I nominate the rubber band as one of the top five technological achievements ever in film/video. Simple, small, cheap, and so effective. I've made these observations:

1) It is so far superior to panning by hand as to be genuinely profound in its benefits
2) Thin, stretched out rubber bands (about 2 inches when relaxed) work the best, a gossamer connection between you and the tripod
3) In general cranking the pan resistance up yields the best results.
4) The smoothest pans happen when the tension is enough that the ruuber band is stretched to 75% of it's max (about 8-10 inches) when panning.
5) The rubber band also allows the head to slowly come to stop as the band contracts after you've stopped panning.
6) With just a little practice, the benefits are even more stunning when executing diaganol moves
7) You can bundle several around the pan arm on your tripod and never be without

Three cheers for the rubber band!

I too hail this although I have some nice stretchy hair bungees/scrunchies (the kind for pony tails) as they tend not to rip the hair off my arms (I store them round my wrist) and they are generally "less ghetto looking"

I dunno what the pro camera people call it but certainly in Lightwave that effect is called "envelope" where you have a nice non-linear progression in speed change.

http://www.diynetwork.com/diy/hb_photography/article/0,2033,DIY_13883_2635032,00.html for pictures of this simple yet effective technique.

you may also try gripping the head itself - it gives you far less leverage on the head, and consequently you can make finer moves. The advantage to limiting your leverage is that you can still make precise moves, where it may be far more difficult using a rubberband on the pan bar.

Looped together in a chain and one around the lens barrel thick ones can be half-handy for improvised focus pulls when you don't want to drag the cameraman off his shot.

This is a great trick, thanks!
I made a test today of before and after shots (both with a fluid tripod head) and the rubber band way is the best. You can check out my test here:
http://eugenia.gnomefiles.org/2007/09/16/the-trick-for-smooth-pans/

Very cool test. It was a really smooth move!

Now if I can only find a rubber band for the jib arm :)

--JA
www.madjavaproductions.com

Yep, it works. Many thanks! Just amazing.

Smooth with very, very slow and even movement. Great for a small correction when you overshoot a pan without drawing attention....

Now if I can just find some black ones that won't look so cheezy.....

I keep hearing about this. I will buy some rubber bands at work tomorrow and check out the results.

I was reading this thread and not later after I received two packages from B&H.

Funny thing is there were 2 rubber bands inside of the packages, they are now attached to my 501HDV, I can get silk smooth pans with cheapo rubber bands haha.

This may already be very logical, but I figured this out about 2 weeks ago... Initially I was putting the rubber band around the end of the tripod handle in order to pan/tilt smoothly. But, it is a TON smoother if you move the rubber band way up the handle near the head. It requires more effort to get the pan/tilt started, but once you do it is very smooth. Also, my pans/tilts are less jittery/shakey than when I would have the rubber band near the end of the handle.

Andrew

Wow! Thats a great idea Thanks!
I will try it out tomorrow

Great tip. This works like a charm. I now have about 8 rubberbands on my tripod. I got to be ready in case one pops.