I agree on the pro quality tripod and head. But for what I'm wanting $1K for just the legs and $500 for the head. I've bought the cheap things first. If you ever take pictures of your good rig, i.e. tutorial, you do sometimes use that cheap stuff. And some folks record in rather shady places with a motto of never record with anything that you couldn't just walk away from and live to record another day.
I've mainly focused on handheld type rigs, shoulder mount. PVC can do wonders for that thing. For the price of a hot shoe and mic clip, you can build an entire double layered T frame. Which I'm starting to prefer. Comfortable and custom fit hand placement. If you drop it, your camcorder is NOT going to be the first thing to hit the ground. Or if you just set it down, you're not going to be setting it on the lens or LCD. And the upper level gives a mounting point for a stereo pair of microphones and beefy (DIY) shockmounts. Or just hang it from the top part to let gravity determine level. And various sub rigs if you don't glue anything. Comes completely apart and packs away / stores nicely. If something breaks, hardware stores are still more common than guitar centers / video rental stores. And since I'm currently using 1" PVC, I can run mic cables through it, string it together with rope for extra peace of mind, and other special purpose configurations. I've actually had to notch the pipes so I can take it apart, or even put it together. But for $50-ish, including the $20-ish pipe cutter.
Had I just started with the PVC route I might not have $300+ in *pods and clamps and braces. Even though I still use $150 of those, while the rest collect dust. Monopod as a 4th brace point / weight bearer. Mini tripod for semi-stealth, but still stabilized. Table top clamp for other I feel lazy or am cramped for space endeavors. About the only time that I use a tripod now is when I'm outdoors and recording a several hour concert (once a year). Hardly worth $1.5K for that even if my peeps deserve that. But most of my endeavors are stadium seating so a tripod need not apply. But something like the clip below, the sky's the limit.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZtlSVgG1h8My version looks more like this:
Not pictured are two stems/handles down from the front. Plus a longer stem down the center with my usual monopod ace bandaged to it. Comfort is king if you're doing anything of duration. I chose 1" PVC because I'd figured that it'd be a more comfortable (old man) grip. Being able to slide a mic stand boom arm down the shaft or mic cables was just a bonus. Actually I wasn't really decided until the HW store had 9x crosses ONLY in 1" PVC. Plus the bolt was best fitted with a 1" T joint, plus cap. Yes I rendered it in povray first to get a feel for the parts needed / wanted. And when all was said and done I only had like a 2" stub of PVC pipe left over. Out of 2x 4' segments. Was 8', but the my car isn't that big. Most of my segments are 6"-ish in length (before going into the crosses).
Topic: Looking to do video recording (Read 8560 times)