Video Tripod Payload & Bowl Matcher

A video tripod payload calculator tells you whether your whole rig fits within your tripod’s rated payload. Add the camera, lens, cage, mic and monitor, enter the payload from the manufacturer’s spec sheet and pick a safety margin. You get Pass, Marginal or Over, plus a bowl and head-base check.

1. Choose metric (grams and kilograms) or imperial (pounds). Switching units converts the values you have already typed rather than clearing them. The tool keeps your exact figures internally and only rounds what it displays, so switching back and forth never changes your result.
2. Weigh or look up each part of your rig: the camera body with battery and card, the lens, the cage or rig plate, the mic and the monitor with its mount. Leave any part you don’t use blank, and it counts as 0.
3. Enter the tripod’s rated payload exactly as printed in the manufacturer’s spec sheet. If the head and legs have separate ratings, use the lower one.
4. Set the safety margin. The default is a rule of thumb chosen by our editor, not a manufacturer spec, so change it to suit your work (0 to 50%).
5. Optionally pick the tripod bowl size and the fluid head base to check that they match.
6. Press Check my rig. Use Copy result to paste the verdict and a link to this page into a forum thread.

All weights are converted to grams before any comparison (1 lb = 453.59237 g exactly). The tool then works out:

• Total rig = camera + lens + cage + mic + monitor
• Recommended maximum = rated payload × (1 − margin ÷ 100)
• Share of rated payload = total rig ÷ rated payload × 100
• Remaining capacity = recommended maximum − total rig (a negative value is shown as “over by”)

The status follows from those numbers. Over means the rig is heavier than the rated payload. Marginal means it is at or under the rated payload but above your recommended maximum. Pass means it is at or under the recommended maximum. A rig that exactly equals the payload counts as Marginal, or as Pass when the margin is 0. The rigs in the table below are illustrative examples, not real products, all checked against a 5 kg payload with a 20% margin (recommended maximum 4 kg).

What to do with each result. On a Pass, you are inside both the rating and your own margin, but still balance the head before you shoot. On a Marginal, you are within the maker’s rating with less headroom than you wanted, so consider a lighter accessory or a tripod with a higher rating. On an Over, don’t rely on that tripod for this rig.

Video tripods and fluid heads connect in several ways: a 75mm bowl, a 100mm bowl, a flat base or a ball-levelling mount. Pick the bowl size printed in your tripod’s and head’s spec sheets, and read the base type as well as the number. Manfrotto, for example, describes its 504X fluid head as coming with a flat base of 75 mm diameter, so a “75 mm” figure does not always mean a bowl. A flat base and a ball-levelling mount are different mounting systems. When the two selections differ, check the manufacturer’s page for a compatible adapter before buying. The tool does not assume that one exists.

Weight is not the only factor. Payload ratings assume the head is correctly counterbalanced, and a front-heavy rig, such as a long lens or a monitor on an arm, can behave worse than its weight suggests. Compared with a typical photo setup, a video tripod usually pairs a fluid head built for smooth pan and tilt with counterbalance adjustment, so how well the head holds a balanced rig matters as much as the number on the box. Always check the maker’s rated payload and counterbalance guidance.

The tool ships no tripod or camera database, and every payload and bowl figure comes from you, copied from the manufacturer’s spec sheet. The safety margin is an editor’s rule of thumb, adjustable from 0 to 50%. It is not a manufacturer or industry standard. Comparisons use your unrounded figures in grams, even after you switch units, and only the display is rounded to two decimals. The tool does not model centre of gravity, wind, leg extension or head drag. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere, because the calculation runs in your browser.

• Wikipedia: Pound (mass): 1 lb = 0.45359237 kg exactly.
• Wikipedia: Ounce: 1 oz = 28.349523125 g exactly.
• Manfrotto 504X fluid video head: an example of a 75 mm flat base.
• Your tripod’s and head’s manufacturer spec sheets: the rated payload and bowl or base type.

Last updated: October 2026

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