How to Properly Use a Tripod
Tripods are used to hold cameras: video, film or photo. "Tri" obviously means "three" as in three legs, but these devices are not to be confused with a c-stand or a light stand with three legs. Tripods are heavier because usually the camera that's being situated on top of it is heavier than a light or a bounce board. Since tripods are relatively durable and cheap by comparison to your camera, operating the tripod is not about the safety of the tripod, but about the safety of the device that you will connect to it. Below are some safety tips. These in conjunction with common sense will, hopefully, allow you to avoid dropping a $50,000 video camera on the sidewalk as I did. 1) Find a Flat Surface: If you set up your tripod on a hill or on sand or any unsure surface, you're asking for trouble. A tripod is supposed to be a steady place for your cameraman to hold the camera. If the surface is unreliable, you might as well have your cameraman go hand held because you're basically defeating the purpose of the tripod anyway. Beware of super slick floors as this may allow your tripod to slide, which is also a danger. Small groves in tile work or between sidewalk panels can help anchor your tripod in place. 2) Open the Legs: Depending on the design of the tripod, some come with attachments in the center that unfold so you can open the legs at a uniform distance. Older and smaller tripods sometimes don't have this attachment. You should be able to feel where the tripod legs extend on your tripod when you open the legs. If you open the legs too far, you run the risk of the weight of the camera pushing the legs all the way open. If you don't open the legs enough, you make the tripod top heavy and it could fall over if anyone bumps into it. Make sure each leg is opened equal distant from the center. 3) Extend the Legs and Lock Them Down: Now you make the tripod higher by extending the legs to the approximate height you want the camera. The extensions have a lock for each level on each leg. Make sure you extend the tripod evenly and lock it down tight. If one leg on one level of your tripod is loose, it could collapse the leg and send your camera falling. You can test the tripod by pushing down on it with your hand. (Don't lean all your weight on it.) If you feel the tripod start to dip in one direction you should recheck the legs. 4) Remove the Camera Plate: The top of the tripod is called the "head". On the top of the tripod's head is a plate that screws onto the bottom of your camera. Screw the plate onto the bottom of the camera and tighten it by hand. DON'T put the camera on the tripod yet. 5) Adjust the Head: Again, depending on the model of tripod, you will have three basic tripod adjustments: A hand crank that moves the camera up and down, a handle that moves the camera from side to side and up and down and a level adjustment to keep the camera level. You want to level off the head and lock it down so when you slide the plate with the camera back on the tripod doesn't move. Adjust the hand crank and the handle so that the head is in the approximate place you want it. Lock down the head so it cannot move. Check it by trying to move the handle and the crank, but don't check too hard or you'll strip the gears in the tripod. Beneath the head should be a control to level the head. There should be a bubble like the kind they put on a carpenter's level. Adjust the head until the bubble is in the middle. If your tripod doesn't have this or the bubble is broken, you'll just have to eyeball it yourself. A cheap way to do it is to adjust the tripod to the height of a flat table, make the head level with the table, then lock it down and readjust the legs if need be. You probably won't have to do this, but some film schools (like mine) still have WOODEN tripods lying around. When all the equipment goes out you have to make due. 6) Make Sure the Head is Locked Down: Again, test the tripod, but not too hard. You don't want to strip the gears or ruin your nice leveling you just need to make sure the thing is locked down in all directions before you put your camera on it. 7) Slide the Camera in Place and Make Sure it Locks: You should hear a click. Whether you do or not, make sure the plate is locked and that the camera won't slide off the plate in the middle of the take. You want to be able to turn the camera with the tripod, not on a loose camera plate. 8) While Holding the Camera, Loosen the Controls and Adjust: Depending on what you want your camera to do: pan, tilt or move up and down, make the adjustments. Hold onto the camera while you do this. Once you loosen the control that tilts the camera, the lens may be heavy enough to drag the whole thing forward. If you don't have your hand on it the resulting thump may knock the whole thing on the floor. If you're shooting a still shot, lock the tripod down. If you're doing a pan, only loosen the pan control. If you're moving the camera any other way, your cameraman should loosen the controls as desired, but he cannot walk away from the camera until he locks down the tripod again. Be wary of loosening the controls too much. I did that one time and completely unscrewed the control knob off. Some tripods have complicated balancing mechanisms inside them and if you do something like this you may throw them out of whack. While using the tripod, make sure someone is standing next to the camera at all times. It only takes one careless production assistant to trip over a tripod leg to knock the whole thing over. Sometimes cameramen will reinforce the stability of the tripod with sandbags just to be safe. If you place the tripod on a wagon or flatbed to get a moving shot, you should absolutely do this. Either way, don't ever leave your tripod unguarded with a camera on top of it. I've had crew guys trip over the extension chord, which was connected to a power supply, which was connected to the camera and pull my whole tripod over. If you're not standing next to it when it goes over, you're going to remember the three seconds you spent trying to run toward the tripod for a long, long time. I've told production assistants, if you ever see the camera fall over and can't catch it, throw your body under it. Your body will heal, but the camera will cost a fortune to fix. Taking down the tripod is basically the same thing backwards. Remove the camera from the tripod, take off plate, put the camera away, put the plate back on the tripod, collapse it back and put it away. The handle should be parallel with the legs. Some tripods allow you to remove the head completely to pack it away. Don't drop your tripod. It's more durable than your camera and it might be heavy, the movements your cameraman may need to make are subtle. A loose leg or a sticky tilt or pan control is a problem. The equipment manager at your school should be able to lubricate the tripod properly if you feel this is an issue no matter how far you've loosened the tripod. Tripod Basics
http://www.manfrotto.com/Jahia/site/manfrotto/cache/offonce/pid/2477
Tripods
http://www.sterlingtek.com/cameratripods.html
Video Camera Tripods
http://www.mediacollege.com/video/camera/tripod/
User Manuals on Tripods
http://www.usersmanualguide.com/panasonic/tripod_mounting_adaptor
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