How to distinguish "camera" from "camera" in English?

You can use tripod for both cameras and camcorders. For work reasons, foreigners often ask me to borrow tripod (for camcorders). What they are talking about is tripod. Once an American asked me that she brought a camera when she came from America, but she didn't bring a tripod (this time it was a camera), so she asked me where I could buy it locally. Synthesis: both camera and tripod of camera can be represented by tripod.

What you want to express is whether the camera is placed on the tripod or the camera is placed on the tripod can be understood according to the context. Don't worry that foreigners can't understand it.

So, just connect your video camera to the tripod, nobody is gonna try to think whether it's a DSLR camera tripod or a video camera tripod.