I own a Sony NEX-5R, and use it heavily for low-light photography, with a Gorillapod. I used to use a Gorillapod with a point-and-shoot, so when I upgraded to the NEX, I stuck to the Gorillapod (albeit, of course, a heavier one, designed for the mirrorless cameras). I thought a traditional tripod would be too heavy and big to carry with me (the best tripod is the one with you?)

I can think of a couple of drawbacks of the Gorillapod:

• I often, but not always, find a surface to the attach the Gorillapod to.

• The Gorillapod does suffer from camera shake when I take a long exposure, but I've learnt to work around that by using a 2-second timer. I then read on photo.SE that that's not enough, so I started using a 10-second timer. Can I skip the timer if I use a traditional tripod? I read on photo.SE that even a traditional tripod can suffer from camera shake for long exposures. Is that correct?

• Attaching the Gorillapod to a surface is fussy, but then so is carrying a traditional tripod. So it's about ease of carrying vs ease of setting it up at a given site, I guess.

What other factors are involved in this tradeoff? What am I losing by not going with a traditional tripod?