Why Would ANYBODY Spend $800 On A Tripod?!...(SmallRig FreeBlazer Counterbalance Tripod)

[@buddyfx7026]

New Sachtler user here, tripod is fkn beautiful. Super quick to setup/breakdown. it's locking system is solid for adding sliders, adjust the level is the fastest. buying the adapter to go from sticks to dana dolly is wicked fast too (like three seconds and boom, you're good to go); also the leven can be viewed top down and also when facing the tripod while it's all the way extended up. Weight is light for what it is, the carry handle is great for moving faster on location with your rig mounted. the adjustments and resistance make for much smoother pans/tilts (if you get a zoom lens, the cheaper ones will fall apart as far as steadiness goes). I mean this thing is just a beast. I love it's QR system (again, fast) and it's going to last a long time. If I can I'll always opt into a check-in for travel so I can have it wherever I land over a travel tripod (travel tripods are much slower to work with and are limited in options given the size constraints). That said, it's expensive and probably something you'll have to save up for but as someone who's way more than tens of thousands of dollars on gear, the "buy once, cry once" motto is said for a reason. Lenses are an investment and the same can be said about tripods and great grip equipment; items that will last you a LONG time in your career if you're serious about it.

[@shinyhappytravelers]

Excellent review, and while SmallRig makes some great, reasonably priced gear, once you step up to a Sachtler (or a Conner) you'll never want to go back. Although they are designed for heavier cameras, the geared/fluid head design makes them incredibly smooth. That's less important these days when you have lightweight cameras and excellent gimbals, but back in the days before those, a good tripod was a must. My first Sachtlers were 5000 and 9000 dollars back in 1993... and a major difference is they both still function today, over 30 years later, just as they always have. I don't know if I'd buy them nowadays, but they were an excellent investment in my business back then.

[@sidepieceseason1414]

Thanks man!

[@TannerGwaltney]

What you're calling a dovetail is actually a VCT system, the dovetail is the sliding plate above that (like a bigger version of an arca-swiss or manfrotto tripod QR plate). My understanding is that the counterbalance setting should be set so that if you properly balanced your camera front to back, if you let go of the pan bar at any time the head stays exactly where it is. If it bounces back up, the counterbalance setting is too high and if it starts drooping down, the setting is too low.

[@YCImaging]

Thanks for this clarification!

[@ETFootprints]

You're right about the bounce back. Many reviewers don't know how to use counterbalance and said it's balanced if bounced back. I was like "What?".

[@martin_wood]

Yeah, I was wondering why the demo was unbalanced. Manfrotto had that feature for awhile and it's supposed to hold still when properly balanced

[@SoRad-nq2ou]

800$ is not a lot for a professional tripod.

[@michaelfrymus]

I wouldn't even consider SmallRig to be a good "professional" tripod. More of a cheap tripod.

[@TheTitanGen]

Sachtler tripods are actually worth the price. They are kinda buy and never have to worry about a tripod again. Also the reason they are so expensive, is they are meant for the heavier cameras such as Arri or Sony Venice. So if you are looking for a tripod for a dslr or any other lower weight cameras, smallrig tripods are good.

[@juliustubbsDP]

I just picked up a Cartoni that cost 3500. Got it used for 2250. This small rig tripod looks good for the price. I wonder what will the life span be. I rather by once cry once. If the small rig is long lasting it’s a solid buy.

[@CAMphotography_]

That’s insane

[@YCImaging]

That's a great price!

[@JMichaelDixon]

But wait there’s more insane, got my Cartoni $750 over 12 years ago! Still one of my best steals 😂

[@beardandbowlerproductions]

Thank you dude! Just picked up the middle one last week so this was super-helpful! Sharing with my crew now

[@ULTIMATEFX]

Well you made me smile with the title and then at 0:20 I lost it 😂 This is my SACHTLER tripod and yes I paid this amount. For me I always wanted to go with this brand and the design and colors match my company but apart from design this IS a great product and kind of a industry standard here in Germany to go with SACHTLER. But I admit having used way way cheaper options before and yeah you do not need to spend this much money. So lets see what this SmallRig thing can do 🙉

[@Deatarus51]

Just gonna throw out a prediction here, In a few years when he uses a real fluid head. “I was naive when I said the smallrig can do everything the $3500 tripod can do, here’s why a real fluid head is worth the money” 😂

[@nnandicason9216]

Another great video! A quick note though is that I think you were misnaming the camera plate you were using as a Dovetail instead of a VCT Plate. In the grand scheme, it doesn't really make a difference because they're both camera plates but for anyone looking to buy the same plate it'd just make it a little more difficult for them to find. Great stuff as usual though!

[@CreativeRyan]

Hit like if you can watch YC all day 👇🏼

[@jfizzle]

$800? We are using Pro Media Gear tripods for still photography at $1500.00 a pop. When it's your livelihood, cheap doesn't cut it.

[@jayrey7]

That tripod was dope. 🔥

[@tiemji]

Thanks for your feedback and for showing the damping feature which i don't know well

[@sebaagarrayua]

Man I need you to relauch that director black jacket, its so cool

[@jettlifeweddings]

Great video, I was the same way until recently when my camera fell off a SmallRig tripod 😭😭 (It was the $150 one, not any of these.) Cheaper tripods have their place in our industry, but expensive ones DEFINITELY have their place too. In most cases, I'm fine with $100-$200 tripods but I need at least one beast that can handle everything I need to throw at it. Thanks for making this video!

[@BurlapandLight]

Great review. But, their downside is the fact that they offer no extra mounting screws on the bottom to secure it to the tripod. The failure is in the design with only one screw that secures it. My last head from them failed and is not usable due to this. But I think they finally added that to the new Tribes one. But any of the older ones are seemingly useless. For 800 bucks I would expect it to have more than one securing point to prevent it from unscrewing from the tripod.

[@misterwhyte]

Reading the comments is wild. You guys all work on Hollywood blockbusters or what? I've worked for small indie projects all the way to major TV productions, and you know what I found? In 95% of cases the $200-$300 tripods performed just as well as the super expensive ones. It saddens me to see people still get fooled by the price.

[@alaneddy4575]

Thanks man. It looks like the 800 dollar offering is one you could go with smallrig's fluid head without perhaps just buying the sticks and a separate head.

[@KDsburner-vg8vp]

I use the small rig travel tripod with a little video head attachment. Is interchangeable for when i want to use the tripod for stills photography. I also have the FreeBlazer which just feels so sturdy. My rig is not particular heavy but I've built around a shoulder rig which my camera can come off to be more compact and run on my gimbal. Saves a tonne of time.

[@Ackeemsterlingreviews]

These are really great tripods especially for professional work . Great video

[@ScottDavey]

I have that $3800 tripod at 0.20 🤣 always good to see what Smallrig come out with.

[@mtmccornack]

That's a Lotta words, yo! (I've been laughing about that for 15 minutes now!)

[@mtmccornack]

Funny thing... I used to be an AV tech for a hotel, and they would supply expensive Manfrotto tripods for our live video production.... I wish I never touched an expensive fluid head because now I hate all tripods. (Or at least the craptastic ones i can afford anyway, totally wish i didn't know the difference, but too late for me! Time to pony up 800 bones cause those sticks are sexy AF)

[@KennethGreenCMP]

Everything is in the details.

[@jayrey7]

Yea I been thinking about upgrading to an $800 Tripod. It'll be my first and yea. I can agree with you. You're setting yourselves up with a cheap Tripod. I would lose my mind if my set up drop. Hell nah 😂

[@CreativeRyan]

Let me get 1 of those tripods 🔥

[@redesignedlife777]

800 bucks? Enters in potato jet tripod. Lol

[@RobertBoehmMedia]

Smallrig is making some really good reasonably priced gear. I have the ad100, the little brother to the freeblazer, and it’s perfect for my needs

[@dolipops]

bro, the shots at 8:31 are SO GOOD. What lens were you rockin on those? I've been wanting to step up my establishers on my wedding films and get an overall better main tripod as well, this would be a double whammy! Definately looking into that solid middle option there.

[@YCImaging]

These were shot on the 100mm f/2.8 lens, I meant to label these shots.

[@dolipops]

@@YCImaging that's crazy smooth for being that punched in, thank you! 🔥

[@davidcienfuegos914]

Can you upgrade the $400 to a counter balance at a later date.

[@hiimty1]

Bro, you giving me anxiety with the camera on your shoulder like that😂

[@JS_Leger]

I think if there is a piece of gear that we should invest it's definitely the tripod! And 800$ is really cheap for a tripod...I would personally advice to choose even a better tripod, such as a Sachtler Flowtech with activ8 fluid head, and you'll thanks me later when you'll see how great is this tripod + head 😉

[@Bigcookfilms]

Do you still have the army fatigue Director jacket?

[@Luartico]

You're in Charlottesville? Watching the video like normal until I get jump scared by the street I work on.

[@thompsonjames918]

miss the good ol' days when you can spend no more than 150 for heavy duty tripod with a good fluid head 😢 still remember when you updated your tripod after you got the c200. Messed my whole head up with the price smh

[@adhmalmdhigy9006]

man i need a new camera video because mine is just low resoltion and a new cheap tripod and to fix my gimble cuz problems come all at ones ,i have worked with expansive gear but to work with cheap gear after a good ones hearts alot

[@issaholdup]

also that directors jacket fire

[@colemowery]

the tripods I'm looking at are like $4k-10k

[@RapAnimeMangaSpace]

Yea I am going to need that jacket FORREAL

[@NaturalOrlando]

Hey! what slider do you use? And can you recommend it? Greetings from Germany! Keep up the good work! It's nice to see other sharing their story.

[@the_black_douglas9041]

There’s a great demo on YT by Brian Hunt of that $3800 tripod showing how the legs collapse under pressure. For that price, you would want also to be able to marry it and have a family.

[@tnasty7711]

Nice Job!

[@TheHomelessPhotographer]

4K for a tripod, it better have some GOLD and some food with it . I am always hungry on shoots, LOL

[@DanielgchoiFilms]

4k for a cinema tripod is actually pretty standard. Those huge cinema rigs need bigger payload tripods which can be 10k.

[@TheHomelessPhotographer]

@@DanielgchoiFilms but does it come with food< lol

[@DanielgchoiFilms]

@@TheHomelessPhotographer 🤣🤣🤣 I wish

[@TheHomelessPhotographer]

@@DanielgchoiFilms I think they should provide a bag of candy with a purchase

[@virgilhawkins5680]

My Cayer is good enough for now, even flying my full BMPCC 6K Pro rig on it. And I think it was like $80. I wouldn't turn one of these down though.

[@issaholdup]

can you recommend any other rigs

[@OwenCarr]

Is there something that makes the counterbalance one go lower because from my understanding it's the same set of legs between the 2, just different heads right?

[@Drone443]

The spreader is at the bottom instead of just at the middle

[@OwenCarr]

@@Drone443 are the spreaders not removable?

[@NarekManukyan]

meanwhile peak design's carbon tripod is 600 USD and very lightweight, small. The price of course is because it is carbon and - the main thing - it's size. it is so small that can fit in your backpack and open really high for that size.

[@lemnisgate8809]

$600 for the legs no head, try again.

[@NarekManukyan]

@@lemnisgate8809 there is an aluminum version for like 400 usd. and also no, they have a very interesting built jn ballhead.

[@steve_arcenio]

should get the potato jet tripod

[@boringjawid]

that director jacket is fire bro, drop that still if you can please

[@360DigitalStudios]

$800 for a tripod is cheap. An actual good tripod is thousands if not tens of thousands.

[@ThisThe1G]

Title missing 3000$

[@sciencefictiontank5627]

great explanation, thanks!

[@najlacam]

You think it’s be good when I use slider on this tripod

[@badissn1709]

Can we get a tripod counter?

[@SoulJazzDance]

Yeah, naïve. I Tripod is very important once you use the good one. You never wanna go back once she used things like a gearhead Tripod there’s so many different things about Tripod man but I guess this is a perspective starting from KZbin. It’s a lot of people here who are new they may have been making KZbin videos for the last 20 years. But filmmaking is over 100 years old and a lot of the stuff that you see and a lot of stuff used in Hollywood is used for a good reason

[@shotbyd4vd]

i also have the r8 ❤

[@jockslifeatliftvideoproduc8528]

$800 is nothing for a tripod. Hell even $3000 isn't a lot. That tripod needs to reliably hold and operate sometimes 10s of thousands of dollars of equipment on it. So many people baby their cameras because theyre so expensive, only to cheap out of weak sticks. When the camera isn't in your hands, you best be sure its being held by something just as reliable as you.

[@TheTechnoPilot]

LMAO $3,800 for a tripod is CHEAP when we are talking professional tripods! A tripod in the same category as an ARRI Sun 18K or ARRI Signature zooms would be something like a Miller Skyline 70 HD which runs just over $10,000 USD and seeing $18,000 or more tripods isn't uncommon.

[@CruiseeCorleone]

let me guess, yo ass bought a $3,800 on a tripod didn’t you?

[@jeffsaffron5647]

Perspective is a funny thing... cheapest tripods we have in our broadcasting company cost 8k USD. The most expensive ones with Vector heads go upto 20k. In needs to be kept in mind that these tripods hold 200k setups... 800USD for a professional tripod is really not that much, and if it does all you need it to do why spend more.

[@brady_ackroyd]

Why Would ANYBODY Spend $800 On A Tripod? Well, probably because they hadn't heard about Tilta's New Cine Tripod Series that just dropped. Oops!

[@str8poisintv131]

4th 🤣 I'm guessing

[@letipzer]

3rd to comment

[@rieeeks]

2nd to comment :)

[@ralphdee1]

1st to comment! ❤