Vinten Reinvents the Humble Tripod

A Tripod Primer

A tripod consists of three basic parts; the head, the legs and the spreader. The head, which is the swiveling part, sports a hemisphere on the bottom (the ball), which is manufactured in various sizes. This ball, fitting into the cup at the top of the legs, allows the head to be leveled, horizontal to the earth, by centering a bubble in the target circle of a small, liquid filled glass on the surface of the head. The head held tight in the cup by a vertical hand-tightened screw after the operator adjusts the head horizontally by "centering the bubble."

The head also includes two sockets to attach the "pan" handle, which controls both rotations of the head (panning) and elevations of the head (tilting). Pans are rendered smooth by hydraulic resistance between a viscous fluid in a sealed chamber, and a proprietary system of baffles, within the fluid, attached to the pan handle such that panning is damped by the baffles pushing through the fluid. Tilting is damped by a system of adjustable springs which also may be further damped by fluid. The top of the head features a removable plate which, after being bolted to the camera plate, may be slid, forward and backward to balance the camera on the head.

Drag, or resistance to tilting and panning is often required to provide smoother motion. Without drag, a camera would move too easily and the target would be "overshot" in many cases. Tilt and pan drag are initiated by the user through a number of different mechanisms. Some tripods feature a notched wheel, others a series of snaps, each notch or snap representing a fixed amount of drag.

The legs usually telescope to provide a vertical range of adjustment. If the legs are composed of two telescoping sets, the tripod is said to be a "two stage" tripod. Many tripods are three stage, offering greater range of adjustment. Today, most tripods are composed of aluminum or carbon fiber, which is lighter though more expensive than aluminum.

The spreader is a horizontal set of three, telescoping rods that join each leg to a three-hinge collapsing point in the center of the tripod beneath the ball. Most spreaders are ground level, but some are mounted higher up on the legs to allow use on uneven ground.

Vinten's ENG Lineup

Vinten offers a wide selection of tripods, under the "Vision" name, ranging in size from the Vision 3 for the lightest MiniDV camcorders, through the midrange, newly introduced Vision 6 for a camera on the order of the JVC DV-500U, and Vision 8 for a Betacam BVW 600. A heavier line, ranging from the XXX 250 to the XXX-xxx, will handle larger film cameras and video cameras equipped with teleprompter devices.

Most Vinten tripods come with a soft carrying case, standard, in either aluminum or carbon fiber legs, with ground or mid-level spreader options. All Vinten tripods offer four distinct technical advantages, some of which are unique in the industry.

Perfect Balance - A Vinten Exclusive

During the normal camera mounting process, the cameraperson attaches the camera to the tripod and then centers it on the tripod plate so that it balances without falling forward or back. Then, the cameraperson adjusts the tilt compensation. Tilt compensation keeps the camera from tilting too quickly forward or back. Essentially it is composed of a spring mechanism which places a variable amount of resistance on the tilting motion of the camera.

A critical problem exists in many tripods, caused by the center of gravity of tripod head. As the head is tilted, the center of gravity shifts, since the pivot point is in the center of the head, not higher up in the balance point of the camera. As a result, when the tilt compensation is set so that the camera remains balanced at, say a 30 degree tilt forward, the camera will start to drift if the camera is tilted significantly off the 30 degree point. The common solution to this problem is either for the cameraperson to compensate physically or to set the tilt compensation so tightly that tilting becomes prohibitively stiff. This significant design fault, taken for granted for so many years, has been corrected by Vinten with a feature they call Perfect Balance.

If you haven't explored tripods in awhile, you are in for a pleasant surprise when you try Vinten's Perfect Balance. It begins with a vernier type of dial mounted on the rear panel of the head, just above a red LED, numerical readout. Pressing a small button on the side of the head lights the LED and, incidentally, a light beneath the leveling bubble! I know several great cameramen who carry a small flashlight just for leveling the ball in a dark setting. The larger Vinten tripods feature a light-sensor that turns on the light automatically!

To actuate the Perfect Balance system, the camera operator tilts the camera slightly forward and twists the dial until the camera remains stable. After this single adjustment, the camera will remain stable at any angle of tilt, forward or back. If you change the configuration of the camera such that the weight distribution changes (a change in lens or batteries), you will need to reset the Perfect Balance, but you can record the number in the LED readout and use it to return to your previous configuration's balance point. Using the Perfect Balance system, angles up to 90 degrees (pointing straight down or up) may be achieved with no drift.

Each model Vinten head offers a wide range of weight specifications to fit the camera system you will most often use.

Whip Pan Capability

How many of you professional cameramen have ever made love to your tripod? Know what I mean? You're covering some action that offers opportunities for fast horizontal action - a basketball game, for instance. You're panning slowly to cover action upcourt when someone shoots a long pass down court. You try to whip the pan handle and your head's fluid suddenly gels up like a rock. Instinctively, one hands goes to the head to switch off pan drag while your legs wrap lovingly around the tripod to keep it from falling over. Or worse, you work with no pan drag at all, over panning your shots.

This happens because all fluid pan heads tend to lock up when the fluid in the head cannot move fast enough around the internal baffles. It's a limitation in the design of most brands of heads. Vinten's heads, however, have newly designed baffles that permit sudden whip panning. While it is possible to create a lockup at the highest levels of pan drag, a camera operator may set the pan drag anywhere within the medium range and never experience a lock up while executing any speed of whip pan. A significant improvement on all other brands of heads.

Torsional Rigidity

A little known attributes of tripods is "torsional rigidity." The best way to explain this is to imagine your tripod as if it were made of rubber. Now, consider setting this rubber tripod into the earth, locking the head and then applying panning pressure to the pan handle. The twisting force against the pan handle would be absorbed by the rubber legs of the tripod, which would twist, storing up that energy until you let go of the handle. The result would be a powerful "snap back" action as the stored energy in the legs was released. The twisting motion is called, "torsion." Tripod designers, employing new, lightweight alloys and carbon fibers, which are flexible by nature, attempt to engineer as much torsional rigidity into a tripod as possible, in order to eliminate the snap back effect.

Torsional snap back can be seen, quite clearly, however, in most tripods, even though they are obviously not made of rubber. To test your equipment, examine the image of a camera equipped with a telephoto lens, mounted on your tripod. Using a moderate amount of pan drag, execute a long pan to a specific target and then release the pan handle. Most tripods will exhibit a small degree of snap back, such that your image will not center on the target, but will settle a few degrees back along the pan path. This is because your tripod's legs have stored up torsional energy which is released when you let go of the pan handle.

Vinten tripods do not exhibit snap back. Extensive design enhancements were engineered into Vinten legs which allow the use of lightweight materials, yet the legs retain the highest degree of torsional rigidity.

Quick Set Up

As in every part of industry, time is money. The ability to set up you gear quickly can make or break a camera operator's career. The legs of Vinten tripods feature locking knobs that require only a quarter turn to release or lock the telescoping extensions that allow the tripod to stand at its full (or any intermediate) height.

Furthermore, once released, the telescoping extension fall to their full length if the tripod head is held above the ground at the desired setup height. In essence, all an operator has to do is hold the head out with one hand while releasing the knobs with the other. As soon as the third knob is loose, a slight shake of the tripod will spread the legs slightly and the extensions will fall as the spreader carries them outward. With a little practice, operators may make an impressive display of their skills as the tripod is extended in a matter of seconds, the leg knobs retightened and the camera mounted in record time.

Conclusion

While many operators have taken their tripods for granted for many years, it is time to reexamine the attributes of today's recent design enhancements. Vinten offers a great many of these enhancements, in a manner which is innovative and highly competitive in terms of price vs. functions. Four specific enhancements are well worth considering; Perfect Balance, Whip Pan Capability, Torsional Rigidity and Quick Setup. I enthusiastically encourage you to try these four specific improvements at your local dealer soon.