yes

My honest opinion: NO! I got the gorillapod DSLR, and it's found a new home somewhere in a drawer. Very 'bump' sensitve, impossible to get it in the exact position you want. Panning is nearly impossible. Get a stable table tripod like the vanguard vs82.
Sure, the gorillapod looks fancy, but (at least for me) doesn't get the job done.

I wonder how well a configuration like this would work:

You could use a tripod top such as this, and hot glue it to a large plate. Then you have a base to build off of with Technic or regular bricks. It wouldn't be very tall, and would be much like a regular camera stand that people make for the QC9000.

The best option though, would be to have enough room by your animation table to have a regular tripod.

First of all, is this just for high shots or is it used for everything? If that's the case then I can't help you. What I would suggest is overhaul your whole stability department and build a rig out of LEGO to stabilize your camera. Also, if you are taking your frames by pressing a button on your camera I suggest you look into capturing your frames on your PC by connecting your camera by cord to your computer. Then, take the shots by pressing enter in a frame capture program. Not all cameras function like this so it may not work. Even though pressing the button might have a satisfying feeling to it, it can cause camera shake.

Of course you may already do all of this in which case this paragraph will be totally useless to you.

I'll post a picture of my setup... That'll explain what I mean...

Edit: here it is...

As you can see in the image:
- I have a fairy large desk-table.
- On the table i have made a small animation table: a square piece of sturdy wood (MDF in my case) about 80cm x 80cm. Supported by adjustable "furniture-feet". Don't know the English name for these but you can buy these at a local hardware store for about 2 $ each, or less
- The Vanguard tripod with my cam is on the desk-table, the set on the animation table.

The minimum height of the tripod is at least 15 cm.

Hope that explains it a little bit.

I used to have a normal (large) tripod standing on the floor and have my set on the white table. That caused a lot of set dither (small movements), aside from the occasional "Oh-bollocks-I-Kicked-Tripod-Now-I-Can-Start-All-Over-Again" situation.

Last edited by boardron (July 10, 2011 (12:45pm))

Sorry, see above....

Edit: My solution of course is very nice, but costs money. The main point is: if your gonna use a tripod, spend some bucks more and buy a decent one. That will help your animation skills tremendously. There are always ways to heighten your set so you can get "eye-level-shots" with your cam on the tripod.

BTW: the pull-out tray you mentioned sounds highly unstable to me...

Last edited by boardron (July 10, 2011 (12:58pm))

The tripod is stable and stiff. I regularly press buttons on my cam (focus/zoom) and it stays fixed. Although you should of course be carefull doing that...

The 82 has tilt options which I use in almost every shot. So spend the extra 8 pounds

However, consider this: if you're gonna spend 28 pounds on a tripod, you might want to buy something else instead: the logitech quickcam pro 9000. It costs 40 pounds (new! Used probably cheaper). Although it won't have the image quality of your current camera, you don't have to buy a tripod! You can easily make a cradle for this with your legos. And you can "shoot" directly from your computer.... Lot's of people use this Cam for brickfilming with very good results.

Just a matter of washing your dad's car a couple of times extra...:lol:

a few quick questions:

1) how do you take aerail shots and...

2) Is there anywhere cheaper i can buy in the UK?

Thank you.