Is a spirit level a spirit level?

[kevin_railsback2]

<p>Is there any differences in the spirit levels you find at say B&H vs. those on Ebay?</p>

<p>I can get a whole handful of them off ebay for the price of a single dual axis spirit level from B&H<br>

Since I've had my current one slip of often, I hate to spend $25 for one when I get get a bunch for the same money.</p>

[tim_mulholland]

<p>Yes, a spirit level is a spirit level...<br>

There's not a whole lot to one. You might even try going to the hardware store and see what's available and simple. My hardware store used to sell a spirit level keychain that worked great for me, and for only a buck or two...<br>

Good luck,<br>

Tim!</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>It's useful to have one that fits into the flash shoe. Where else you gonna' find a flat, level spot?</p>

[ellis_vener_photography]

<p>A carpenter once told me this : If three levels agree, two of them are wrong.</p>

[kevin_railsback2]

<p>Funny that above this post was an Adorama ad for a Acratech spirit level for $24.50.<br>

Just can;t see spending that kind of money when you can find them so much cheaper on ebay.</p>

[joseph_smith3]

<p>I have one that will not fit my hot shoe so it was a waste of money and I have another one whose design serve no real useful purpose. It is like most things. You get what you pay for. Joe smith.</p>

[mt4x4]

<p>"It's useful to have one that fits into the flash shoe. Where else you gonna' find a flat, level spot?"<br /> <br /> Glue one onto a hotshoe cover.</p>

[JDMvW]

<p>Look in a hardware store for what are usually called "line levels" - they are plastic or metal and are made to hang from a string. They are very inexpensive and work just fine. If that doesn't work, then consider the pricey ones.</p>

[Two23]

<p>I'm not sure those hotshoe levels are really level. Seems to depend on how level they made your hotshoe. I once bought four of them and checked and found none were really level. I now level up my tripod head with a small line level from a hardware store, and level side to side, then front/back. Those seem more accurate.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p>

[jay a. frew]

<p>This is On The Level...ok sorry...while that pun is true, it is a little off kilter.</p>

<p>Few levels I have ever used (not talking levels used just just for photography)are all that accurate and many will loose accuracy over time. The vials can shift in their housings and the housing itself may warp or suffer some other physical change. Those relatively inexpensive line levels, in plastic housings, are the worst I've used as far as maintaining accuracy is concerned.</p>

<p>It is easy to check your level periodically:</p>

<p>- place the level on a flat surface</p>

<p>- centre the bubble (note that with some "line levels", the bubble will not be in the "apparent" centre when level)</p>

<p>- pick up the level, swing it around through 180 degrees, and put it back down in the same spot</p>

<p>- the bubble should settle in the centre once again</p>

<p>Although I haven't tried this (or given it much thought), I suppose you could check the level of your camera hotshoe the same way, if your camera has a flat baseplate.</p>

<p>Cheers! Jay</p>

[Ed_Ingold]

<p>Jay left out the part of first leveling the surface on which you do the testing. It is safe to assume that the base plate of the camera is a good reference plane, it's just a little inconvenient to use when it's mounted on a tripod.</p>

<p>If all you wish to do is to check the level, put it in the shoe and level the camera on the tripod. Then turn the level 180 degrees. The bubble should go back to the center. Once that is done, level the mounting platform on the tripod, replace the camera and check the level of the shoe.</p>

<p>These dedicated shoe levels with two tubes also have two shoe mounts which can be used in any direction. Gluing a non-descript level to a shoe cover (I've never seen or needed one - perhaps they come with leaky cameras) won't work unless you glue it to two shoe covers. Shoe covers are probably directional, so that won't work either.</p>

<p>Good test levels (e.g., Starrett, Brown & Sharp or Mitsubishi) are expensive. Hardware store levels are only good to about 1/2 degree, which is little better than eyeball accuracy. Where do you want to go with this? I have a nice army surplus level from a 40mm mortar. It's accurate to 2', which is good enough to plunk a 2 pound grenade into a bathtub at 300 meters. I haven't seen anything like it in many years - they're all in use, I guess.</p>

[kelly_flanigan1]

<p>Just get a Wild N3 and be done with it. :)</p>

[colin carron]

<p>Don't worry about a spirit level unless you also are using a tripod. Anything that takes your eye away from the viewfinder is a distraction and will come between you and getting a good image. Concentrate on the shot and correct if necessary in PS afterwards.</p>

<p>Henri Cartier-Bresson used a Leica I for much of his street photography. This is the version with no rangefinder. To him catching that 'decisive moment' required that he was always looking through the viewfinder and not being distracted by secondary issues.</p>

 

[Glenn McCreery]

<p>I purchased one of the $2.95 plus shipping (from Hong Kong) levels on e-bay. It works fine although the fit in my Fuji 120 rangefinder hot-shoe was a bit tight to start with. A little sanding and the level fit perfectly. It's better to have it too tight than too loose to start with. I find it useful for landscapes, even with the camera hand-held, for keeping the horizon approximately horizontal. Another thing that I did to that end was to epoxy glue a small plastic level to the bottom of the camera mounting plate on my TiltAll tripod head for leveling the head in the horizontal direction perpendicular to the camera axis (I am not usually worried about foreward-backward tilt for landscapes, although I would be if I took multi-exposure panorams to be stitched together later. In that case, buying a tripod head with built-in leves would be the way to go).</p>