Tripods vs Gimbals for Videography: Pros, Cons, and Best Uses
Jamie Perez • January 30, 2025
Both tripods and gimbals are excellent stabilization tools for your camera and should be staples for any videographer to keep in their inventory, but how do you decide which to use in each situation? And what are some key differences between tripods and gimbals? It depends on the look you’re going for, how much motion is involved, the time crunch you’re under to get the shots you need to get and mobility, amongst other things.
Both will help you stabilize your camera in different ways. Tripods rely on three legs planted on the ground while gimbals are handheld devices that use motors and sensors to actively counteract wobbly motions, giving you a seamless motion on camera.
Let’s go through some pros and cons of both:
Tripod Pros
- Rock solid when legs are extended and locked in place
- Can hold very heavy camera loads
- Allows very slow, smooth pans and tilts
- Inexpensive models available
- Dolly attachments are available to achieve additional movement while filming
Tripod Cons
- Bulky and not easily portable
- Time consuming to set up and adjust
- Can't compensate for wind or vibration

Best Uses for Tripods: Shooting interviews, time lapses, and still shots
Gimbal Pros
- Compact and highly portable
- Actively stabilizes and smoothens motion
- Allows fluid, sweeping camera moves like pans, tilts and tracking shots
- Allow you to run, walk and follow subjects while maintaining stabilized footage
Gimbal Cons
- Struggles with heavier camera loads
- Short battery life
- Can drift or have jitter in windy conditions
- More expensive models required for best performance
- Can be frustrating to master the skill of balancing your gimbal and learning how to shoot steady shots in motion
- Can be heavy after shooting for a while and does require some back and arm strength
Best Uses for Gimbals: Ideal for action shots, travel videos, high-action movements, documentaries and more
Conclusion
In the end, the choice between a tripod and a gimbal comes down to how you want your video to feel. Tripods deliver rock-solid stability and are ideal for interviews, talking-head videos, and any shot where consistency matters most. Gimbals, on the other hand, unlock fluid movement and cinematic energy, making them perfect for storytelling on the move. Neither tool is better in every situation and the real advantage comes from understanding when to use each. That’s why experienced videographers should bring both to every shoot, to give themselves the flexibility to adapt on the fly as creative needs, locations, and moments change. By matching the right stabilization tool to your goal, you’ll not only improve the quality of your footage, but also create videos that feel more intentional, engaging, and professionally crafted.
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When it comes to video production, a major part of the art happens during the editing process. A good editor can take bad footage and still make a decent story out of it. But a bad editor cannot take great footage and make a great story out of it. You should be able to be decent at both -- but if your footage isn't the greatest, a good edit can still save you. Here are some key elements to thoroughly consider when editing your videos to ensure the final product is as great as it can be: 1) Music selection: Music will drive the narrative and set the tone for whatever emotion you want your audience to feel. The music needs to compliment the video. In many music libraries online you can narrow down the search results by putting in filters like instruments, mood, beats per second, etc. If you have a promo video that you want people to be excited about, for example, use music that is quick paced, has a hard bass, etc. 2) A-roll: These are your interviews -- the driving sound that will literally narrate the video. The first ten seconds are super important. That's your hook. It's what captures the audience's attention. Once you start bringing the viewer into the middle of the narrative, stakes are high so it's important to choose soundbites that reveal more layers to the story to keep their attention on the story. One of the biggest challenges editors face is deciding what stays and what goes. When you have so much good sound, it's hard to decide. A bit of advice here is to step away from the project for a day and come back and watch it with fresh eyes and ears. Then decide-- what sound would move me the most if this were my first time watching it? What sound advances the story and does the best job of driving home the message? And then lastly -- how do you want your story to end? Choosing that final soundbite is important because that's the overall feeling that your audience will walk away with. If you are moved by the sounds you choose -- chances are your audience will be too. 3) B-Roll: These are your visuals. Anything that is not an interview shot that helps move the story. It's great to use the phrase "say dog, see dog" when choosing your b-roll. If the soundbite talks about walking on a beach looking at the sunset, choose footage that shows that. One of the other challenging parts during the editing process is you could have an amazing shot of something--- but if the soundbite that talks about that didn't make it into the final cut of the story, then you also have to cut that beautiful shot you were super proud of if it doesn't move the story forward. But this can always be used in a separate standalone cut to promote the video on social media. 4) Practice: All of these things take time to master. Even when you've been at it for years, it's still a continuous learning process because every story is different. Find the moments that move you and the shots that ignite some sort of emotion in you. Cut different versions until you find the right one. And have fun with it when all is said and done!
Learn how to direct b-roll with authenticity. These 4 tips help you capture real emotion on camera without staging or losing the human connection.
Mastering the art of storytelling takes years of practice. You can buy all the top-tier equipment in the world and still struggle with telling a good story. Because while the nice cameras can make a good visual, no amount of equipment in the world can produce a good soundbite. Only the person behind the camera can do that. If you are someone who has been creating videos or sharing stories and wonder why your videos just don't hit you in the feels the way you want them to, it's time to do some self-reflection and ask yourself how good the interview questions were that you came up with. Because your interviewee is a direct reflection of the interviewer . We see so many people pay thousands of dollars for incredibly cinematic video... but the message just isn't there. It fell flat and now you've just spent all this money for a video that ultimately won't work the way you wanted it to. If you are running an organization and are about to sit down for a video interview, I would want to know that the person behind the camera was a good interviewer and knew how to calm my nerves, knew how to ask the right questions to make me really think about my WHY, and could pull emotion out of me that I'm not used to sharing. We've put together several tips about how to approach an interview, from the way you enter the room, to the questions you ask when the lights and camera are rolling. Here are our top 4 tips: If the tone of your story is raw, emotional and authentic, enter the room this way. Have conversations with your interviewees as you're setting up your gear to talk about soft, heartwarming topics. Maybe even share something vulnerable about yourself so break down that wall we tend to put up around others. Show them that it's okay to not always put your best self forward. That we are all human and life happens. This helps them not only feel comfortable with you before the camera starts recording, but allows them to open up during the actual interview. If you enter the room with a serious demeanor or frazzled because you're running late, you're bringing that energy onto the set and your interview will be reflective of that. Ask better questions if you want better answers. For example: If you ask someone if they like the sunset, that's a yes or no answer you're going to get. But if you ask them," Tell me through the use of colors what you love about the sunset and paint a picture so I can imagine what you're seeing -- that is a prompt that encourages them to share a memory, an emotion, a sensory experience that invites a much richer soundbite. Stay away from yes or no questions. Those will not help you the editing process. Talk from the heart, not from a script. If you're sticking to a pre-planned script -- that's all you're going to get. But if you go into an interview and just have an authentic conversation driven by curiosity and natural chatter, you're more likely to get sound that you didn't even anticipate. Let the curiosity of the moment drive the conversation instead of bringing a piece of paper that has a list of questions to get through. Be curious and go off script if you MUST have one. When you are genuinely curious about someone's life and you approach it in a caring way, they want to share their story. They want to feel seen, they want to feel heard and not judged. No one likes to keep things inside. And keeping things inside is not good for us. We need connection, we need people and we need people who care. Embrace silence. This is such an important skill to master. Most of the time when we are talking to someone, we interject with "Yea" "Uh huh" "Absolutely" and so on. When you are recording an interview on camera, it's important for the interviewer to stay completely silent after they've asked their question. It's hard to edit out your interjections so you want to make sure your voice cannot be heard during their answer. A simple head nod to address that you're listening will suffice. And after your interviewee has finished their sentence, don't start talking immediately. Give it a few seconds of silence. We do this for two reasons: it helps during the editing process to have some padding to work with in case we need to dissolve or add a transition between clips, and it opens up an opportunity for the interviewee to say more... and oftentimes, that "more" can turn into a really powerful soundbite that you weren't expecting to get simply because they wanted to fill that silence. These aren't just good tips to use during interviews, these tips can help you have a more rich and meaningful connection with others in every day life! Need more help crafting impactful interview questions? Let's talk today.
