Posted by Ryan Boni on 10/19/05 04:13

Well, my personal philosophy is that there's no such thing as overkill
when it comes to tripods (in many instances a good & well-maintained
tripod will easily last you through 3 or 4 camera purchases.)
Personally, I'm a big fan of Bogen/Manfrottos. Some people don't like
them because they used to be quite heavy (especially in comparison to
Sachtlers and others), but have since come out with much lighter-weight
models. At our station we use a fleet of different Bogens for
everything from our little Panasonic DVC60s up to our bigger JVC 5000 &
550s and Sony 250.

However, I see the PC350 weighs less than a pound, which means, yeah,
it could be a bit of overkill.

Check out the weight rating for the tripods you are looking at. Price
will end up being anything from a cheapo $30 or under tripod up to a
couple hundred bucks for a really solid one. As with just about
everything else in video, you will usually get what you pay for.

Also, you have to decide what kind of head you want for it. What is it
that you're having problems with on your current triopod: stability,
smoothness of panning and tilting, etc.

If you give us an idea of the types of conditions you are shooting in
(and those with which you are having the most problems), maybe those in
this group can give you a better answer.

Good luck

Ryan

Ryan Boni
Public Access Director
Peters Township Community Television

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