I have a digital camcorder and want to fill continuous video of moving people; how smooth is the panning with this tripod?
590390
This is not a high quality video tripod but it does a OK job. If you use a sand bag it will help.
590391
I don't want to sound like a pretentious professional, but honestly? It's lackluster. You might end up being better off with spending another $50 to get a fluid head tripod, it's so incredibly worth it. The Ravelli AVT seems to be based on a Davis & Sanford design that i'm not quite fond of (fragile under heavy use) but is leagues, *light-years* ahead of this sad piece of plastic.
336678
any motion you bring about by handling the camera or the tripod or the Opteka head will of course affect the camera's ability to take sharply focused images. But when you are done with your positioning of the camera and use a remote to trigger the shutter, you should be fine. The smoothness of the gimbal's workings depends entirely on how your want it to work. If the mechanism is too stiff you simply lubricate the moving surfaces with some carbon.
681243
Unfortunately the action is pretty jerky. I try not to use the tripod for panning. I just use it for stable shots with my DSLR.
1658170
Hi Marv, The knobs on the legs adjust the camera head, with the camera, up and down. I think you maybe asking 'How do I create a shot that starts low and moves up (or starts up and moves down low) while the video camera is recording.' You can't do that kind of a shot with this tripod. That kind of shot is called a pedestal shot. It's used in heavy (and expensive) studio tripods. So if you are shooting on location that's not practical. What you might want to look at to get that kind of shot is a 'Jib'. You set your camera on an end of a bar or pipe with a counter balance at the other end. In the middle is a stand that acts as a fulcrum, like a kids teeter-totter. Now the camera can move up and down, that's called a jib shot or a crane shot. Jibs come in all prices and sizes. I've seen videos on You-Tube how to make one with plastic pipe and $40 of stuff from a hardware store. I've seen large professional ones that take 3 people to assemble and operate. Vari-Zoom, the company that made your tripod, sells them. I don't known the price. You could also use a Steady-Cam or Glide-Cam to create the same shot. This is were the camera is mounted to a rig that is mounted to the camera operator and allows the camera to move up and down. Again, there's all kinds and all price ranges, and of course if you only need one for a few days, you can rent a Jib or a Steady/Glide Cam.
1847491
The optical image stabilization used for still images is very good. The sensor is an older version of current sensors (this is a $250 body) so it has some noise. The digital stabilization for video is about what one would expect. On a tripod, the camera gives excellent video. Hand-held, it isn't as good as a dedicated video camera (as one would expect). It's a good camera for the price IMO. A nice, impartial review can be found at dpreview dot com. I added an excellent Richard Franiec handgrip to the too-smooth body. (Google him if you're interested).
746564
The panning is performed by a fluid cylinder near the bottom of the monopod. It's not a fluid head but it's quite smooth.
246247
If you have the gopro tripod mount. If you are wanting to do time lapse I recommend faking the movement with After Effects. If it's just for slider shots, this will work. It ain't the best but it'll do.
2218581
Optical stabilization is better than nothing, but only a tripod will give acceptable results out to 30X. I have used a monopod to see over the heads of a walking crowd at about 5x with the stabilization switched on. It looks pretty good.
2195295
I have a Nikon D800. I was shooting some fireworks and wanted to shoot portrait. The weight of the camera kept moving the ball joint past horizontal. The tripod is sturdy, the monopode works well, but the ball joint is weak. Landscape OK, portrait not OK.
458166
This is just a dolly on wheels, on which you base and fix tripod. The tripod is sold separately and quite tall to do what you want, especially if you mount it on dolly. however, don't count on it to be super smooth. unless your cam has super steady stabilisation system the end result will be shaky. so in sum, get a pro steadycam if you want to film someone while moving the camera.
1291888
Although it's not professional grade, for the price point the tripod is definitely a good value. It offers a smooth fluid head, it's easily adjustable and the pan and tilt are acceptably smooth.
692431
Depends, would be very hard since time lapses are done with intervals (takes a picture every 2-3 seconds) etc. This you would need to manually move it for each sequence, unless you're doing video which I also wouldn't recommend, you want something electronic that u can time (say move X amount of inches in 20-30mins) Very good slider though. smooth the only problem is the head kinda wobbles.
2006982
Depends on the tripod. If it's on a flat surface it isn't too bad. One thing I would've liked was an easier slide. It sticks occasionally and can be difficult to get consistent, fluid shots.
1707783
I've had good use if it. In fact, I just finished using it just last week. Have you tried the steady cam option on your dslr? have you tried it on another vehicle? when my footage started getting shaky, my vehicle obviously had suspension issues.
1291894
the pan is reasonably smooth from a wide focal length. If you zoom in and then try to pan, you will quickly find this head to be unacceptable, but it works as well as I expected for the price.
1238916
I think it's very stiff for a video head. You'll have to apply extra force to get it started from a stationary position, and it has too much resistance to pan smoothly. There isn't any way to reduce the panning friction enough to allow for smooth video panning.
2253317
This unit is not easy to use. It will take a lot of time and practice for you to do different moves like tilting and panning with steadicam. I would buy the Glidecam HD4000 instead... A lot easier to use with DSLRs