Camera Equipment: Tripods and mounts

Hello everyone!


Today I'm going to be writing about different types of Tripods and Camera Mounts. Using knowledge I have gained from being a Media Tech support helper as part of my school enrichment program. The course involves me handling equipment and software and finding new ways to use it for people to learn and use themselves to improve their grade and knowledge of different aspects of media.

Firstly, we have your regular tripods, these are incredibly useful for ensuring your camera is steady during a shot. Tripods also allow smooth panning of the camera in multiple directions. Tripods can be used to hold cameras such as DSLR's or Video cameras, but they can also be fitted with a mount for mobile phones and other devices to film from, allowing for a full range of filming equipment to be used.

Next there are Gorilla Tripods, these are not as useful for standing a camera up or creating a steady pan shot. This is because Gorilla Tripods don't have a pivoting head (at least the ones at school don't), they also have much shorter legs made up of lots of connected pivot joints, meaning the legs are bendable. This allows Gorilla Tripods to be wrapped around things such as tree branches and ledges and hang on whilst holding a camera or mount. These are useful if you want to film a shot from in a forest where, for example, the protagonist(s) is/are walking through the forest and someone or something is stalking them, an example of this type of shot would be in Predator. However in that film, the shot also pans, which is achievable through more expensive and/or advanced equipment.

Moreover, there are Shoulder Mounts. A Shoulder Mount is a 'crossbow shaped' piece of equipment that you can attach a camera or mount to allow for things like a tracking shot from a shoulder height view. These are also useful for a point of view shot as they position the camera to head-height.