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Velbon DV-7000 Video Tripod
by andyLDN
A few years ago, I was asked to film a friend's wedding. Using a couple of cameras, I held one while the other was placed on a tripod in a different location so I could get two angles. I bought a cheap "Hama" brand tripod from Jessops which stood 160cm high, came with a case, the usual three legs and worked fine. If you only ... need a tripod for occasional use, then something like does the job. If you're going to use a tripod regularly and particularly for video, then I'd recommend getting something of a higher quality.
Everywhere I looked on forums, people were telling me that a decent tripod was the best investment you could make when shooting videos. Considering there were several other items I wanted first (new camera. batteries, memory cards etc) I took the advice, but stuck with the cheap Jessops tripod for a while. Although a top quality tripod can cost over £300, I had seen many positive comments about the DV-7000 model made by Velbon. I'd also seen a proffessional recommend it in a video as a good starter tripod, so at £85 on Amazon, I thought I'd give it a shot.
It comes in a nice, thick cardboard box and is sealed in a plastic bag with no carry-case. The first thing that struck me was the weight, it's heavy. 3.4KG, compared to the Hama tripod which weighed only 1.7KG. Although this makes it feel streets ahead in terms of quality and sturdiness, it's heavy to carry around. The maximum height is pretty much the same at 162cm, and collapses down to 70cm when folded up. The unit is designed to support a camera weight of up to 4.5KG. The legs have a width of around the size of a 10p piece and are in three sections which can be extended as high as you wish and locked in place using a quick, flip-lock mechanism. To ensure the tripod is level, there's a bubble-level on the top of the tripod.
The legs also open really wide (sorry, can't think of another way to say that) meaning you can add more stability if you need it. The lowest operating height is 57cm high which is a achieved by not extending the legs and splaying them as wide as possible.
My favourite bit of this tripod is the fluid head. It's made of plastic, but feels sturdy. The head is oil filled which enables you to get really smooth pans from left to right and up to down, the resistance can be altered using a screw control at the side. My only niggle is that there's a little slack in the motion, and this slight movement can be visible in videos, so you have to be take that into consideration when panning. To get even smoother pans, one tip I learned to make them even smoother is to attach an elastic band to the control handle, creating an elasticated mini-strap. This using the band to eases the motion and removes any shakey hand movement which could be visible in your work.
The camera is attached to the tripod via a quick-release plate which screws into the camera tripod thread which snaps into a locked position on the tripod to be removed quickly if necessary. The quick release plate can be screwed into the camera by hand.
Well having climbed one step up the tripod ladder, I certainly could not go back to the cheap Jessops tripod. You can't pan or tilt the head smoothly at all and it looks so flimsy in comparison, I'm worried it will blow over in the wind! Perhaps as I progress, I'll go for a more expensive "Manfrotto" brand which is likely to be of lighter construction with a superior fluid head. At the moment I plan to get a second Velbon DV-7000, which is currently a bargain £69 on Amazon, cheaper than I paid last year. My only niggle is that it doesn't come with a carry case, and I'm finding it difficult to find one that fits, for a reasonable price.
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Joby Gorillapod
by andyLDN
After a leg fell of my Velbon mini tripod (tragic I know) I decided to buy myself one of these flexible bendy tripods that I'd seen out and about. Going on holiday, I didn't want to be without the tripod as you inevitably end up with the scenario of just one of you in the photograph giving people the impression that you have no friends ... and travel alone.
After some research online, I worked out that I was after a Joby Gorillapod. Presumably named because it's flexible legs can cling onto anything like some kind of primate hanging from a tree branch.
So, three legs (no surprises there) each made up of 10 connected plastic balls which can be bent and contorted into any shape you like, on each joint there is a white, horizontal rubber mini-band which provides grip all the way up the leg. As well as hours of entertainment of creating various insect shapes, this feature makes it much better than a standard tripod.
Firstly, normally you'd need a level surface to set up a tripod, not with this. By bending the legs you can attach the gorillapod to almost anything such as vertical objects like railings and trees (small ones) and with the special grippy legs, it's very unlikely you'll set up that perfect timed shot, all stand back and watch your camera smash on the floor. Instead of 'resting' the tripod, you can now secure it in place giving you that extra bit of reassurance.
Another nifty feature on this tripod is the removable head. Like a much larger tripod, there's a base that screws into the camera and this slides into a groove on the top of the tripod. I just tend to leave the base plate on the camera permanently, making the setup really fast. The whole unit also seems really sturdy. It seems like you could drop it, bend it as much as you like without it breaking.
Joby makes gorillapods in various sizes and colours (the leg bands come in red, blue, green etc but the main body is still black) . I used mine for a standard small, compact camera so their basic 15cm tall model priced at £11.12 currently on amazon was perfect for my needs. For some reason, mine arrived in just an envelope wrapped in bubble wrap, whereas in shops, I've seen them in plastic cases. There were also no instructions, not that you'd really need any. For a price lower than the high street, it really didn't matter.
Overall I'd recommend. But if you're buying it as a gift, the presentation in just an envelope isn't perfect when purchased from some sellers on Amazon.
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Hama Digi-Pod Tripod Compact 1
by i_am_joy
I met up with a very old friend recently, living in Saudi Arabia I have not seen her for eight years and envisage it will be a similar period of time until I see her again. We decided to go and see a show and have dinner afterwards, so knowing I would want to take photographs I packed my camera and spare batteries.
After ... taking lots of snaps of my lovely friend we said how nice it would be to have a photograph together, I was just about to ask a passing lady to take the picture when my friend stopped me and handed over a strange looking piece of metal. Not being sure why she had passed me what looked like some kind of woodworking bracket, I must have looked rather blank as she quickly explained that in fact this was a miniature camera tripod.
It looks unlike any camera tripod I have ever seen before; although it folds to fairly flat dimensions, once opened out it provides a wide and stable base for your camera. There are slim, unobtrusive strips of rubber on each 'foot' - not as bulky in appearance as those on the photograph Dooyoo have provided so I suspect Hama may have changed this aspect of the design. These rubber ends serve to act as a non-slip measure and, having tested it on several different surfaces, I can attest to the fact that they do work - even the time when I rather belatedly noticed that I had stood the tripod in a sticky patch of some alcoholic beverage on a particularly unstable table.
To connect your camera to the tripod you simply locate the blunt screw at the top edge of the tripod and proceed to screw it in, hand tight is the best way I've found as this tripod does have an awful habit of tightening itself up while attached to the camera. The screw holds everything nicely together, unlike a tripod my daughter had which deposited her camera onto the table when the screw failed.
The shape and bulky nature of the tripod makes it incredibly stable; it was quite obvious once I unfolded it that this would be the case, although the stability could be made or broken by badly measured components - this isn't the case, however, and all legs are secure and level which keeps my camera still for the shot.
I am incredibly happy with this tripod and since my friend gave it to me I have used it many times. She paid 'pennies' for it in Saudi Arabia, but I have since seen the same tripod available on Amazon for around £2 - a price that astounded me as I had been expecting it to cost much more than that. The photographs of my friend and I were wonderful, something I am very pleased about as looking through my snaps today I realised this was the first I have of us together. My granddaughter also used it last weekend when she went to a concert; there is a brief story behind this as she knows a lot of the bands so they are always happy to pose for photographs with her after they have performed, a recent set of photographs was ruined when her friend took them badly so this time around she borrowed my tripod and ended up with fabulous snaps to remember her night out.
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