If you’re coming from the world of still photography, using a tripod means something very different than if you’re coming from the video or film world.
For instance, it’s useful to be able to flip your camera 90 degrees and shoot verticals without taking it off your tripod. Try that with video and…
Yes, you can use a tripod and mount made for a still camera to shoot video. You will just need to lock everything down, which may not be that bad of an idea. (See the previous post for Rule #1)
But the most basic camera movement in the video world is panning the camera. And it’s almost impossible to make a smooth camera pan without a stable tripod and a fluid head.
Fluid heads use a variety of methods to introduce smooth drag into the movement of the camera for pans and tilts. Not all of these methods employ any kind of fluid but they’re still called fluid heads.
In my experience, once you get into the upper levels of fluid heads it’s hard to buy a bad one. It’s also been my experience that every brand (and sometimes even a specific model in one brand) has faithful followers who swear that it’s the only one worth owning.
My advice is rent tripod/fluid heads and work with them for a while before deciding on what to purchase. Spend a bit of time learning how to adjust them as that makes a ton of difference in how well they work. But even a low priced tripod and fluid head will make a significant improvement in your projects. Here’s one from VariZoom that has a lot to offer for $189 – VariZoom VZ-TK75A Aluminum Video Tripod
You do need to balance the system to your camera. A tripod and head made for supporting 40 pound cameras will not work that well for a DSLR weighing 3 pounds. Besides, who would want to haul something that heavy around with them from shot to shot if they didn’t have to?
And that brings me to monopods.
I discovered monopods shooting stills, not video. If you need to shoot in low light and want to improve the quality of your shots you can either spend a fortune on really fast lenses or you can grab a monopod and improve your low light shots immediately.
As one of the reasons people like shooting video with a DSLR is the sensitivity and the ability to shoot in low light, a monopod may make a lot of sense. Especially if you want to be able to move from shot to shot quickly. You still get a little drifting movement with a monopod unless you prop it up against something but it’s way better than hand held.
Here’s a monopod that perfect for shooting DSLR video – Manfrotto 562B Pro Fluid Monopod
It has small feet that spread out at the bottom connected with a ball joint so you can pan fairly smoothly. The head has a decent amount of drag so you can tilt about as smoothly as you can pan.
Collapse the monopod and lock the head and you can shoot while walking with greater stability than hand held. Not as much as one of the true stabilizers but with some practice you can get decent shots for a short clip. I use this monopod a lot and it always delivers.
Here’s an old trick that will make any pan or tilt that much smoother, especially if you don’t have a really good fluid head.
Finally, here’s the cheapest, lightest weight, easiest to carry support system I’ve ever seen. It won’t impress most clients but you can carry it in your pocket and it does stabilize the camera.
