This video is for all the people out there making YouTube videos on their own.
The solo content creators. If that's you then keep watching because I've got some great tips on how
to make videos without help from anyone else and the gear that's going to help you do that.
Getting great visuals that are gonna make people want to keep watching can be really
hard, especially when there's nobody to help you film when you're in the shots yourself. One thing
that can really help is having versatile tools that you can use in all different ways to get all
kinds of different shots, and in the last video that I did, I used one particular thing to get
this shot, and this shot, and this one, and this one, and many more, and it was
this.
I've gotta say i'm pretty proud of that little clip, considering that
it was made in my spare room on the floor using only my mobile phone as a key light.
I think it came out all right. But anyway yeah here's what it is:
It's a tripod. A K&F tripod. Now the model number's just down here. A full disclosure
K&F did send me this tripod and ask if I'd like to do a review on it, which i agreed to.
But it was on the condition that I would be completely honest with my thoughts about
the tripod, but I actually had no idea how handy it would be or how many ways it would
help me with my YouTube videos. Honestly this tripod, with a bit of creativity,
opened up so many more options for visuals that I can use in my videos. So definitely
hang around and I'll show you three main ways that you can use this to create excellent YouTube Videos.
Why am I doing this? It's got no relevance whatsoever to the video but hey I'm in
this park, I couldn't resist. Anyway let me get to the first point. The first thing is that this
tripod, one great thing about it is that one of the legs actually detaches and becomes a monopod
and because it's got three sections in the tripod leg,
it actually becomes a really long monopod. Now i'm 181 centimetres tall, that's about six feet,
and this monopod just the leg itself with the tripod head attached comes just up to my chest
level, which puts the camera on top at roughly chin level. But the thing is that's not the
extent of this monopod. It can actually extend even further because you can take the central
column out of the tripod itself and actually screw that onto the monopod,
so then with the tripod head attached it's actually above my head level. So basically
the base of the camera is roughly six feet off the ground. That can be really really handy for a lot
of things. Having the camera on a monopod also let me get great shots that were out of reach
otherwise, so I could actually reach really high places like this shot which I wouldn't otherwise
be able to do without actually using a drone or something crazy. Now it can be useful using the
monopod in the traditional way like I did here but where I found it especially useful was doing
walk and talk shots, because I could actually hold the camera much further from my body,
use a longer focal length that is more zoomed so that I got really nice out-of-focus bokeh
in the background, and it was much better than I could have done holding it out with my arms.
The second way that I found to use this tripod in a really creative way to get great video as
a vlogger was to actually attach the gimbal to the tripod instead of using the tripod head. So this
is a really versatile way to get some panning or tilting time-lapse shots like this one. Using the
tripod in combination with the gimbal is really great if you're a solo content creator because you
can program in motion to make your shots dynamic even if you need to stop and tie your shoelaces.
...even if you need to stop and tie your shoelaces.
The last feature that I think is probably the best feature of the tripod and that's one that
I used to get some great shots and I think any vlogger or YouTuber would do the same,
and that is that it's got a really great 360 degree panning motion.
The 360 degree panning head has just the right amount of friction, unlike this thing, so that
you actually get really smooth panning shots for your video if you're a vlogger or YouTuber.
So if you're a YouTuber or vlogger then this K&F Concept tripod is actually a pretty
good tool to have at your disposal. Is it perfect? Well there's a few things that could be improved,
but we'll talk about them in a moment. One thing i should mention though that i forgot
to let you know when i was in the park is that when you're using the monopod and you've got
that center column attached, you can actually extend it even further, because the center column
actually has two parts. So you can actually extend it another 30 centimeters or so - another foot
that is - that you can actually have your tripod about seven feet in the air. And so if you're in
a crowded area and you wanna shoot above people's heads, this actually is perfect because you can
put the camera on there, extend it to seven feet and then you can just pan above everybody's heads.
Alright so I started this thing by saying I was going to be completely honest about the tripod
and it's not perfect. It is a great tripod though. The thing is that it's not a high-end tripod.
It's kind of more budget to mid-range so there's some things that you know could be better but
you've got to pay if you want those things. For example it's made out of aluminium. If you wanted
a really really lightweight tripod then you'd have to go for a carbon fiber tripod, which
would be lighter than aluminium. Is this heavy? No it's not. Could it be lighter? Yes of course,
but the thing is you're going to pay if you want a carbon fiber tripod.
This for its price is actually really good. It sells for just under 120 Australian dollars,
but at the moment I noticed when I looked online it's actually on sale and you can get it for less
than a hundred. Not only that but if you have a look down in the description of this video
there is a 10% discount you can get if you put in the code that I've listed down there.
And i recommend that you use the link below to visit the site to check out the tripod, but
also have a look at some of the other things that they offer because they do have some pretty good
photography-related products, but yeah the tripod itself, great tripod. There are a couple of things
that I think could be improved so K&F Concept if you're watching, what I would like you to look at:
the first thing is that when you're using the tripod it's a ball head tripod and there is a
bubble level here on the tripod that allows you to get everything perfectly level. The problem with
that though, is that it's the only bubble level on the whole tripod so let's say you're out and you
want to do some panning video so you want to use this 360 degree head with really good motion to
pan your shot. So you get the bubble level perfect so your camera is perfectly level
with the horizon, but the problem is that if the legs of the tripod - maybe the ground's a little
bit unstable and the tripod itself isn't perfectly level - even though the top part
is just right if you've got an angle on the center column
if the legs aren't making the base of the tripod perfectly level,
even though this top ball head is level you can see here there's an angle. So if i pan, as i do
the angle of the camera is actually going to be moving quite dramatically so there needs to be a
way for me to actually level the center column as well as the top part. So I would actually
think it would be great to have an additional bubble level on the lower part of the tripod
so that both can be perfectly aligned. Because I had to actually use a separate bubble level - the
one in my phone - to get the center column level before i could actually use that panning head
effectively. The other thing that kind of bugged me a little bit about the tripod: it's not a big
deal but something that could be improved as well is that although it comes with this handy carry
bag which is, you know, it's pretty well made and pretty convenient. In order for the tripod
to actually fold to fit into it, the legs have to fold this way. But the problem is that this part
that moves the central column central column needs to be pushed all the way up and then the legs. But
if I were to lock it so that this isn't going to be moving as I'm transporting the tripod,
the legs can't actually close properly because they hit against this part here,
so you need to actually loosen it so that the legs can close all the way
properly. Does that ruin my day? Not really, but it's just that little bit
inconvenient that it could be a bit better just by realigning where this is when it locks so that
these cog bits, these little, i don't even know what you call it, these these
bits that come out, so that they're not actually lined up with the legs when it's closed but rather
that the legs line up with the gaps in between it, because i don't really like transporting it around
with this not locked into position. But not a big deal if you're looking for something that's light,
it's convenient, you can use it in so many different ways it's just so versatile. I would
actually recommend this tripod. Yeah there's those two little issues that i hope that K&F Concept do
work on in the future, but apart from that, you know, I would definitely recommend it. I'm keeping
this one and I'll happily be using it in the future. Also if I'm doing a photography workshop
I'd be happy to let my students use this tripod if they don't have one themselves. So hey if you
want to book one send me a message and we'll see what we can arrange. But anyway, overall pretty
good tripod. Not perfect but for the price it is a really solid contender for I guess the most
versatile tripod for vloggers. There you have it. If you're not subscribing to the channel, you want
to see more content about photography and about Brisbane specifically, then be sure to subscribe,
give this video a thumbs up if you got anything out of it and I'll see you in the next video.