Railfan Technology > Tripod Vibration reduction

Hello all, I have recently been trying to find a way to reduce tripod vibrations created by passing trains as I take videos of them. I have done a little research and so far I have come with the ideas of balling up bubble wrap and taping it to the bottom of the tripod legs or using some squishy foam material that is 1-2 inches thick and attaching it to the bottom of my tripod. Another consideration I've had is to use sandbags to add weight to my tripod but my tripod is already 12lbs so I don't think weight is the issue. Any tips or ideas on this?
Thanks, Oliver

Adding weight is reduce  movement caused by wind etc.  Not sure how close you could be to the tracks but if the train is moving at speed and you can notice ground vibration you might be a little too close for comfort.  Moving back a little would seem to be easy and safer solution.  I would think if you are that close and train is moving at any speed, then air turbulance would be the problem.  Most tripods have hooks for attaching weight and googling that will provide solutions.??  Putting something under the legs of the tripod would reduce stability.

Bob

You might want to pose this question to the gearheads on www.dpreview.com.  I''m no expert, nor a gearhead, but some friends have remarked that wooden tripods soak up vibrations better than aluminum. Carbon fibre in between those two choices.   I have recently got my G.A.S. in remission.  That's Gear Acquisition Syndrome ! 

Interesting question.  I know what you are talkig about.  I've seen the vibration on several videos.  I agree that you might be too close to the tracks if you are having this problem BUT then again you might not be all that close.  The terrain can play into the amount of vibration.  A tripod in dirt/grass/etc... is fairly forgiving, however, on hard rock or on a city street, fifty feet can often close enough to experience vibrations.   Occasionally I go to a resturant in LaGrange, Ky.  It's on Main Street where the Street running takes place.  The building shakes when the trains pass and often the waitresses will notice it and start yelling, "Train. Train."  They make a big deal out of it.  Railfans often eat there or on the sidewalk in front of the place when the weather is nice.

I did a little Googling (reduce vibration tripod) and found that there is quite a bit of information out there.  Some of it deals with vibration reduction (VR) or image stabaliztion (IS) in the lens or camera, but not all of it.  I found these items in the attached photo.  They are in the $45 range at B and H.  I have no idea how much vibration you are dealing with or how much vibration these can handle but it might be worth a try.  If you decide to try these and they work good for you, I'll bet there are others on here that would appreciate a review.  Heck, even if they didn't work all that great I bet there are some that would appreciate that also.  

Hope this is of some help.

John

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I looked a bit deeper on the Googler and found a thread where some guy wanted to reduce vibrations at a blast sight.  Safety required they be 3000' or more from the blast but sometimes they set a camera as close as 200' to the blast.  In my opinion, that would be pretty difficult.  Without a good anchor, the camera is going to be blown away or damaged by the blast wave anyway.

There were a couple of good suggestions however.  One suggestion was to suspend the camera with a drone.  Of course, the drone is going to be blown away.  In your case, the wind blast might be a problem also.  There were two other suggestions that might be worth looking into in your situation.  One was the use of a "steady cam" or similar device.  Your body would be absorbing the vibrations before they got to the camera.  It might make a pan shot easier than if you were using a tripod.  Another even simpler idea was to mount the camera on a car or truck.  The vibrations would be absorbed by the tires and the mass of the car would be a pretty solid platform.  This all depends on what and where you were doing the taping.  I have see "window" mounts that clamp onto your car window and you can mount a camera on them.  If you have a pick-up you could put the tripod in the back or  in a van you could shoot out the open door on the side.  The problems I see with using a car or truck would be 1.) the location might not make it feasible, and 2.) the wind.  The wind could rock your car or the wind blast from the passing train could shake it a bit.

Another suggestion was to just live with the vibrations when at the scene and use software post processing to remove the vibrations.  One product mentioned was ProDAD Mercalli.

I was thinking, shooting trains sounds a lot safer that shooting a mine blast from 200'.  Again, hope this offers some ideas.

John

Thank you everyone for the great insight, I appreciate it! John I may considering picking with vibration pads for the tripod, I also may try to make some homade sandbags to see how those work because they would be a lot cheaper of an option. I'll keep everyone updated as perform these tests.

Oliver

years ago i had issues with vehicles, wind, people, trains, etc causing vibrations on my long exposure photography.  i asked the question to the pros's and people on potn (big canon site) and they said to invest in CF tripod.  at the time i thought that was a little rediculous. i tried all kinds of techniques for several months.  weight, vibration absorbing plates, different feet on the legs and was never 100% satisfied.  I spent the 700$ on a manfrotto and have never been happier. ive had it for 3yrs now and all my long exposures are what i always wanted them to be. i have never tested video, but if it works for static, its gotta work for video.

another option is to get a style of ballhead that had image stabilization in it too.

Buy a nice BIG Bogen tripod. I have the same one news crews use, and it works great for stills and video. About $300 with a fluid head.

Scott Schifer
Torrance, CA
TinyTrains Website

With tripods, bigger is better. Don't waste your time with bubble-wrap or other pads...it will simply make the problem worse unless you put a great deal of time and effort into counterweights and other engineering.

I have four decades' worth of experience dampening vibration on video cameras, and your best options have been mentioned earlier. Go with a better tripod (and yes, wood is the best dampening product out there), explore image stabilization lenses and stabilized camera mounts and finally, the most cost effective option...move away from the tracks!

Over the years, I have also experienced sympathetic vibration issues with video cameras while riding steam and diesel locomotives in close proximity to air horns and whistles. Without a long technical discussion, the problem was the intense sound waves were causing every element in the camera to vibrate in unison, causing weird patterns in the recorded material that looked horrible on playback but were easily corrected in post-production. With the lack of moving parts in today's memory-card recording devices, I have not had that problem lately.

Better tripods are always a good investment, and as you look at the higher-end stuff (Cartoni, Sachtler, Vinten, etc.) you will find seemingly outlandish prices on both new and used equipment. My Cartoni retails for the price of a high-end DSLR. Of all the equipment used in video production, tripods are the one piece of technology that rarely incorporate new technology and, as a result, they hardly depreciate. I have two video cameras in my office that each cost $50k when new (not that long ago); they are obsolete now and make attractive door stops.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/16 17:28 by Alco251.