Is smooth panning possible with long focal length?

<p>Hello. At long focal length, I cannot seem to solve uneven pan speed, rough pan starts and worst, brief pan reversal at stop.</p>

<p>The head is a Manfrotto 502HD, Camcorder is Canon XA20 full zoom (20x, 560mm equivalent to 30x with TL-H58 teleconverter).<br>

<br>

Between 20 and 30x, the fluid head exhibits all the problems listed. I thought this tripod head would offer a drastic improvement over the lighter 700 and 701RCs. I'm not seeing much of an improvement.<br>

<br>

I have just under 9 lbs. (cam and mixer on rail) balanced, which I understand is a good weight for this head. Also tried the extended version of the pan arm thinking it would give greater control. No luck.<br>

<br>

I cannot buy a heavier or larger head since I cart it around outdoors. Any advice?</p>

<p>I've got the same head, and had to do some fiddling with the pan tension before I got it right. I don't, though, usually do anything with that long an effective focal length - that certain exposes every possible little sin. I've had some success on both pan heads and sliders using the ol' double-rubber-band trick. But that's not very workable for unplanned shots. Are you working in cold weather?</p>

<p>Hi Nicholas, have you tried that old rubber band trick? </p>

<p>Basically you tighten the head just enough to offer some resistance, then instead of gripping the handle to pan, you pull it via a rubber band which will dampen the jerky movement at start and prevent the end-stop backlash.</p>

<p>The trick works but at the expense of precision control, though it's simple enough to try. </p>

 

<p>Wow what a marvelous suggestion. Just now saw a vid on it. I think I can get it going. The long range shots are usually things like ducks and birds that are far off. Because I am waiting for them to appear, I can probably be ready.</p>

<p>Guess I will need the remote for zoom, but that is easy enough. Looking forward to practicing this, and starting a rubberband collection :-)</p>

<p>Matt. I just bought this head and have only tested it indoors aiming at our pond outside. Have you heard a gluey sound occasionally within the tension mechanism? Seems like if I adjust the tension while turning, sometimes I can hear the sound of the tacky stuff in the inside.</p>

<p>Have you considered the effect of the camera's IS system? If it is ON, then the IS will try to "freeze" the image in its original position upon starting the pan, and upon stopping the IS will likely attempt to continue the camera motion. This might account for the unexpected results at the start and end of a pan. Try panning with the IS switched OFF, and see if that makes a difference.</p>

<p>As a rule of thumb, more resistance on the pan and tilt axes will give you better (smoother) results. I had some tutoring by one of the BBC Natural History Unit's wildlife camera men, and that guy also let me use his fluid head, hard-mounted to a 4x4's so-called "camera door". Initially, I was taken aback by what appeared to be an extreme amount of force to move the head, but the resulting pan was very very smooth. The idea behind the (very) high damping is that any movement of the camera stops whenever you stop applying force, so that no 'overshoot' occurs. And yes, needless to say the IS was switched off ...</p>

<p>O yes, one more thing: a big (and heavy) fluid head is one thing to make smooth camera movement possible, but you need a rock-solid support when panning/tilting. If mounted to a tripod, that thing needs to be pretty serious thing. Also keep the tripod as low as the shoot allows, and tie or weigh the tripod down to get that rock-solid support...</p>

<p>Sachtler Cartoni Libec Vinten OConnor Miller</p>

<p>These companies cut their teeth on making really fine (and smooth) fluid heads....used in video or mot pictures. Manfrotto does not fit into this group, except when some student desires to make a film/video. Since you are amplifying the view with long/er lens you need something super smooth. I'm aware that these heads are neither light or inexpensive, but they will give you what you're looking for.</p>

<p>One more thing, if your camera weights 9lbs with all the trimmings....it's not v. wise to choose support that specs out at 9lbs....I always try to go 2X or 3X the tolerance.</p>

<p>Les<br>

<br /> </p>

<p>Nicholas: That sound, at least the way you describe it, doesn't seem familiar. But then, I tend to follow the tactic Antonio mentions, and use pan tension that make moving the head real work. He's also spot on about the springiness present in lighter-weight tripods. I've had that 502 mounted to both a lighter-weight (aluminum) made-for-run-and-gun video tripod from Manfrotto, but also on a quite massive set of carbon legs that are super rigid. The results can be easily distinguished - the lighter weight tripod allow for a bit of twist, which impacts both the beginning and the end of the travel. The heavier tripod simply doesn't like to twist as much (or at all), and so fewer movement artifacts in the pan.</p>

<p>The tacky sound is something I've heard before with the smaller 701RC2. Now that I'm experimenting, I can see it happens when the drag is cycled all the way and then reversed. It sound like the viscous material inside being stretched too quickly for its spec, and momentarily separating. Wasn't expecting this from a new head with rave B&H reviews. That is minor though.</p>

<p>The high drag setting definitely helps. The extra long pan arm seems to be helping too since it allows a higher drag setting.</p>

<p>The "bounce back" at the end of pans and tilts is a really annoying problem. Can't believe this is not coming up in reviews. Could that be the counterbalance spring? The counterbalance is rated for 8.8 lbs, roughly equal to the payload on this setup. Full payload is 15.4 lbs. so I am at 60% Bounce back seems like a huge tradeoff for a counterbalance.</p>

<p>The tilt control on this head is not that good, with lots of stop/go tendency. I cannot see why they would design this to have decent panning and lousy tilting. It seems very hard to pan/tilt at the same time. </p>

<p>The tripod stability is not impacting my indoor tests, but I completely agree. I have held on to an old 3021 since it is vastly better for still photography. That is an option.</p>

<p>Sachtler Cartoni Libec Vinten OConnor Miller <br>

<br>

Hmm... now time to kick myself. I just assumed Manfrotto was the biggest bang for the buck. Instead of 190 minus a $45 rebate, I would have gladly paid 2-300 for something that did not have these issues. Anything in that list fit the bill? For the Manfrotto, I'm in the B&H return window, but I tossed the box...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Okay, seeing that 2-300 wouldn't have made much of a difference. I guess the 502 does give a lot of bang for the buck. Have to mess with it for a while. If it ends up being a bummer, guess I'll spend a ton on a Libec or something.</p>