How do you prevent shaking on telephoto lenses?

[Ryan Elder]

How do you prevent shaking on telephoto lenses?

I wanted to shoot a feature film with a large amount of shots on telephotos lenses, like how the movies Heat (1995) and Seven Samurai (1954) were shot on telephoto lenses. I like how a good portion of the chase scenes in Seven Samurai are shot on telephoto lenses with the lenses used to create more movement to track the characters during the chase.

I wanted to do the same thing for some chase scenes, but when I pan and tilt with a telephoto lens on a fluid head tripod, there is shaking in the lens, even though I am on a tripod, since that is how sensitive a telephoto lens is on a tripod.

How did the camera operator on Seven Samurai prevent shake on a telephoto lens on a tripod, or am I doing something wrong perhaps? Thank you very much for any input on this! I really appreciate it!

[Noa Put]

What tripodhead and lens did you use?

[Doug Jensen]

Having a really good tripod is the most underappreciated, most vitally important, piece of equipment you should invest in. It's also important to get it setup and balanced properly for the camera rig, which a lot of people don't bother to do right.

As Noa says, its hard to offer any meaningful advice without more info about the specific tripod, camera, and lens you are using.

[Paul R Johnson]

Last time Ryan asked about shake, he was using a long lens on a rotten head on a spidery tripod I seem to remember. He wants a 'buy this', it will sove the problem solution. Our advice hasn't changed since the last time we discussed this.

The problem is physics. As field of view narrows, small movements of the lens look bigger. Ye canna change the laws of physics Captain. Canon and Funinon have some excellent broadcast lenses with really good image stabilisation, sitting on mega heads and supports - and they still wobble.

[David Mathew Bonner]

Less coffee and try not to breathe.
Also, a tripod helps.
A lot of good post-stabilization software out there to help clean it up as well.

Good luck
dMb

[Pete Cofrancesco]

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Last time Ryan asked about shake, he was using a long lens on a rotten head on a spidery tripod I seem to remember. He wants a 'buy this', it will sove the problem solution. Our advice hasn't changed since the last time we discussed this.

The problem is physics. As field of view narrows, small movements of the lens look bigger. Ye canna change the laws of physics Captain. Canon and Funinon have some excellent broadcast lenses with really good image stabilisation, sitting on mega heads and supports - and they still wobble.

Ryan should title his movie "Compression". He's been obsessing over this issue for years if not decades.

[Brian Drysdale]

If you watch the behind the scenes location diaries that go out with the BBC flagship natural history series (seen in the UK to make up the hour), you will see that there's no skimping on the beefiness of the tripods. Often they are 150mm bowl Ronford Baker metal legs ( Medium Duty - Ronford Baker ), with either one of their fluid heads or an O'Connor head on top.

I've just been involved in digitally remastering a 16mm film that has a scene with mostly telephoto (just over 200mm) shots which has a number of smooth moves over various buildings coming down to pick up the main character. These were shot with a 150mm fluid head, which would be considered excessive by most for the Bolex H16 camera. However, they're hard to beat if you want shake free long lens shots and are often used on dramas as the standard set up.