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Gear

Gear Up For Video

A look at some of the key accessories one pro uses to make top-quality HD video with his DSLR

This Article Features Photo Zoom

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Video is now an important part of DSLRs. This medium adds motion and sound to your visuals, expanding what you can do visually with nature scenes. It’s true that you’ll need to think a little differently about what and how you shoot, and you’ll need to learn the skill of video editing, but it’s well worth it. The DSLR with video truly changes how video can be recorded because of the ability to use interchangeable lenses.

Here’s some of the gear I use for video. You don’t need to invest in all of the gear listed here, but each product assists in some way to make video shooting easier and more effective.

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Tripod Heads
The tripod head used for a still camera is designed to hold the camera steady and make repositioning it easy. There’s no need to have the camera move smoothly during the exposure.

Video is a moving medium that can include panning the camera across a scene as the scene is recorded, tilting the camera up and down during recording, or both, at the same time. A video head has technology that dampens the movement and allows the camera to pan or tilt smoothly. This is done with a fluid head that uses hydraulics to dampen movement of the camera.

Low-priced video heads are simple fluid heads. More expensive heads can give you amazingly smooth movement of the camera, plus they often have additional features such as easily adjusted resistance (which makes for smoother movement) and the ability to balance the camera better on the head.

It may seem like all you need to do is get a fluid head and use it for all of your photography. On the contrary, a fluid head isn’t designed for vertical shooting and doesn’t have an infinite range of positions like a ballhead. I frequently bring two tripods when I shoot, one for still photography and one for video.

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