This very heavy duty tripod has a special camera mount on top. This is typically my remote camera mount that is hundreds of feet away from the rocket. It has a camera that pitches and follows the rocket for the first few seconds of flight. Although I don't change the speed of the pitching mechanism for each launch by moving the camera closer or further from the pad I can capture different rockets that accelerate slower or faster that others.

If I find that the unit tracks a 7 g rocket perfectly when the camera is 300 feet away from the rocket at liftoff, it will track a 14 g rocket the same way when it is 600 feet away. Of course, I do have to move the very heavy duty camera and tripod between launches but it works effectively.

Rocketry Photography Home Page