Tips on fluid tripod movement with HVX

B

benandaim

Well-known member
Hi,

I have a Manfrotto tripod with a 503 head on it and i have to film a few dances where you occasionally zoom in and follow the talent around.

I did my first one last night and my movements seem to have this linear look about them, i can't seem to achieve really smooth transistions between vertical & horizontal movement. I've played with the dials.

Does anyone have any advice on settings or even techniques for using the HVX with this head?

Ben.
 
Hi:

You are fighting an uphill battle frankly. It is extremely difficult to obtain fluid simultaneous tilt/pans with a head of this low quality.

Your best bet, short of buying a better head, is to isolate the movment of your hand by using as long of a lever as is possible. This means using the tips of your fingers to grasp the pan handle and extending your fingertips and using just the very end of the pan handle. Another old trick is using large diameter rubber band wrapped around the end of the pan handle. The rubber band will isolate your hands shaky movements somewhat although there will definitely be a delay from when you pull on the rubber band to the time when the tripod head starts to actually do the move.

Inexpensive heads are fine for lockoffs or sometimes a reasonably smooth pan OR tilt can be obtained but to do both at once requires a quality head and a good operator. If you cannot afford to upgrade to a 'real' head like a Sachtler, O'Connor or Panther, I would rent one, it's worth it.

Best,

Dan
 
The thing is, the 503 head isn't too terrible. It's no O'Connor, but with a 13 lb capacity, if you're flying a bare HVX, it should do the job reasonably well. My prognosis is operator error.

Do you have the dials set loosely so the head can flop around? Sometimes you need to have some resistance to get a good pan.
 
Hi Adam:

To me, a smooth simultaneous pan and tilt is the acid test with a head. It could be operator error but on the 503 head one of my clients used to have, I could never do it and I can operate just about any tripod head smoothly. With the low-end ones, I have found, it's a matter of mechanical stiction, not smoothness from the operator. If the internals of the head stick before starting or stopping, it doesn't matter how smooth you are. I found out last week with the 501 head, no matter how smoothly I tilted, at longer lens lengths, there was always going to be slight 'bump' as I started a tilt down. The 501 had had this no matter how loose the tilt lock and drag were adjusted.

I have not tried the new 503HDV head, they might have improved it but on the old 501 and 503 heads, I could never get a smooth simultaneous pan/tilt no matter which tricks I tried.

Best,

Dan
 
Dan,

Thanks heaps for that info. I think your right, if you want your tilts/pans to look flawless there's only so much your technique can help if your using equipment that's not super professional.

In saying that, i tried you fingertips technique and i must say it helps, so thanks for that.
 
You can rent a nice fluid head tripod for about $20-50 a day, factor that into the cost of any shoot. I have the same junior tripod you have and its ok for locked down or simple stuff. When you are trying to follow action smoothly you won't get the same look as a proper fluid head's smooth and dampered movements. I rent when I need to.
 
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