Avoiding camera shake and get tack sharp images:

[NorthernFocus]

...Imagine holding the remote control and dropping it in a river....

Exactly. Plus most times when using a remote I take the strap off of the camera. Straps flapping in the breeze are also an innocuous source of camera shake when working on a tripod.

[Glenn NK]

The most comprehensive examination of vibrations that I've seen:

https://app.box.com/s/q1yj0jxecmudpd9i4vbc

There's an interesting test outlined here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tu...ror-lock.shtml

Third paragraph starting, "Here's a small test you can do. . . .".

I think I'll try it.

Glenn

[Glenn NK]

Well that was interesting.

I put a small dish of water on the hot shoe (the dish has sides that slope at about a 45 degree angle - with this shape, the water is more prone to movement than in a vertical sided container).

Using a cord type remote release on my 5DII with MLU set, I carefully started the procedure with the exposure time set to 10 seconds (this is immaterial - it could be any number).

The lens was a 100 mm macro with hood attached.

1) the mirror-up slap was very obvious - ripples immediately,

2) when the ripples stopped (EDIT - this took just over one second), I pressed the remote button again (this opens the shutter),

3) surprisingly from the shutter opening, there were more ripples, although noticeably less than from the mirror slap.

4) at the end of the 10 second exposure, the shutter closed resulting in more ripples - this of course has no effect on the image.

5) what I did notice that bothered me was that I had to keep the cord attached to the camera perfectly still or the very small force from the moving release cable would cause ripples.

Note what Dan said (Northern Focus): "most times when using a remote, I take the strap off the camera. Straps flapping in the breeze are also an innocuous source of camera shake when working on a tripod".

6) after the mirror went up, it took more more than a second for the ripples to stop, so using MLU is effective but one doesn't have to wait very long for the vibrations to stop before releasing the shutter.

I'm going to be more careful in the future.

One other point - in one of the articles, it mentioned the tripod legs resting on something soft and compressible (moss, grass or other soft material): I have custom made long spikes (4 inches/100 mm) that I push into the ground for more stability.

Glenn

EDIT/UPDATE:

I tried the same procedure with my 30D + 100 macro - the mirror-up vibration is noticeable less, but with a smaller mirror this is to be expected.

Then I put my 70-200 f/2.8 on the 5DII:

The vibration from the mirror-slap seems to be a bit less than with the 100 macro lens. I would attribute this to the higher mass and rotational inertia of the large lens.

However I shudder to think what a wind blowing on this long lens might result it (never minde the wind on the tripod legs).

I wish I'd done these tests seven years ago.

SECOND EDIT/UPDATE:

I was suspicious of my ball head being part of the problem so I removed it, and attached the camera directly to the tripod.

As far as I can see, the vibrations were pretty well the same (perhaps slightly less), so the ball head doesn't seem to be a major weak point - which means I'll have to check my tripod against another one.

[AB26]

No doubt the tighter the field of view, the more exaggerated camera shake from any source becomes. On the other hand his source may also have been confusing motion being induced versus the time it takes to settle back down once induced. While it is more difficult to excite motion in the heavier mass, once in motion it does take longer to dissipate the kinetic energy in the larger mass.(

Thank you Dan. In the context you do understand what I mean and you did not miss the bit about the "less than perfect tripod".

Simply extend your zoom on a "less than perfect tripod" and see how unstable the lot becomes.

I guess it is good old experience that taught me that.

[Glenn NK]

Finally, of course, when you leave your remote release behind you can effectively use the camera self-timer. The 2-second delay available on some cameras facilitates this...

Richard:

I always used the ten second option, but after my "rigorous" test, it seems that a two second delay may well be long enough.

From MLU to the dissipation of all the ripples, it might have been just over one second, but this could vary with the tripod, tripod head, and camera/lens combination. Two seconds would be adequate for either of the 5D2/100 macro or 5D2/70-200 combinations.

Glenn

[AB26]

Richard:

I always used the ten second option, but after my "rigorous" test, it seems that a two second delay may well be long enough.

See why I call my tripod, crappy!

[Colin Southern]

See why I call my tripod, crappy!

Gitzo 1548 is what you need ...

[Mike Buckley]

Rather than hijack Andre's thread more than we have already done, I posted a photo of my Nikon ML-L3 remote control with a hole drilled in it here.

[AB26]

Gitzo 1548 is what you need ...

Rock solid!

Can’t afford it, your team made me lose my bet, that the All Blacks will win by at least 15 points.

I guess the acrobat in these shots does not weigh much more than a 1DX.

You may be a master of sharpening but your straightening technique is pathetic.

[AB26]

Would you be so kind as to clarify this statement? Do you have a reference?

Hi Ted,

I was not going to respond to your question but I owe it to you in the interest of better understanding photography and improving your photographic skills.

In any trade people use a “language”. Mention stability to an economist and he will give you a lecture on many factors affecting economic stability. Mention stability to a photographer and he gets on top of a tripod to demonstrate how stable it is, not how strong it is, but how stable it is.

Understanding the language spoken by people in different trades make you better understand the trade. You cannot master a trade unless you speak the language of the people in that trade.

In photography, mechanical engineering language does not always apply. To a mechanical engineer slap is something a piston does, to a photographer it is something a mirror does.

Using an 800mm Nikon lens without a collar and a gimbal head (stupid thing to try), on Colin’s Gitzo tripod, will render it unstable no matter how much weight it can carry.
I look at things the average photographer do, like using a light duty tripod with a 500mm zoom lens. When a setup is already unstable it needs but very little vibration to have a detrimental effect on the outcome.
Touch your lead lens, suspended from a spring mount and see how long it takes to stabilize again.

Better understanding mechanical engineering theory is not going to make any photographer take better pictures but understanding the language spoken by photographers can help a mechanical engineer take better pictures.

[drjuice]

Hey, Andre -

I don't know from bumping heads (against walls or trees or ...)!

As to whether I'm either critical or serious, possibly, but more it's about making pictures that I expose to other eyes than my own. One reason for doing that came when one of my students commented about a picture.

In the office I had before I decided to retire from being a dean, I had about 8 photos (not my ten pictures) I'd taken on trips with my Mom in the several years before she died, including one of her at the Los Angeles County Fair drinking a soda. One of the students I was responsible for supervising began coming by once or twice a week "to talk" about what kinds of jobs he was looking for. When he was about to graduate, he came by on one of his usual visits and asked me who she was and why she was in the picture. Saying she was my Mom wasn't enough for him. He wanted to know all the kinds of details about how I positioned her (never could do that) because she didn't ever want to be in an environment without transportation (that's what she called her wheelchair), how I decided she should be drinking a soda (no control there either), why I had her in the shade (it was hot that day, but the sun still was bright enough that I wouldn't need a flash), what the ISO was, what the f-stop was, and all the other details that any photographer would ask.

Today, that student is a working photographer with a fullblown commercial studio. And, I learned the power of doing work as good as I could possibly manage. And, I've never forgotten that sometimes the most ordinary activities can influence others in decisions we have no idea they are or will be making.

I think I've also told the story of my ten pictures; this is the short version. From the time I got my first 35mm camera in October, 1963, I've kept what I consider really excellent pictures that I've taken. One picture has survived from 11 November 1963; another from late summer, 1969; and so on.

When I take pictures I always compare the quality of the images I've just taken with the ten pictures in my collection. Since I got my Sony alpha700, October, 2007, I've only replaced three of then ten pictures I had at that time. I don't have any particular plans to select or to replace particular pictures, like not once a year or every third year or .... If I come on a picture that I think is particularly good, I take it and put it on the wall next to the others and look at it every day until I decide I want to keep it in my collection (or not).

Then, I look at all the other pictures to figure out which one to consign to an album. Finally after a few months, I've been through the whole process and frame the replacement with the frame surrounding the one I've decided to put in the album. Then, I'm back to ten pictures. I go through this process maybe once or twice a year and it takes a lot for me to decide that the newbie deserves to replace something else.

Does that help?

virginia

[drjuice]

Hi, Dan -

I use Ziploc bags to keep track of teeny pieces. I use my remote often enough that I carry spare batteries (they come in packets of two so I also have at least one spare). So, I have my cheat sheet for the remote, the remote itself, and the spare batteries in a "snack" bag (intended to allow you to put small cookies like Oreos in your kids' lunches). For larger objects, I use 1 quart bags just as I used to keep my light meter, spare film, etc., in and to put my flash unit and its cable in. And, just in case I find some pieces I can't live without, I carry at least one spare snack bag and 1 quart bag to put them in so I know that they're part of my camera gear.

If you need smaller bags than you can get at your local general store or grocery, take a look at The Container Store online (containerstore.com). They have about a bunch different sizes that can be purchased in small quantities, like a dozen. They call them recloseable bags, but their database query clearly understands ziplock as a synonym! ;~)

For those of you in other parts of the world, I've seen the smaller bags in stores in Oz, NZ, Japan, most of Europe, and Brazil. But, I haven't a clue what the stores were called -- sorry.

Hope this maybe helps.

virginia

[NorthernFocus]

...When I take pictures I always compare the quality of the images I've just taken with the ten pictures in my collection....I go through this process maybe once or twice a year and it takes a lot for me to decide that the newbie deserves to replace something else....

This is cool. We (photographers) should all have some personal standard that we go by.

[NorthernFocus]

...Better understanding mechanical engineering theory is not going to make any photographer take better pictures but understanding the language spoken by photographers can help a mechanical engineer take better pictures.

Really? Do you seriously believe this? Language is more important than knowledge?

[xpatUSA]

Hi Ted,

I was not going to respond to your question but I owe it to you in the interest of better understanding photography and improving your photographic skills.

Better understanding mechanical engineering theory is not going to make any photographer take better pictures but understanding the language spoken by photographers can help a mechanical engineer take better pictures.

Very kind of you to respond, albeit without providing the requested reference.

In return, I have read your post without taking umbrage. You see, I'm not and never have been a "mechanical engineer", so "sticks and stones . . etc etc".

Since we do not share a common language of any kind, far as I can tell, let's just agree to cease responding directly to each other's posts. I'll start now with this very post

[Colin Southern]

I think that now might be a good time for all of us to "move on" from this thread.