Videomaker Magazine - September 2007 - Camcorder Support Systems (pg 27)
I liked that Brian didn't do the usual thing and recommend super light tripods, and that he worked ball-levellers into his article, but his hit-or-miss coverage of tripods was a bit troubling. This is probably due to VM's insistance on shotgun approach articles, trying to please everyone, which meant he could only devote so much space to each part of his article, or even perhaps that editors trimmed his article down.
For instance, although he talks a bit about legs, he says nothing about numbers of leg sections or types of release devices (knob; lever; etc.).
Much more troubling though is this..
For much of the work by beginning and intermediate producers, a smooth-action non-fluid head helps to provide some great-looking video.
Why should a beginner invest several times what a friction head costs, for a true-fluid head, after reading this? In fact, Peterson fails to ever mention true-fluid heads or the fact that manufacturers have taken to calling friction heads with fluid lubricant "fluid heads" which necessitated the term "true-fluid heads" for those that are honest-to-goodness fluid heads.
I feel this one line may cause many newbies to buy cheap heads, for around a hundred dollars or so and when they are immediately disappointed and frustrated, it may take them weeks or months to save up for the decent head that they should have bought up front.
I suppose VM's advertisers will sell more this way - first the junk, then finally the real deal, but their readers deserve better advice.
So much for the tripod/head section - I'll read the rest of this article (and mag) a bit later.
