Inception of the Hydro-Ped

Abstract

Motion-picture cameramen tend to be partial to the type of head they have always used between their cameras and the supporting unit. Geared heads, fluid heads, friction heads and gyro heads have all been used. Fluid heads developed and perfected over the last quarter century have the great advantage that they permit a moving subject to be followed even with telephoto lenses with no jerky or wavy motion whatever. A problem that sometimes occurs, however, is that the supporting unit below the head is not as good as the head at minimizing unwanted motion. Computer simulation has shown that the ordinary tripod is not very good at resisting the torques that arise when the cameraman is either panning or tilting his camera. Nearly fifty alternatives to the tripod were tested in simulation, and the design choices were narrowed to five before the present design of the Hydro-Ped was found. Criteria used were: resistance to torsion due to panning, resistance to vertical moments due to tilting, and practicality of manufacturing.