Need a tripod, like, NOW--HELP

JBotAlan

Well, my brother took a 40ish minute video with my cheapie $200 JVC MiniDV camera. I am OK with the quality I get out of the thing, but he was doing this by hand. Yes, he held his hand in the air with the weight of the camera on the end of it for 40ish minutes. Needless to say, the video was all over the place. Now, tonight and tomorrow night my sister is in a dance concert. I want to tape this, but I absolutely can't do it by hand--DUH--but I don't have a tripod I can pan with. So do you have any suggestions? A quick Google gave me a bunch of tripods in the $300-500 dollar range. Wow. That's more than...the camera. I don't want a cheap tripod I can't pan with, but I can't afford / justify a fluid-head tripod...what do I do? Whatever I do it has to be quick.

Thanks,
JBot

jwellsy

Monopod

Dark_Tiger

This is a little late, but a cheap tripod shouldn't be more than about $30-$40 at a local eletronics store.

tiel_99

You don't need a fluid head tripod for a job like this.

All you need is a low end tripod. If you can afford it, try to get one where you can adjust the head. This way you don't have to balance the tripod by adjust the length of the legs.

To avoid jerky video, don't pan when you are on full zoom. Try to pan when the shot is on a wider angle and it will be smoother.

jwellsy

Tilts and pans are 100x smoother with a monopod than with a cheap tripod.