Video Product Review: Vinten Vision 11 Tripod

What do I know from tripods? I write, produce, direct and edit. Tripods are the camera department's responsibility. But I could tell something was up the moment the Fedex man handed me the package from Vinten. It didn't weigh as much as the tripod I've been lugging around for ten years.

Opening the box, I pulled out an attractive, yet tough fabric shoulder case with beefy zippers and a strap that made the tripod feel like a quiver of arrows on my shoulder. Nice. Last time I got a tripod I had to pay extra for the case.

My crew came to watch me. "Ya like it?" I reserved comment.

Nostalgic memories of my youth at the London Film School drifted back as I hefted the tripod to unscrew the leg locks and extend the legs to working height. No screws! Just handy twisty things, shaped like arrows, that immediately release the legs with a half turn so the arrow points down (in the direction you want the legs to drop). My assistant grabbed the head of the tripod from me and shook it like Hugo Weaving in the Matrix, when shook that bug onto Keanu Reeves's belly. Instantly, the tripod's legs dropped to the floor and the spreader extended between them. Three quick flips of the twisties and the tripod was set. "Faster set ups, George. No fumbling around anymore."

"Right," I said, instinctively reaching for the head bolt to level the ball. The room was dim so I asked someone to turn on the lights so I could see the bubble.

"Don't need a light, George," the cameraman smiled and touched a button on the Vinten's head. An internal light illuminated the leveling ball. Geez. I remember, back in film school, when the camera professor reminded everyone to buy a penlight for just this task. I always lost my penlight.

Another thing lit up too. It was an LED number. Now the assistant was stumped. He looked into the instruction book that came with the tripod. "Ohh," he muttered, "That's the amount of Perfect Balance adjustment."

I answered a phone and put out a quick fire and when I came back, the assistant had my $25,000 camera mounted on the tripod and he was beaming ear to ear. "Watch this," he said, and tilted the camera far forward so it was pointing to the ground. Then he let the camera go! Instinctively, I reached out to keep it from falling over and taking the tripod with it to the tile floor. But I'm always too slow for such cool saves. At the same time I realized I wasn't going to save the camera, I also realized that I didn't have to save the camera. The camera was staying right where the assistant left it.

"Psych." He said, and then with his finger, he pushed the pan handle and tilted the camera way up and, well, the camera stayed right where he left it.

A week later, we were shooting a soccer tournament and this Perfect Balance feature made covering the unpredictable motion of the players across the field below us, an effortless task. I know, because my cameraman asked me to take the camera for awhile and experience the benefits of my generous investment.

Suddenly, while I was covering an otherwise uneventful play, a wing man who'd never distinguished himself before, kicked an amazing shot halfway across the field. This time my reactions were quick enough to respond, but I knew no tripod would allow me to whip pan fast enough to cover the shot. The springs, fluids in the head, whatever, they never quite manage to adjust as fast as the real world sometimes.

Heaving the pan handle with both eyes open, I anticipated cutting the shot to the goalie camera, just before the ball exited frame left. But the ball never exited frame left. Both eyes were looking at the same image, a perfectly parked shot with the stunned goalie staring agape. Obviously he hadn't expected the wing man to begin his career, either.

And the funniest thing was this. Just as I parked the shot dead center I noticed another difference between the Vinten and other tripods I'd bought or rented. There was no "snap back" at the end of the pan. Usually, when you force a hard pan, the legs of the tripod will absorb some of that twisting force, like big rubber bands. And when you land on your shot and stop pushing the pan stick, the stored power in the legs makes the camera head snap back just a bit. Look for it during the next big game - a little stagger back in the opposite direction of a whip pan. That means they haven't bought a Vinten - yet.

Summing up my experiences in the process of acquiring better field gear, I'd have to say that Vinten makes the most innovative and useful tripods on the market today.