Tripods essentially come in two parts: the tripod legs, used for support and height, and the tripod head, which is used for positioning and pointing the camera. Often, a tripod is sold with a head as a single item, but with more upmarket tripods the legs and head are usually sold separately so that you […]
Pan and tilt head
This is a somewhat old fashioned name for tripod heads where you have separate axes for panning and tilting the camera. The more modern term is 'three way head' since there's usually a third axis of movement for rotating the camera into portrait mode. Video tripod heads don't need this third axis, so these actually are 'pan and tilt' heads only.