the time walking around during the day but given that days end about 4:30pm at the time, I also knew I'd spent quite a bit of time walking in the dark.  It would make sense to bring a tripod.  I decided against it however.  First, I was doing a lot of walking.  Any weight I could save meant a world to me toward the end of the day.  I decided instead to rely on the camera's ability to work with high ISO settings, and to work with existing street structures to prop against or rest on, and whatever else I could use.

Many photos turned out a fuzzy but some turned out not too bad.  I had to do some sharpening for night shots: