Choosing a Tripod

A tripod is an essential accessory for a serious videographer. With good lightning and fast shutter speed even a drunkard with shaky hands can take a still photo. Movies and video, on the other side, require some sort of stabilization, and the tripod is the standard way of achieving this goal.

Most photographic and video tripods are braced around a center post, with collapsible telescoping legs and a telescoping section at the top that can be raised or lowered.

At the top of the tripod is the head, which includes the camera mount, and several joints to allow the camera to pan and tilt. The head is the most important part of the tripod: if you need smooth panning while making a video, you just have to have a tripod with a good silky-smooth panhead.

Fluid Panhead

Two major types of panheads are ball-type and pan-and-tilt type. The former works for photographers, it gives full freedom to choose a shot, but it surely does not work for filming or videomaking, because it does not provide ways for steady horizontal panning or vertical tilting. A good videographer's tripod should have a quality pan-and-tilt head, usually a fluid one.

A fluid panhead is filled with high-viscosity oil so even if your hands tremble and the force is uneven, the panhead smoothens things up. Even with unsure hands you can do smooth horizontal pans and vertical tilts without jitter.

Quick Release Plate

Another essential feature to look for is a quick release plate. The plate is attached to camera with a screw, then it just slides into the grooves on the head of a tripod. Professionals like this setup because they can quickly change locations by just clicking a camera in and out. Also they may have several cameras with plates attached to them, so they can change cameras quickly.

By the way, never walk with a tripod having a camera attached to it - the camera can easily unlatch, drop on the ground and break into pieces. Always remove your camcorder before changing locations.

My Tripod

I myself use a relatively inexpensive Velbon Videomate 607 tripod. Its legs are made of aluminum, but its center column and the radial braces are made of plastic. This saves weight and production cost. Obviously, the manufacturer had to save money somewhere to keep price below a hundred dollars after installing a better panhead.

When I start to pan, the column shift a bit because of larger tolerances between the column and the upper tripod plate. The gears are formed right in the plastic so I am not sure about the longevity of this tripod. The Videomate 607 is quite large when it is folded.

But these are minor peeves considering its reasonable price and a panhead that allows producing quality video.