VINTEN VISION ‘BLUE’

Vinten Vision blue from Vinten on Vimeo.

As I write this the brand new Vinten Vision Blue that’s been in my possession for the last month is sitting in a box ready to be taken away. FedEx were supposed to pick it up yesterday but somehow forgot about me. I’m not saying I had anything to do with that, but, well, you know, I’m not complaining! Vinten were kind enough to let me live with a Blue for few weeks and, though I don’t do tests, I did have a chance to put it through its paces, on the job, out in Beirut. I actually hate tests, they don’t tell me anything about a product as you’re not actually using it under pressure. In Lebanon I was shooting all day, humping gear all over a hot, dusty city shooting everything on sticks and shooting fast. The job necessitated lots of pans, tilts and some tricky moves that would all put the beautiful, butter smooth head under pressure to perform.

blue light, big smile

Locking screws both on side, plate won't slide off

Let me first say this, I don’t really do tripods. I’ve grown up with handycams, shooting handheld, super fast, ignoring any kind of stability. Most of the time clients want me to shoot handheld, but I suspect it’s mainly to do with the fact that my handheld rig looks like some kind of super advanced weapon and less to do with any kind of creative choice. I find tripods slow, annoying and cumbersome on the whole, not to mention unpredictable and disappointing (Manfrotto take a bow). I think my biggest gripe comes with just the mechanical act of bending awkwardly to unlock the legs, lifting the head, relocking, bubbling up, unlocking, lowering the head, flicking the spreader up with the toe of my boot and slinging the tripod over my shoulder. I shoot ultra fast and that movement becomes incredibly wearisome after a while. Maybe I have no patience! The directive from Monocle on the Beirut job was ‘NO HANDHELD’ so sticks it was, the handheld rig never even left the UK.

So, what is the Vinten Vision Blue exactly then? Yes, it’s a tripod, so far so good. It features a fluid head with drag controls and a funky blue light for the bubble that just makes you giggle it’s so cool. It’s designed for lightweight cameras, the spring and the settings suitably resistant for DSLRs, EX1s and probably a Scarlet, should one ever come out. So what? Libec make lightweight tripods, so do Manfrotto, there’s Millers to be had vaguely near this price range. True, all true, but then you should bear in mind that Vinten hasn’t made a tripod in this bracket before. Vinten make the kind of indestructible, ultra-smooth, ultra-predictable heads that keep footballs, golf balls, any kind of ball in fact, squarely in frame, at the end of the lens, on big broadcast cameras. They know a thing or two they do. And it’s clear they’ve brought much of that high-end savvy into the design of the Blue.

Rubberised drag adjustment

Perfect balance adjustment

What are we looking at then? Don’t expect fireworks (apart from that bubble light, such a small thing, but details like that put a smile on your face and make you want to show other people… ridiculous, but true), it’s black, it has a handle, it has a plate to attach the camera to, there are controls to lock it off, controls to adjust drag and it has three legs. If that sounds matter of fact it’s meant to. This is an everyday tool, a dependable piece of kit that doesn’t complain, doesn’t break, just gets on with it and doesn’t get in the way. So, does it succeed?

Well, it’s the little things. The locking nuts for pan and tilt are both situated on the side (the pan lock is often round the front on tripods) making it really simple to lock off. The drag controls are big chunky rubberised dials that rotate easily and it quickly becomes second nature to make micro changes to the balance without ever looking to see what setting you’re on. The perfect balance dial on the back again is easy to hand and allows you to find the optimal settings for the spring. If you’re shooting on a DSLR you’ll quickly become best friends with this control as you switch between lenses, constantly changing the centre of gravity and the weight balance. Rather than shifting the plate forward and back it literally is a swift turn of the dial, check the head, quick spin then you’re away. So easy. So quick. This has been a bit of revelation for me. No matter what rubbish I stuck on the camera I could always get the head set so there were none of those heart-stopping moments where you’ve forgotten to lock the head off and the camera’s nose-diving. The Blue ‘balances payloads between 2.1 – 5 kg / 4.6 – 11 lbs with a low centre of gravity of around 55 mm’ if you need the cold hard facts.

All of this is just preparation though, for the true party piece of the Blue: fluid dynamics. Tom Guilmette calls the action ‘buttery’ which just sounds messy to me, but once you use it you suddenly understand. Imagine passing a slightly warm knife across a slab of room temperature butter, that’s what this feels like. Apply more pressure and it soaks it up, release the pressure and it soaks that up too. The true measure of a great fluid head is not in the motion it’s in the beginnings and ends of the movement and here the Blue is just epic. Complex diagonal moves tilting/panning, hitting marks, can be realistically contemplated with the Blue. You’ve still got to put your share of the work in, but, ask the questions and the Blue generally has all the answers. Moves which I would normally have attempted 10 times and got nowhere near on the old Libec I could normally perfect in four attempts or less. In drama, where there’s so much at stake during takes this tripod wouldn’t let you down. For me, the hardest move is a diagonal, left right, tilt/pan moving from low to high. Working against gravity with the right arm coming into the body instead of relaxing out to fully extended is a big old challenge. I attempted a shot at the 200mm end of a 70-200 tilting up a crane to find another set of buildings in the background and hit it after five attempts. The botches were entirely my fault.

Price wise a head only Blue can be had for £493.50 (inc VAT) with the full fat version coming in at £728.50 (inc VAT) which includes a Petrol case, and a choice of floor or mid-level spreader. Is it worth it? For me, definitely. When you’re under pressure on commercial jobs and you have to deliver for clients then it just won’t let you down, in fact it will make you look good. It certainly made me look good and, you know what, it might have made me a better cameraman as well. Now, where’s that FedEx number again… cant have forgotten it can I?