Need a recommended tripod for Canon 60D + what else?

[omar]

Can someone tell me what tripod I need to get for my Canon 60D?
The main purpose of the tripod is to shoot video

Lightweight would be great - but this isn't a priority since it won't be carried around much

Do I need to invest in getting a separate head? Does the tripod come with a head that would be sufficient?

What else do I need to get? Anything: bags, extra batteries... anything else...?

Thanks


Omar

 

[adhocphotographer]

Depends on your price range, I find Manfrotto tripods offer good quality:value... As i said, it really depends on your budget...

 

[omar]

Depends on your price range, I find Manfrotto tripods offer good quality:value... As i said, it really depends on your budget...

budget i'd say less than £200
would push to £300 if required

 

[CanadianInvestor]

Manfrotto will serve you well. They have a variety of legs and something like Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod Legs Kit w/ 498RC2 Midi Ball Head & 200PL-14 QR Plate should adequately address your needs. Prices on this side of the Atlantic are right in the middle of your budget.

You should get a few memory cards and at least a spare battery. A school grade backpack for now stuffed with bubble wrap will keep your gear in shape.

 

[Don Haines]

If the main purpose is to shoot video and portability is not a problem, I would go for a heavier tripod with a video head.

#1, get a good tripod.
Lightweight and carbon fibre tripods are fantastic for carrying around with you, but when you shoot video heavy and solid means more fluid movement. The video heads, particularly the fluid heads, allow much smoother panning than the typical ball-head. (ball heads give jerky uneven movement when panned and are harder to level) Make sure your tripod can get to the height you wish to shoot at and still be stable when panned. Note that you can put your camera bag (or a big container of water) under your tripod and tie a rope from it to the bottom of your tripod to increase stability. A sudden gust of wind and a tall lightweight tripod can quickly become a very expensive crash to the ground.

#2, external microphone.
The built-in mic is mono and it has the annoying habit of picking up the sounds of IS. An external microphone will give you much better sound. You can use ipods, cell phones, etc as a budget remote mic and combine the audio in post-production.

#3, software
You have to process it somehow... you can spend from tens of $ to thousands of $, depending on your needs.

#4, memory card
Video EATS memory cards for breakfast! You will fill them up quickly and will probably want a spare. You might start thinking of adding a 3TB drive to your computer....

#5, battery
I am amazed at how long the battery lasts on a 60D. I have gotten over 1000 shots from a single charge, more than Canon says you should expect.... but when shooting video the rear display is going to be on all the time and that helps to eat battery life. Unless you are planning short shoots and make sure your battery is well enough charged, a second battery is a must.

#6, lens creep.
On some telephoto lenses, point it up or down enough and the focal length starts to creep in or out. You can increase the friction with a simple rubber band over the edge of the zoom ring.

#7, have fun!

 

[paul13walnut5]

The best compact 'budget' vidro tripod by far is the Sachtler ACE MS.

Bowl platorm (an essential for easy level pans)

Proper adjustable counterballanced head (nothing else is adjustable at price, usually fixedd and so hit or miss, sachtler can be perfectly balanced for your specific shooting combo making for pans and tilts that are light and easy to ramp, the ACE behaves like a £3k tripod in this respect)

Staged panning resistance, for repeatable smooth movements.

It's more than your budget, at around £500, but it is by far and away the best tripod at this end of the market.

You should try one before you discount it, and importantly, try others.

IF you really cannot run to it then a manfrotto combo of 190 or 055 basic legs, 438 mini level bowl and 701 or 500 head will give you a GOOD set up for £300.

I would strongly urge that upu aim for the Sachtler ACE though.

 

[paul13walnut5]

Look at the stated recording life of the batteries. Work out how many you'll typically need.

Get double.

Same with sd cards. Have double. You want Sandisk extreme 45mbits/s. anything stated as slower is going to have too low a write speed for camera buffer. I thought I was saving cash with ultras. They were class 10 I thought. Read the small print.

Get a polariser, if you have more than one lens buy for the biggest and use stepping rings.
Get an ND16 or ND32. Buy for biggest lens blah blah blah

Your shutter is fixed in video, usually at too slow a speed outdoors, so you end up shooting at f16 and so lonsing that potential for beautiful depth of field. A combo of PL's and ND's will help you regain aperture range.

Sound. Need an interface, need monitoring. Need a mic.

Tascam dr-60d. Sennheiser k6/me66 plus softee. Sennheiser hd25's.

Or cheaper: tascam dr-60d. Rode ntg-2. Akg k-450's.

 

[Drizzt321]

If the main purpose is to shoot video and portability is not a problem, I would go for a heavier tripod with a video head.

#1, get a good tripod.
Lightweight and carbon fibre tripods are fantastic for carrying around with you, but when you shoot video heavy and solid means more fluid movement. The video heads, particularly the fluid heads, allow much smoother panning than the typical ball-head. (ball heads give jerky uneven movement when panned and are harder to level) Make sure your tripod can get to the height you wish to shoot at and still be stable when panned. Note that you can put your camera bag (or a big container of water) under your tripod and tie a rope from it to the bottom of your tripod to increase stability. A sudden gust of wind and a tall lightweight tripod can quickly become a very expensive crash to the ground.

For video, definitely this. Especially the video head, rather than a ball head. Fluid head if possible, but those start getting expensive. Ball heads are much more difficult to use for video, especially if you intend to pan.

 

[iannicholson]

I use a Weifeng WF-717 I bought from eBay, which really gives excellent value for money at under $200.

Check out the review here:- Weifeng 717 Tripod + Head Review

 

[omar]

guys, thanks for the awesome replies
i haven't had a chance to reply until now

this is what i propose to buy:

- Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod Legs Only - £129
- Manfrotto 701HDV Professional Mini Fluid Video Head - £99

for the tripod + head, is this a good combination?
i've spent a LOT of time researching and watching a few utube videos - i think the answer is yes, good choice?

question: do i need to get extra plates?

external mic???? wtf?? damn!!! i hadn't even thought of that!!!
i'm really lost over this. i didn't account for this. too many choices to consider
question: is a hand held external as good as, as a furry directional mic?
i need to do some research for this separately

headphones for the external mic - what's wrong with a fairly decent set i can buy for £20 say?

software????
erm... i was planning to buy final cut pro x
question: do i need anything else? if so... what?

polariser?? i've looked up. why do i need?
i've seen on ebay for £20 - £25 - will these be ok?

i've read all replies - all super amazing - but please point out if i've missed out something really important

thanks!

 

[paul13walnut5]

this is what i propose to buy:

- Manfrotto 055XPROB Tripod Legs Only - £129
- Manfrotto 701HDV Professional Mini Fluid Video Head - £99

for the tripod + head, is this a good combination?
i've spent a LOT of time researching and watching a few utube videos - i think the answer is yes, good choice?

Add in the 438 level and yes, a good choice. Without the level you'll waste loads of time tweaking the legs and / or end up with wonky pans. The level makes it painless.

question: do i need to get extra plates?

Handy if you have big lenses with tripod collars. One for the body, one each for a tripod mounted lens.
If not, don't bother. An adaptor is handy if you have more than one mounting device (say a manfrotto 577) so you can quickly mount your camera or lens on another device.

external mic???? wtf?? damn!!! i hadn't even thought of that!!!
i'm really lost over this. i didn't account for this. too many choices to consider
question: is a hand held external as good as, as a furry directional mic?
i need to do some research for this separately True Dat. Discipline all of it's own. Sound will often ruin a video before the picture does.

headphones for the external mic - what's wrong with a fairly decent set i can buy for £20 say?

isolation, that is all you hear is whats coming through the microphone. Cheaper sets leak, and squeak. If a part breaks you bin them, with a set like the sennheisers you can replace components. accoustically better, if you are using a £20 mic then get £20 headphones.

software????
erm... i was planning to buy final cut pro x
question: do i need anything else? if so... what?

FCPX. Hmm. Personally I would go down the adobe route. I use FCP7 and PremPro. Most legacy FCP users going to PremPro.

polariser?? i've looked up. why do i need?
i've seen on ebay for £20 - £25 - will these be ok?

To reduce glare and reflections, also has a helpful ND effect to cut light. (In video youhave less control over the shutter, so any help with exposure is useful)

i've read all replies - all super amazing - but please point out if i've missed out something really important

thanks!

 

[omar]

@paul13walnut5, thanks for the great reply

>> 438 level
i've looked this up and it's about £70
i'm pretty sure the tripod has a spirit level
i assume therefore that's pants and a level is required?

extra plates?
don't quite understand. are u saying u have an extra tripod that holds the lens? how??
is there a youtube video or at least some pics of the setup to see?

fcpx: what's wrong with it?
why is it sooo bad? the reviews i read... the bad thing was that u couldn't run old projects. what else is really bad about it? this was something i was seriously going to buy as well

[polariser]: am i ok to buy a kit from ebay for under £25? or are there better branded models that i should choose?

thanks!!

 

[paul13walnut5]

@paul13walnut5, thanks for the great reply

>> 438 level
i've looked this up and it's about £70
i'm pretty sure the tripod has a spirit level
i assume therefore that's pants and a level is required?

It's not pants, it's just going to be tricky for you to provide a level platform, the ground can be uneven, the legs slightly different lengths. So your choice is either to go round each leg and adjust until level, and level at each rotated position of the video head, or to use a leveller to guickly adjust the platform the video head is on.

It's £70 well spent. You release the level, adjust the head, lock the release. Takes 2s, level platform for camera.

extra plates?
don't quite understand. are u saying u have an extra tripod that holds the lens? how??
is there a youtube video or at least some pics of the setup to see?

Nope, not saying that. Some lenses have a ring around them so you can mount the lens directly to the tripod instead of the camera body (this is really on heavy lenses, google the 70-200 f2.8 L for an an example) no need for a second tripod.


fcpx: what's wrong with it?
why is it sooo bad? the reviews i read... the bad thing was that u couldn't run old projects. what else is really bad about it? this was something i was seriously going to buy as well

I'm just biased coming from old FCP. Lots of folk use it, and by all accounts if you've never used anything else then you'll love it. I'm an old curmudgeon and reluctant to change. Premiere Pro is track based editing, like what I've been using since 1996 accross various platforms and software. Premiere Pro is the most direct replacement for FCP7. If you think FCPX can work for you then great, it's a lot of power for the money. Just learn from history. Apple may just decide to drop it altogether without warning on you.

[polariser]: am i ok to buy a kit from ebay for under £25? or are there better branded models that i should choose?

Buy branded, hoya green label are absolutely fine for a modest cost. To keep the costs down, rather than buy a polariser for each lens, buy one that fits your largest lens and stepping rings for the rest.

thanks!!

 

[Leejo]

>> 438 level
i've looked this up and it's about £70
i'm pretty sure the tripod has a spirit level
i assume therefore that's pants and a level is required?
If you are shooting roughly on the level, and have time to adjust the legs to get it level then OK - and you can certainly start that way. But Levelers were invented for a reason - especially for use on uneven ground.


extra plates?
don't quite understand. are u saying u have an extra tripod that holds the lens? how??
is there a youtube video or at least some pics of the setup to see?
Still just the one tripod, however with longer and thereby heavier lenses, the balance is around the foot suport of the lens - and no strain is placed on the mount of the camera body when the foot is attached.
For starters you wont need this - start worrying with/above 70-200 f2.8

fcpx: what's wrong with it?
why is it sooo bad? the reviews i read... the bad thing was that u couldn't run old projects. what else is really bad about it? this was something i was seriously going to buy as well
Nothing probably - though I have no experience. Many people were aggrieved at the changes, but many have learned to get over it and still use it. I personally am using Windows - so it's all adobe for me.

[polariser]: am i ok to buy a kit from ebay for under £25? or are there better branded models that i should choose?
Classic quote - if you are using a $25 Lens and camera put a $25 filter on it. Do not waste your money on GBP25 Polarisers - you need to pay double. Make sure you get a circular and not a linear polariser. Good marks are B+W, Schnider, some Hoyas (e.g. HD Pros) , plus the Camera own brand names. You may only need one for the largest filter size so get a good one. If you are shooting wide angle you may need to consider getting a slim fit one.

thanks!!

 

[Loswr]

>> 438 level
i've looked this up and it's about £70
i'm pretty sure the tripod has a spirit level
i assume therefore that's pants and a level is required?

The 438 isn't a level, it's a leveling base - enables you to make the platform for the head level, easily.

am i ok to buy a kit from ebay for under £25? or are there better branded models that i should choose?

Looking at this thread and your macro flash thread, etc., I see a theme. Here's the thing...there are cheap products on eBay to meet most needs, and most of them are...cheap. They don't cost much because they are cheaply designed and even more cheaply made. They don't work from the outset, they fail (usually when you need them most), they are inconvenient to use, and if they are part of the optical or audio chain, they usually produce poor results. Can you get by with the cheap stuff? Sometimes (depending on your standards). Are there 'diamonds in the rough' out there? Rarely (very rarely). The bottom line is that you get what you pay for - and chances are of you opt for cheap gear, your results will reflect those choices.

I realize a budget is a reality. The solution is to focus on one thing, build your setup for that first. If you try to be a jack of all trades, all at once, you'll be expert at none...and paying clientele will notice.