Chris Soucy
January 19th, 2008, 03:49 PM
Do you shoot outdoors?
Do you shoot in wild and windy locations?
Have you ever spent hours getting that special footage only to discover when viewed on "the big screen" that the wind has turned that top mounted shotgun into a nodding donkey and taken the entire camera with it?
Do you know what wind speed is "too much" for the pathetic 1/4" screw holding your precious camera to that very expensive head and tripod?
Well, I do, I have and now I have an answer for that last question as well!
http://www.jdc.ch/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=71
Having been "blown off" yet another shoot the other day (the dreaded Shag Point on the East Coast), and subsequently discovering that the footage went down the toilet quite some time before the "nodding donkey" became "up front and personal" even in the Canon A1's lcd, I resolved to tackle this problem once and for all.
I stumped for the Xplorer 2, and a dinky, handy little gizmo it is too. Hopefully it's only a temporary workround till I can solve this stupid camera mount problem once and for all, but at least it's going to stop me wasting time shooting when the wind has overloaded the mount system.
The problem?
1. Shag Point is probably one of the most consistantly wind swept places in NZ. First thing (dawn) it's quite often as calm as a mill pond, but you're shooting almost directly into the rising sun.
As the sun starts to rise, heating the land behind you and the air above it, it starts sucking air in off the ocean at greater and greater velocities, until by 10.30 - 11.00 am it's averageing 25 - 30 mph. By 1 pm (when the sun is almost perfect for shooting) it's almost impossible to stand on the exposed foreshore, let alone think of shooting.
2. Whomever first came up with the 1/4" single mounting screw/ bolt system (I've got a bellows camera circa 1912 which sports one, but I reckon it hails from considerably before then) I do not think had HD delivery systems and 20 X zooms in mind (amost every second of Shag Point footage is shot @Z99 due to the distances involved).
I thought I'd cracked this rather antiquated systems drawbacks by taking a webbing strap, wrapping it one turn around the top handle upright and then securing it under the camera/ tripods mounting plate, which when the camera is balanced on the head, protrudes some 1" - 11/4" (25 mm - 30 mm) in front of the head top plate.
Sure enough, it stopped the side to side wobble in it's tracks. What it also did, however, was pull the front of the camera down, ever so slightly, to the point where it was no longer sitting flat on the plate. This minute gap was all that was needed to get into the "nodding donkey" effect, even with the top mounted shotgun completely removed (never underestimate the sail area of an A1's lens hood!).
So, the side to side wobble has been replaced with a front to back wobble.
On a 46" screen it looks absolutely ghastly.
The cure?
Well, I reckon if someone doesn't come up with a bomb proof, 4 point minimum, mounting system to keep these types of cameras rooted to the spot, there's going to be more and more pissed off punters who can't keep their expensive HD cameras still.
I'm working on a useable clamp system to this end (anybody know of a commercial one in existance?) but untill I solve this, at least this little gizmo will tell me I'm wasting my time.
CS
PS. About $100 NZ.
PPS. NZ Fur Seals
Do you shoot in wild and windy locations?
Have you ever spent hours getting that special footage only to discover when viewed on "the big screen" that the wind has turned that top mounted shotgun into a nodding donkey and taken the entire camera with it?
Do you know what wind speed is "too much" for the pathetic 1/4" screw holding your precious camera to that very expensive head and tripod?
Well, I do, I have and now I have an answer for that last question as well!
http://www.jdc.ch/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=71
Having been "blown off" yet another shoot the other day (the dreaded Shag Point on the East Coast), and subsequently discovering that the footage went down the toilet quite some time before the "nodding donkey" became "up front and personal" even in the Canon A1's lcd, I resolved to tackle this problem once and for all.
I stumped for the Xplorer 2, and a dinky, handy little gizmo it is too. Hopefully it's only a temporary workround till I can solve this stupid camera mount problem once and for all, but at least it's going to stop me wasting time shooting when the wind has overloaded the mount system.
The problem?
1. Shag Point is probably one of the most consistantly wind swept places in NZ. First thing (dawn) it's quite often as calm as a mill pond, but you're shooting almost directly into the rising sun.
As the sun starts to rise, heating the land behind you and the air above it, it starts sucking air in off the ocean at greater and greater velocities, until by 10.30 - 11.00 am it's averageing 25 - 30 mph. By 1 pm (when the sun is almost perfect for shooting) it's almost impossible to stand on the exposed foreshore, let alone think of shooting.
2. Whomever first came up with the 1/4" single mounting screw/ bolt system (I've got a bellows camera circa 1912 which sports one, but I reckon it hails from considerably before then) I do not think had HD delivery systems and 20 X zooms in mind (amost every second of Shag Point footage is shot @Z99 due to the distances involved).
I thought I'd cracked this rather antiquated systems drawbacks by taking a webbing strap, wrapping it one turn around the top handle upright and then securing it under the camera/ tripods mounting plate, which when the camera is balanced on the head, protrudes some 1" - 11/4" (25 mm - 30 mm) in front of the head top plate.
Sure enough, it stopped the side to side wobble in it's tracks. What it also did, however, was pull the front of the camera down, ever so slightly, to the point where it was no longer sitting flat on the plate. This minute gap was all that was needed to get into the "nodding donkey" effect, even with the top mounted shotgun completely removed (never underestimate the sail area of an A1's lens hood!).
So, the side to side wobble has been replaced with a front to back wobble.
On a 46" screen it looks absolutely ghastly.
The cure?
Well, I reckon if someone doesn't come up with a bomb proof, 4 point minimum, mounting system to keep these types of cameras rooted to the spot, there's going to be more and more pissed off punters who can't keep their expensive HD cameras still.
I'm working on a useable clamp system to this end (anybody know of a commercial one in existance?) but untill I solve this, at least this little gizmo will tell me I'm wasting my time.
CS
PS. About $100 NZ.
PPS. NZ Fur Seals