- All right, so today we are talking about tripods.
But first, we're gonna go meet up with someone real quick.
So a while ago I got this email.
"Hello, I hope you read this email.
"I'm gonna keep it short.
"My son is almost 15,
"and he is one of your biggest fans."
Basically, he lives over in Orange County,
which is about an hour and 1/2 from my place,
and his birthday is today.
So we're gonna go over there and surprise him so.
- Dude, are you sure that email wasn't for Peter McKinnon?
- Yeah, (chuckles) I know she accidentally
sent it to the wrong YouTuber.
She told him like there's a special guest coming,
but she didn't tell him who,
'cause she wanted to keep that a surprise.
He must be thinking like, who the hell is this?
Who the hell is gonna come to my house?
- [Woman] Come in.
- Yo. - What's going on, dude?
How are you doing, man?
- How are you?
- Good.
You Know Sam?
- Yeah, so Sam, what's up?
- [Sam] We're name twins.
- Yeah, you guys are both Sam.
- How's your arm?
- Broken.
Would you guys go any faster?
Sam's making birthday Sam run.
Sam don't be a dick, it's his birthday.
Why are you stealing his bike?
You got the whole squad here.
Would you like to be in the video too?
- Sure.
- [Potato] What's your message for the world?
- Nothing.
- Nothing. (laughing)
Well, Sam you pick out that scary shirt.
We're coming to a kid's birthday party.
Why are you scaring everybody like that?
- You know how much I love horror.
It's a cool shirt.
I get a lot of compliments about it.
(upbeat music)
- Birthday Sam is gonna make an epic sequence
of ordinary Sam.
Can you make him look cool?
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [Potato] Oh yeah, terrific.
- Well. (laughs) - Well.
- [Potato] We almost had an epic sequence
until Sam decided to break Birthday Sam's bike.
- It was an accident, I'm sorry.
- Wow. (laughing)
So I guess the sequence would be kind of short, huh?
You have a lot of footage
of your other friends coming, right?
- Yeah, yeah.
- I kind of wanna just like take a photo of Sam's face.
- Good idea, that'd be funny.
- And just paste it on your friend's head.
Do a riding face, okay, go.
No, no, no, you're about to hit a jump, go.
Yeah, okay, and then maybe just like, this is a nice ride.
Nice day for a ride.
Okay, good.
We got enough shots to insert in there.
(rock music)
And we're back.
And I'm so glad that we did that.
It was so much fun hanging out with birthday Sam,
and Sam for a kid, he's really talented.
One of the things he did really, really well
was he knew exactly what shots to guess,
like, okay, I'm gonna get a shot of this tire,
and I'm gonna get a wide shot of him coming this way.
He gave very clear directions,
and knew when he would get the shot.
And that's very important.
A lot of people tend to just hit record
and try to get something hoping for a decent shot
and we're all guilty of that once in a while.
But if there's one thing I learned
from shooting bigger projects
is that to get the perfect shot,
you really have to lay your focus on a shot
and know exactly what you're trying to get.
And if you could picture the shot in your head
and then you frame it up.
You know when you get it.
There's no guessing opposed to just
having a ton of footage dumped on your computer,
and you're like, nah, this footage would be okay.
I guess this footage would work,
but we're not talking about that.
We're talking about tripods today.
I get so sidetracked.
So that tripod right there is the OConnor 1030Ds,
and it is over $10,000, what?
$10,000 for a tripod?
Like for a tripod that holds your camera.
You can just go to Best Buy,
and buy one for like 40 bucks.
With $10,000 you can buy a car
you could buy like three school buses.
(chuckles)
No, seriously, I looked it up.
There are some used school buses that you can get.
And I thought this might be an interesting thing to go over
because I remember when I was first getting into filmmaking,
I would see these crazy expensive tripods,
and I always thought why?
The very first tripod I ever bought
was I think from Best Buy and it was about 30 bucks.
This is the camera I was using
so I just needed it to hold it in place.
And you know what?
It worked, but it had some issues.
What kind of tripod do you have?
- It's pretty basic.
It's like no counterweights, nothing.
It's just something you might use just for photography.
Still photography.
I don't think it'll be that smooth.
It's kind of stiff.
But when you put like a lot of weight on it,
it starts like creaking and like it's really rude.
(chuckles)
- This is probably what most people have
is something like this.
So the biggest issue with a tripod like that
as obviously, it's hard to hand or tilt smooth.
So what you need next is a fluid head.
So this tripod that this camera is actually on right now
was the next tripod I got,
and yeah, I've had this tripod but for a while now.
And it's one by Slik and it's a fluid head,
and I see them selling it for about 117 bucks.
But all of a sudden, now you can move very smoothly.
So that's great.
And luckily now it's not crazy expensive
to get a fluid head tripod.
Like this one here is a Magnus VT-300,
and it looks like you can get it for about 80 bucks.
So as a starter tripod it works.
You're gonna be able to move around and get your shots.
And when I say these tripods are smooth,
I don't mean smooth, smooth,
definitely room for improvement.
But still we can float around
and it doesn't seem super jarring.
I mean if it was a regular top out
it'd be like click, click, click, it would be terrible.
So from that point I started to put on some accessories,
like I started mounting a little monitor on there,
and an audio recorder and a microphone
and it starts to accumulate weight
and I eventually got a Sony FS 700
which is quite a bit larger as well.
So there was the weight limitations as well.
So I eventually had to upgrade to something bigger.
So this one has a 3/8 thread on the bottom,
so you just screw this onto a set of tripod legs.
And once you start to get to these kinds of tripods,
you get the leg separately from the head.
A lot of times you can just buy as a combo set,
but you can just pick out the head you want
and then pick out the legs you want.
So that starts to give you a little bit more flexibility.
So full tripod setup like this
would be about three to $500,
and it could support a lot more weight.
So this was the type of tripod I was using
for the first probably five to six years
doing it professionally.
And you know what?
It got the job done and I was decently satisfied with it.
But there was definitely room for improvement.
And these shortcomings become more and more obvious.
The more you use it.
And a tripod is something that you're probably using
on every single shoot.
And one of my biggest complaints was probably
the drag system.
So you can loosen it up,
it's very easy to move and then you can add more drag
to tighten it up a little bit for the smoother shots.
But I never felt like it got tight enough
to where I wanted it.
And also a lot of times these locks,
they can sort of start to wear out.
This one's actually better
than the one I used to have
because I remember the one I used to have,
was just this little tiny knob,
and you would have to do really, really
crank that thing down to make sure
that the camera doesn't tip over or anything like that.
One thing that's nice about this
is that it does have a counterbalance system.
So notice if I just pull it down and I let go,
it springs back upright.
And on this tripod I don't see an option to
adjust how strong that counterbalance is,
which can be an issue because
if you're trying to tilt down on a shot and hold it there,
you're gonna feel the spring
trying to spring your camera backup.
So eventually I was starting to get enough jobs
and consistent work to where I was able to make the jump
to a more professional tripod such as this guy.
And this solves a lot of those issues that I had before.
So this is the Sachtler FSB-8,
and the legs are Sachtler flowtech 75s.
This one has a ball on the bottom,
so see how it's like a ball right here.
The common sizes are 50, 75, 100, 150,
but this one's a 75,
so slightly bigger than the smallest size.
And these are always great
because you could level out your camera
even if your tripod legs are a little bit crooked.
Last thing you wanna be doing
is making all your adjustments
of trying to level out your camera
by releasing a leg and trying to shuffle it around.
And yes, when it comes to video gear,
the law of diminishing returns is very real.
So every time you wanna get a slightly better tripod,
you're gonna be paying exponentially more.
So this one comes in at 2,755 bucks right now
for this setup right here,
but I find it to be a very worthwhile investment.
When it comes to pro tripods like a Sachtler or OConnor,
these things are built to last a very long time,
easily 20 years or more.
And also it's going to be used more frequently
than anything else pretty much
'cause you're gonna be switching out camera bodies.
You're gonna be shooting on different lenses.
And as long as your camera is
in the weight class of your tripod,
you can pretty much use this tripod on anything
from a small DSLR,
all the way up to something like this.
So that's one of the ways I've justified it to myself
to spend all that money on this tripod.
Now, I have all the locks loose,
and I have all the tension loosened up.
So now it's basically just free floating around
and notice it has that counterbalance
kinda like that Manfrotto did.
But the beauty of this one is
that you can adjust how much tension it has.
This specific one has 10 different stages.
So right now it's very springy, weighing too much,
so I can lower that down, see.
So three is just barely not enough.
It's not able to hold up that camera
keeps wanting to tip over.
So let's try it out at four,
and that's probably where we wanna be.
It does spring up a little bit.
The magic spot for this weight
would probably be right between three and four
before is pretty good right there.
And once I add a little bit of tension back in,
it should stay no matter where I put it.
So that's one of the beauties
of a good counterbalance system.
Another thing I really love about this tripod
is the amount of drags you want on the tripod.
It's labeled from zero to five.
So if I have it on zero,
it's just going to swing around like that.
And if I put it to five,
it's gonna be a nice sturdy shot.
And that's how you're gonna get the stable, stable shots,
especially if you have a tight lens on here
or a macro shot.
Then all those little tiny inconsistencies in your motion
is going to show up.
And the beauty of having these numbers
is that you can match your pan
and tilt drag to be the same.
And that is gonna be really awesome
because when I do those diagonal angles,
it's going to be very even pressure
to get it to go diagonal.
One thing I would notice before on older tripods
when I was trying to get a perfectly diagonal macro shot
is that instead it going perfectly diagonal like that,
it would do a little bit of this like that,
like little steps.
In on other tripods,
I always noticed that there was always
a little bit of this dead space
every time I would change directions like this.
So yeah, even though there are tripods
that can give you a smooth motion,
this will give you a super precise version of that,
and I love how this tripod is a top load,
so instead of trying to shuffle in
and squeeze in a tripod plate like that,
you could just drop it in from the top,
and the flowtech 75 legs down here are awesome.
They're relatively new, but they're great.
They're one of my favorites because first of all,
it's carbon fiber, so it's very lightweight,
and also to release all the legs,
you can do it all from just right here.
So there's three latches, one, two, three, just like that.
And you have complete control over how high
you wanna put the camera,
and then just lock it down just like that.
And this is so great to be able to do
when you're just a solo operator
and you don't have assistants to help you set up tripods.
You don't wanna be bending down
and trying to extend legs down here.
Get it to the height you want
and lock it down all from up here.
You don't have to bend over constantly.
So this is one of my favorite investments right here.
Finally, this is the OConnor 1030Ds.
Yes, the tripod that costs over $10,000.
One thing I'll get out of the way right now
is that this doesn't do anything magical, okay?
It's not like you push a button
and it'll come out and give you a back rub.
That'd be awesome.
If little arms came out and do, do.
So life can be rough.
That'd be a feature that OConnor
should be thinking about putting it in their next tripod.
But what it does do is it's a video tripod
and it pretty much does everything you might want
out of a video tripod and it does it perfectly.
A lot of it is a feeling thing,
so it's kind of hard for me to explain it,
but it's like if you were to watch a video
of someone riding in a Rolls-Royce Phantom,
they're like, this is a really smooth car.
You watch the video and you go,
oh yeah, I guess it looks smooth,
but then you get inside of one and you go,
oh, it is really smooth.
It's kind of like this tripod.
It feels like a luxury car ride.
In a lot of ways this is pretty similar to
that Sachtler I just showed you,
but everything is just perfectly refined.
Start with the brake.
So I feel like this is like a handbrake
that could stop a car,
but you lock in the tilt, and it's not gonna move anywhere,
which is important because a lot of times
you have big cinema lenses on here
which are really big and heavy,
and when you do a lens swap,
you pull one off and then all of a sudden
the center of gravity of that camera
comparatively shifts to the back.
So if you don't have a good brake on your tripod,
then the whole back end could just tip over
and freak everyone out.
And this tripod supports up to 41 pounds
and still be able to operate a camera very smoothly.
So with that weight limit of 41 pounds,
you could really keep adding all the accessories
you might want and your AC might want.
And it's nice to be able to keep adding stuff
on there without the concern of topping off
that weight limit.
Now, this tripod is fully carbon fibers
so it is relatively light,
but at the same time it's not a lightweight tripod.
But it does play in nicely
because it does give that extra sturdiness of this tripod.
I mean if the legs are planted out,
it's not moving anywhere,
and if some clumsy dude just happens to walk by
and accidentally trip on the tripod,
this thing's probably not gonna tip over.
But sometimes even with that Sachtler,
I could feel it wiggling around a little bit.
Another big thing that this thing does really well
is it doesn't have any sort of spring back.
So on some tripods when you turn the camera
and add pressure, the legs can actually flex a little bit.
So when you stop pushing on it and let go of the tripod,
it can spring back.
But these legs are super sturdy,
they're not gonna flex at all.
This is also a top load,
which kind of becomes a necessity
when you start adding all this stuff up here
because you're not gonna be able
to slide this thing on and off
trying to aim it into that little socket,
and get it right in there.
As I rotate this knob,
it steplessly adds counterbalance
so I could really dial in exactly
how much counterbalance I want.
So I might've add a little bit too much
because it's bouncing up.
So I'm gonna just bow that down just a little bit.
Feels just about right there.
I can pretty much let go of the camera
and it will stay put.
So counterbalance is perfect right there.
And also the pan and tilt is also going to be stepless.
So that's great because you could put in
exactly how much drag you want on that pan and tilt.
So now I have everything dialed in and balanced
and it feels perfect.
I can't even explain how nice this feels
to move that camera around.
And there's no little bits of flex from the head.
There's no flex from the legs.
It literally feels like it's just bolted
into the ground right now.
So it feels so good,
and you feel like you have so much control over this camera.
It's awesome.
I wish I could just like pull you guys into your screen
and pop you up the other side,
and you guys could just feel how good this feels.
It's just like, oh man.
Kind of like Sachtler, this is also a ball head.
This one's 100 millimeters.
So it's a little bit bigger.
The bigger that ball gets,
you can generally add a heavier duty tripod head to it.
So should you go out and buy one of these right now?
Probably not.
It's going to be overkill for a majority of projects.
And even though this is a much better tripod
is it four times better?
Probably not.
But if your goal is to be using
one of the best standalone tripods out there,
then this is where you would look.
And again, most of these are rented,
so it's not gonna be that much of a difference.
It's not like you're gonna go out and pay $10,000 for it
right away for your project.
You rent these, and the day rates on these tripods
aren't that bad.
So yeah, hopefully that clarifies a little bit
of the difference between a super cheap tripod,
to an entry level pro tripod, to a pro tripod,
to a beast of a thing like this.
(chuckles)
Oh by the way, this is a SmallHD Cine 7.
I love this thing 'cause this is a monitor
as well as a video transmitter.
So there's a Teradek built into this thing,
which is freaking fantastic
because usually we would have to set up a monitor
and then have a Teradek separately mounted on the side,
and I hate mounting multiple things,
and as soon as we should be able to connect this monitor
into the red and be able to control the red.
So I might even just pull this little monitor off
part of the time and then go out with just this monitor.
That would be awesome
'cause this monitor on the red camera,
I'm not a huge fan of.
Anyways, to read some comments.
Top comment was from Caleb.
"Her birthday is coming up."
(chuckles)
"I think you hit the caps lock right before you typed up.
"You might wanna get your keyboard check."
(chuckles)
I hate you.
"No, like for real recently I had to stay in the hospital
"for like a week or so because of my appendix.
"Final bill was 10 Euros for the ambulance."
10 for the ambulance?
That's all you had to pay for a week in the hospital?
If you guys don't know,
this is about 45 grand for the surgery
to get my arm back in place.
Luckily insurance is taking care of a majority of it,
but it's still gonna be a big chunky bite out of my account.
This arm is expensive, man.
Not only my elbow, but like 15 years ago
I broke my shoulder and how to get surgery done on that.
So from here over, I'm very expensive.
Beanchaming says,
"Bro, where'd you get that shirt?"
(chuckles)
Potatojet.com.
"Leftie is the best tripod ever."
(chuckles)
That is true.
This may be the ultimate super fluid head tripod,
but Leftie has it beat in personality.
I mean, come on, look at that doggy face.
(upbeat music)