When buying a video camera, we spare no expense of getting a quality camera body or lenses. But what most people get thrifty on is the tripod.
You cannot have good video without a good tripod. A good tripod will ensure your video is not shaky. It will ensure you video looks high quality and professional on YouTube and other online channels. But a good tripod is also expensive. Today we review an entry level model, the Manfrotto BeFree Live Aluminium Tripod with Video Head.
It is available in india for roughly Rs 12-15000. It is lightweight and has most of the good features you would need from a tripod.
The Manfrotto Befree Live tripod comes with a rather handy bag. Unfortunately the bag is not padded. I have seen in shoots the tripod is never respected and is always thrown around and misused. If anything needs a padded bag, it's the tripod. having said that, it is handy enough that there is a bag with a sling strap which is very useful.
Once out of the bag, the tripod looks very neat, is intelligently folded and quick to set up. It weighs roughly 1.7 kilos. Although Manfrotto mentions the safety payout of the tripod at 4 kilos, I would use only the lightest camcorders with this tripod. Any DSLR would become heavy with its lens. The tripod has puny legs and being light, will not be able to take the weight of a heavy camera and pans or movements. There will be shakes for sure unless you are super careful, but that's unlikely on most hectic shoots. The Manfrotto Befree Live Travel Video Tripod is most stable at this height with all legs retracted and the center column retracted as well.
I must take some time to share how great this tripod's video head is. The Manfrotto BeFree Live Video Travel Tripod has an awesome half bowl kind of head that enables quick levelling. An easy to view spirit bubble guide helps greatly! Believe me, when shooting you need a head that levels quickly and accurately and the Manfrotto BeFree Live Video Head is great at that. See the leveling head for yourself. The only flip side is the tilt-pan drag is fixed and cannot be changed.
The pans and tilts are very smooth via Manfrotto's excellent fluid head. This tripod may be light in weight, but in features, its a heavy weight.