TRIPOD QUESTIONS

[Kerry Brown]

Do a search for general purpose tripod.

KB

[Mark Suszko]

You should expect to pay as much for a good fluid-head tripod as you did for that camera, more even. And that’s cheap actually, considering it will last you longer than the next three cameras you own, and make the shots lok like they were from a more expensive camera. A crummy head means crummy shots, so don’t cripple yourself right at the start of the race. If you don’t have much money, find a quality used one. B&H is often used as a guide to new and used pricing. There are others. I prefer to buy a slightly over-rated tripod and head, one that can take a good bit more weight than just the camera. One reason is that eventually you DO end up putting more weight on it. Like buying clothes slightly larger than your size, knowing they’ll shrink a little and (if you keep eating those donuts while editing) you’ll expand a little, and everything will meet comfortably somewhere around the middle. An undersized tripod and hed will always be spindly, wobbly, and tippy in the wind. AKA useless.

The cheap man always pays twice.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Mark’s advice is all good, but if you don’t have the money you sometimes have to compromise. I’d suggest something like this in that case:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/366655-REG/Bogen_Manfrotto_503351MVCFK_351MVCF_Carbon_Fiber_Tripod.html

Now, that’s still a $1,200 tripod, so it’s not at all what you were asking for, but it would give you something that you can do very well with at a better price than top-of-the-line gear.

If you actually have to spend $100 then you don’t need our advice. Anything under $1,000 is going to be pretty much the same, quality wise. Just look for features you want and that’s how you make your choice.

[Mark Suszko]

BTW, $100 IMO buys a pretty crummy tripod, but $25-$50 RENTS you an AWESOME one. Build the cost into your billing, plus a markup, and work your way towards a purchase. Tripods are one of the better video investments: last forever, good resale. I’d buy my own tripod, lights, and mics before I bought a camera. Rentals typically start out at ten percent of the full price of purchase, so you don’t want to rent the tripod more than ten times, or you get “upside-down” on the ROI but then again, if you are billing right, you won’t need to rent it more than a few times. 🙂

[Todd Terry]

Not that it’s a solution for every purchase… but in this case I would hit eBay.

Yes, tripods hold their resell value pretty well… but I will often see tripods going on eBay for well WELL less than would you’d think their market value should be.

My best tripod deal was a set of sticks and head just a few years old (and in pristine condition) that we bought for a couple hundred bucks. New retail was several thousand. Now admittadly this was one of those cases where the seller (not a photographer or cinematographer, I think it was an estate sale) didn’t know an accurate value (and it helped that he didn’t correctly spell “Oconnor” which cut down his viewings)… so it was not the norm… but they do pop up with pretty good frequency.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Redford Givens]

THANKS to everyone for the input. Already I’m learning more about tripods than I wanted to know. My art is teaching. Videography is a new venue, so I don’t know much (studying every day though).

Most of the shooting we will do is on a set with no pan etc. So we’re going to settle for a cheap tripod at first. That’s all the budget will permit.

There’s only one question. Do all tripods have a standard screw size to attach the camera??

When I worked with still cameras everything was standardized.

The manual says that a Panasonic AG-DVX100B requires a 1/4

[Todd Terry]

Yeah, that’s going to pretty much be standard.

Any tripod that you buy in your size/price range is going to have 1/4″ thread (small video tripod, still photography tripod).

Consumer camcorders and smaller prosumer camcorders will have 1/4″ thread. Big pro camcorders will have a larger 3/8″ thread.

T2

__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com

[Redford Givens]

[Todd at Fantastic Plastic] “Yeah, that’s going to pretty much be standard.

Any tripod that you buy in your size/price range is going to have 1/4″ thread (small video tripod, still photography tripod).

Consumer camcorders and smaller prosumer camcorders will have 1/4″ thread. Big pro camcorders will have a larger 3/8″ thread.
T2”

THANKS. Computer accessories often have different connections. Didn’t know if tripods were standardized. It’s good to eliminate one variable.