Info

Different Types of Tripods

There are a couple of different types of tripods. The cheapest one costing less than 100 US dollars is very basic and quite small. It has an attached head and rubber feet. It allows the camera to tilt 90 degrees. Sometimes there's a pin included that is used to stabilize the camera.

The more expensive tripods are bigger and stronger and often come with more features. There are expensive carbon fiber tripods that are used when the tripod needs to be lightweight during filming. One of the features which the more expensive tripods carries is that it's got a reversible center post to allow the person filming to move the camera between the legs of the tripod or move it to near the bottom to get a low angle shot.

The Head

The head attaches to the camera. There are two different heads;
A ball head is like a ball and socket joint and allows the camera to move in almost any different directions.
The pan-tilt head is used almost the same way but it has two parts to it. One allows the camera to tilt up and down without affecting the other part that controls the sideways movement of the camera.