Shooting Smooth Video
If you’re someone who loves the jerky look of MTV video, skip this post. But if you want to be able to eat dinner and then sit down and watch one of your own videos without throwing up due to motion sickness, keep reading.
When you shoot with a still camera on a tripod, chances are you use a ball head, a gimbal head or a panning head. For video, you’ll need a panning head, and most experts prefer what’s called a fluid head.
A fluid head uses viscous oil between the mechanical components that allow the smoothest movement. This makes panning, starts and stops all record more smoothly.
Unfortunately, fluid heads can be very expensive, running into the thousands of dollars for those that need to support very large video cameras.
For the average consumer video camera, there is one inexpensive fluid head that I’ve tried and can recommend. It’s the Bogen/Manfrotto 501HDV Fluid Video Head. Most stores sell it for well under $200. It supports more than 13 pounds (much more than any consumer camcorder would weigh) and offers a stable way to pan your camera.
Some of my favorite features of this head are that it offers variable friction on both the pan and the tilt axis. You can vary the friction. It offers a sliding camera plate and it is set up to work for either right or left-handed shooters.
One negative for the 501 is its weight. It weighs 3.5 pounds. If carry a one pound camcorder and need a 3.5 pound head, chances are it might keep you from bringing the head along at all. But fight that temptation. All video gear of this nature suffers this problem. You can get carbon fiber heads that weigh less, but they will cost much more.
It’s well built and Bogen offers a five year warranty to support the product.
I have their previous 501 model, it is very nice. Their 701RC2 head is pretty good too, smooth motion and costs a third less, and it doesn’t look so comically large compared to a modern consumer camcorder.
JeffDM
December 14, 2008 at 5:18 pm
The one thing that scares me about those small heads is that sliding dove-tail type of camera plate. I was using the SONY Z7U with a hogleg Canon 20x lens (w/adapter) and the entire camera with the small dovetail plate slid off the tripod and the Canon lens nose dived into the concrete. When the Production Manager exploded on me because the lens was damaged, I explained, “Thats why you don’t use toy gear to make television shows”
December 18, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Oranse, I don’t know what head and plate you used, but the 501’s plate can’t just slide out, there is a catch in both directions. Besides, I think Z7U is a little above the the intended audience of this site.
JeffDM
December 19, 2008 at 7:31 am
I bought this head on the basis of this article and although it’s a bit larger and heavier than I’d imagined it’s a great piece of kit to mount my Canon 5D MkII on. What I really need now is a microphone to fit on the hotshoe so I don’t have to use the noisy built in mike. Any suggestions?
Mike Caine
January 9, 2009 at 11:38 am
@Mike I use the Rode.
January 9, 2009 at 4:09 pm
@Scott – Thanks for that suggestion, I should have looked further back on this site. I’ve added it to my Amazon wish list, thanks again.
Mike Caine
January 9, 2009 at 4:45 pm
[...] For smoother pans, try a fluid tripod head. [...]
Don’t Be A Fast or Jerky Panner « Consumer Video Tips
February 6, 2009 at 12:02 pm
This past summer Manfrotto announced their new 701HDV, which is nearly identical to the 501HDV but smaller. It is designed specifically for the prosumer sized camera market. It still holds up to 9 lbs. I just received mine from Amazon. It is the perfect size for my HV30 or my D90. And the sliding plate helps me balance the D90 on it with a variety of lens sizes and weight when I’m in the mood to play with the video function of that camera. The 701HDV sells for about $115, an incredible bargain.
Kelly Napier
February 6, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Oh, and the 701HDV only weighs 1.8 lbs.
Kelly Napier
February 6, 2009 at 3:16 pm