Indulge my ignorance, please.

For years I used my dad's old heavy metal tripod (which he had bought for a behemoth super-early-model Betacam) for all my moviemaking needs. It wasn't a great piece of equipment, but it was steady and smooth. A couple months ago, during a routine shoot in the middle of the woods, the head broke off and exploded into a few pieces, and now the whole thing is unusable. So, until I could go shopping for a really professional new one, I picked up a $25 plastic deal from BestBuy to use for the rest of the shoot.

Now, I'm reconsidering buying a good new tripod. The plastic tripod is a flimsy piece of garbage, but it serves its purpose, and it's smooth enough for my taste. I'm beginning to think spending money a good tripod is a serious waste.

So what do you guys use? Does it work? And what do you recommend? If you think a good tripod is a must, how much should I be willing to spend on one? I do some grueling shoots and put my equipment in some dangerous situations, so I have qualms about plunking down $300 for a tripod and then accidentally dropping it off a five-story roof the next day.

I'd appreciate any feedback on this.

Dam Dirty Apes!

A good tripod is a two-edged sword. I, personally, use a heavy duty tripod. Mainly because I don't want a shallow gust of wind to knock over a flimsy light-weight one when I'm not paying attention, thus ending my camera's life. But then again, I hate lugging the damn thing around because it weighs a lot and it cost a very pretty penny. So it more or less comes down to what you feel like. Easy storage and manueverability yet dangerously flimsy, or heavy as hell durable and very expensive?

I have a Manfrotto tripod per suggestion by my coworker at Channel 72 Cable station. From what he understands, all pros use Manfrottos. The heads are unbelievably smooth and the tripods are very sturdy. Plus, they range in price all over the place, so you're bound to find one that suits your needs.

I picked up my tripod and head as a combo pack for about $180 (this here at Video Direct). That included a simple but very functinal tripod and a really great fluid-bearing head that works wonders. Manfrottos for DV cameras tend to come cheaply because they don't have to support a lot of weight. It's not armored and 358 pounds, but I wouldn't call it flimsy either. If you want a good, durable tripod and a really nice motion head for a good price, I'd go with something like that.

A good tripod is a tool like anything else. If you find you're style of filmmaking not needing that tool, great. Don't spend the money. I normally carry with me two of the cheapo tripods and my bogen larger tripod with the 501 fluid head (that cost about $550). Benefits of that tripod over the others are it is much more smooth with pans and tilts. It can get much higher. It is much more steady for doing fx shots where the camera must be locked in place. And it's a lot easier/faster to level. But the cheapos are great too and I keep a couple of them in my kit mainly for rigging the camera in strange places (i.e. on the ceiling, out a car door, that kind of stuff).

I mainly use a Velbon tripod, but I also have a Vanguard monopod and a Davis & Sanford tripod with wheels. They all work well, especially the monopod, which has a fluid head. (My dad was a photographer, so I basically got all my tripods and lighting equipment for free.) You'd be safe going with any of those brands.

I use a crappy, but rugged tripod my grandfather gave me. I've had it since I was about 10, and I'm glad you posted this thread, cause I've been wondering what to get as well.

Slightly off-topic, but I just purchased a new DSLR and it came bundled with a tripod so cheap and flimsy that it can't even hold the camera up during a long exposure. I get a nice smooth motion blur.

Thanks, everyone. I'll buy one of each.

quote:

Joren said:
my bogen larger tripod with the 501 fluid head (that cost about $550)

Holy god. Joren, if you don't mind my asking, what kind of work do you do? Judging by the above statement and all the build-it-yourself equipment tutorials I've seen on your site, I'm guessing you have some professional experience.

Dam Dirty Apes!

I use a $375 Hakuba tripod, and it was a worthwhile investment. I use it for pretty much everything, but if I need to go fast & light, I carry a very small crappy tripod and a durable mini tabletop-style tripod. That setup works pretty well for me.

One piece of advice that I will give is always get a tripod case. Some high-end tripods come with a case, but most don't. They're most useful for actually carrying the thing (as opposed to protecting it), because you'll notice that tripods are kind of a pain to carry, especially long distances in poor conditions (which I have experience doing). Get a case.

I just bought a Bogen with a 501 head for dirt cheap and i love it. Better then my Slik U212 I used, LOL

I'm sure most people are sick of hearing my resume, but I started in theater, then went to broadcast (doing local tv commercials, and live studio 3 camera shows), then some low end corporate and event photography, and now I work in the film industry in Los Angeles doing production design stuff for national TV ads and the occasional music video. But, the stuff I own and build is for my hobby of micro-budget filmmaking. I bought the tripod when I was given a grant to do a short film (but ended up paying out of pocket because they re-nigged because of content issues). As nice as it is, it doesn't compare to *real* professional tripods that cost $4k. The difference is budgets of millions of dollars compared to a thousand dollars.

I use a manfrotto tripod with a fluid head. very very nice tripod and they are cheap as chips in comparison
. (manfrotto = bogen in the states i believe)

I use a manfrotto with a manfrotto fluid head. Set me back 475$ But i'll tell you this... best purchase I've ever made, the quality of construction is fantastic. I'm sure it will last my lifetime though.

I use a cheapo tripod for risky stuff, but I never use the pan tilt on it. I just use it to hold the camera in one place. I also put weights at the bottom to keep from tipping or shaking in the wind.

Miller DS-5 Aluminum Tripod System - consists of: DS-5 Fluid Head, DS 1-Stage Tripod, Mid-Level Spreader and Softcase - Supports 5.5 lbs

Hasn't given me problems and it strong and lightweight. bhphoto was the seller

quote:

From what he understands, all pros use Manfrottos.

Uh... yeah... all pros use Sony also, right?

Seriously, Bogen/Manfrotto is good gear for its price range. I use Bogen 3051 legs and an original Miller fluid head. It cost me about $300 to put the rig together but it blows away any other setup under $1000 in terms of stability, quality, and smoothness of movement.

FWIW, and maybe it's only because I actually have a fluid head, but Manfrotto/Bogen does not produce any true fluid heads. They make damped friction heads, which do not actually force hydraulic fluid between chambers to create resistance. The Bogen heads can be quite good, but they don't reach the level of a true fluid head like a Miller, Sachtler, O'Connor, etc.

My Miller head is from the '50s but it's in good shape and works well. My setup supports up to 25 or 30 lbs, which is important because my Bolex with 3 large lenses is probably close to 8-10 lbs, and I don't like to use things near their limit...

A good head is where most of your money should go. Legs are important, but a $150-200 set from Manfrotto is fine for most DV and small 16mm cameras.