Pixiq

On the surface, a tripod for still photography and a tripod for video aren’t all that different. In fact, many photographers can take a quality tripod that they have been using and simply replace the head with a video fluid head. This can work even if it is a little inconvenient changing heads all the time. Still, you may need two tripods—one for still photography and one for video.

We often hear complaints about the expense of tripods and heads. That’s understandable; a good tripod and head are not cheap. However, a quality tripod and head are also a good investment that will last a long time. (Plus, a shaky tripod can do harm to both your still photography and video. While you might try to overcome a wobbly setup with a fast shutter speed when shooting stills, video will capture every second of those shaky moments.)

Tripods and heads don’t go out of date. They will work with every camera that comes out in the future. The price of a good tripod and head is not much different than the price of a typical lens (much cheaper than high end lenses that really deserve the support of a good tripod), and less than the price of most cameras. However, the use of a good tripod and head can do more to improve video quality than buying a new camera or lens.

Level The Tripod

The tripod itself needs to be leveled when shooting video so that when you do a pan of the scene, that pan is perfectly level. You don’t want to have the camera pointing flat onto the scene at the start of the pan and then have it shifting up or down at the end of the pan. Many tripods now have levels built into the collar of the tripod just above the legs to make this leveling easier to do. In addition, opening and adjusting the legs must be easy and efficient to make leveling easy. More expensive video tripods and heads use a ball and bowl arrangement to allow for easier leveling. The tripod itself has a bowl in the collar between the legs. The video head has a ball that fits into that bowl and includes a screw clamp at the bottom to tighten the bowl and ball together. Because of this ball and bowl arrangement, the head can be very quickly leveled and locked into place. If your head doesn’t have this feature, consider buying a special adapter—a head leveler— that performs this function and fits between a normal tripod and a head. Metal tripods are fine, but there are some big advantages for carbon-fiber tripods. While carbon-fiber tripods are definitely more expensive, we highly recommend that you look into it and get one if at all possible. The main advantage of carbon-fiber tripods is that they are significantly lighter than a metal tripod. This is a big deal for most photographers because if a tripod is too heavy for you, you will tend to leave it at home or in the car and not use it. A low-priced tripod that you never use is a poor value. A higher-priced tripod that is constantly used is a bargain.

Our preference in tripods for photographers shooting video is a tripod made by Manfrotto or Gitzo. Carbon-fiber tripods also have a distinct advantage in cold weather. They are not as cold to the touch when temperatures drop. That can be important when you’re recording video outdoors when the weather is chilly.