Best Type Of Tripod For Wedding Videography

Some videographers use light weight tripods, because they are much easier to carry. This is because they not only weigh less, but are smaller and are therefore easier to move down tight corridors and stairs.

We always use heavy duty tripods despite the fact that they are harder to carry. The reasons are as follows:

1, Safety aspect. Because of the way that heavy duty tripods are manufactured, they are a lot harder to knock over. This is especially important at weddings because:

A, Wedding are not pre rehearsed films, which means that in the random movement of guests, it is easy for people to bump into a tripod, especially if they are drinking and dancing. If a video camera were to be knocked over, it could end up being rendered useless, which is not only bad for us, but would essentially mean the end of the couple's wedding video. This would obviously be very up setting to the bride and groom and could have a major effect on their enjoyment of their special day.

B, If a child were to pull a tripod over, it could cause severe harm if it were to strike it in the wrong place. Obviously, a child being a injured at wedding would put a major downer on a wedding, so we feel it is best to avoid this as much as possible.

2, Durability. Heavy duty tripods are composed in a way that results in them having multiple solid metal shafts per tripod leg. This means that if one shaft were to break, the tripod should have enough strength to get them through the day. With a light weight tripod there is only one shaft per leg, and therefore if the shaft breaks, the legs break, and obviously a tripod can not function with two legs.

3, Stability aspect. Because heavy duty tripods are built with multiple solid metal shafts and have cross legs (legs that stretch between the primary legs to give them more strength), they are extremely solid and heavy.

This is especially important when panning or tilting, because when you do either of these actions, you are pushing a force against the tripod. Often with light weight tripods, when you try to pan the camera, the tripod comes with it, and this makes the tripod skid on the floor. This skidding creates a vibration effect to the footage, and also creates a distracting noise, which is obviously no good for the video, but can be very distracting to the ceremony or speeches.

In summary, the heavy duty tripod is superior in many ways, it is how ever much more expensive, but we feel that the extra expense and weight of carry is worth it, in order to produce better footage, in a more safety conscious way.