Tripod heads
 

Regarading the 501 and 503 heads. The 503 has this f...ing spring in it that keeps returning the position to a neutral one. Can you imagine trying to follow a (wildlife) subject around when your tripod wants to return to neutral all the time!! I use to shoot with a Bogen 3063, but found there was too much lateral play in it, making it hard to accurately follow an erratically moving subject. The 501 has an adjustment for this, making it an excellent choice.

Bogen Tripod Q's @

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=773

I have a Miller DS10 for my XL1s and love it very much. I use the single stage tripod with above ground spreaders. I was using a crappy wal-mart tripod and was getting jobs shooting commercials and felt I should get a better tripod. I shot for the moon and bought the best I could afford and you just cannot beat a good tripod. Another accesory I bought that is a little pricy but gets outstanding results is the cinesaddle. It runs $300 and is just a canvas bag but you can mount it to a car. I mounted mine and ran the car at sixty MPH and the shot was very smooth. It is also great to throw on the ground and mount the camera very low when a tripod won't work.

Where do you find these Miller tripods - I looked but could not find a web-site...

Miller is made in Australia. Believe I've seen a few on the show floor here at VideoMaker Expo, will try to find their website for you tomorrow.

Will,

Do you have pictures and/or URL for this
"cinesaddle"? Sounds interesting! Did you
drive your XL1 with everything on it around?
(like viewfinder, microphone etc.?)

Thanks

Rob,

Try http://www.cinesaddle.com

;)

I had a the view finder, mic, and used a wide converter on the lens. I ran a video cable out the back of the camera inside the car and watched the feed over an LCD monitor. The shots were great. I also made some shots from the bed of a pickup shooting another car travelling down the highway. The tail gate was down and the cinesaddle was on the edge of the gate and my XL1 was on the saddle. I didn't use the tie-downs, I just layed on the floor of the bed and looked through the viewfinder. The thing about video/film is you can drive at 35 MPH or so and it doesn't look much slower than 55/60 MPH