Vibration dampening

[peter_dendrinos1]

I wish to shoot from within a flowing river. I am concerned that the

water passing by the tripod legs will cause vibration being

transmitted to the LF camera mounted on it.

 

I am looking for any advice. Methods to isolate the head or camera

from the tripod?

 

Thanks

Pete

[vick_vickery]

If you're not in too deep, you might try the old trick of adding a little weight to the tripod center. A sandbag hung on a cord from the center column works well, but in your case might have to be hung from the top of the legs connection and hang alongside the column. A little extra weight below the camera often stablizes things nicely.

[daver1]

Using a wood or carbon fiber tripod will help reduce the vibations, simply because they don't transmit as well in either medium compared to say, aluminum. I don't know if the flowing river will still present too much vibration for your shooting though. Depends on the flow rate of the river, the shutter speed, etc. Adding weight to whatever you have will be an asset, but probably not a guarantee. No room to shoot from the bank, eh?

 

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<a href="http://coyoteimages.com">Coyote Images</a>

[richard_ilomaki]

Pete

 

What little I know of acoustic and vibration technology suggests using a bicycle tube, wrapped tightly around the outspread legs of the tripod at about 1/3 up from the ground. The tight constriction will make the tripod vibrate as one unit and the rubber tube will serve to damp the vibes. The 2 or 3 Kilos of sand in a grocery bag, or a river rock in a bag will also help.

 

You can put a glass of water with a few particles of light wood floating in the water on the tripod table and see if you can see any waves. If not- you're OK.

 

If it still resonates, get some 1/2 in. dia rope and wind it in a big spiral up the legs, as this will disrupt the harmonic flow of the water around the cylindrical leg. If you notice tall stacks at chemical and power plants, they often have spiral fins on them just to damp wind-induced vibration.

 

Clyde Butcher of Florida does this but in slow moving swamps in Florida. Maybe he would help if you can contact him.

 

Cheers

[richard_wasserman1]

Peter,

I don't know how deep the water is, but I have done this many times in about 18inches of

water with no problems. I use a Gitzo 1325 and hang extra weight from the center of the

tripod.

Richard

[andy_shand1]

whats your shutter speed...long exposures would probably suffer.

[andy_shand1]

pardon me for stating the obvious..i hit return instead of backspace by mistake!!

[peter_dendrinos1]

Generally I shoot for 16 seconds for shots like this, perhaps even 32 or 60. it depends on the flow rate of the water.

 

Pete

[ryan_mcintosh]

Use a Ries tripod. www.riestripods.com

 

Read about how they can dampen vibration.

 

Using a Ries, and using a heavy tripod will help.

[yoni_perlmutter]

1. You might want to try shooting from a jury-rigged camera platform.

a wedge-shaped (triangularly profiled monopod) with the hypotenuse

facing 180 0 from the current. like a ship's prow. reducing drag and vibration. Knock the post into the soft riverbed with a wooden mallet, affix the platform (short PVC sleeve) to the monopod.

 

or

 

2. Two hinged-at-the-edges plywood panels having freedom of arc from,

say, 45 through 70 0. Place this (and secure it with bamboo poles)

into the river bed. Keep it about a meter and a half in front of the

tripod - or whatever you have your camera on. It should act as a breaker and you can adjust the angle accordingly. The water

should push past you on either side and should leave the area behind the break relatively calm.

 

and

 

3. In addition, the advice from everyone here is good. Wooden tripod

good. Heavy tripod good. Heavy wooden tripod better, And like that.

 

I have no direct experience of using a tripod in a river or stream. I have used, and do use a quite light CF travel-type tripod at the seashore, in light surf.

 

What I do is work the legs into the [coral] sand 30 - 40 cms.

Of course the wave action is a different dynamic than a river current.

I couldn't begin to account & compensate for the eddies, flows and torsion acting on the tripod legs. I try to present as small a surface area to the elements as possible. Using fast or very fast lenses (I usually use 35mm cameras), and thereby, higher shutter speeds seems to work for me.

 

Both of my suggestions 1 & 2 are easy enough to build/assemble. I do

build things and try them out from time to time. I bat around .225.

[andy_shand1]

i wonder what one of those surveying all metal tripods would be like...maybe they have some answers to this problem since streams and rivers need to be surveyed ect...

[r_hofland]

ATTACH AS MUCH WEIGHT AS POSSIBLE TO THE TRIPOD, BUT KEEP THAT WEIGHT OUT OF THE WATER!

 

1. Keep the profile of your tripod that is in the water to a minimum since that is what the water and any turbulence it or you produce will push against.

 

2. Hang whatever mass is available, including camera bags and backpacks, off of the tripod and even off the tripod head (or camera rail) as a counterbalance to the camera standards. The lower the better, but it is ultimately the mass itself that will help to dampen vibrations

 

3. Reinforce the camera rail to tripod mount, perhaps by use of an articulated arm such as that available from Bogen/Manfrotto, or even adding another tripod or monopod, that is attached to the front of the camera rail, thus forming a more rigid triangle or rectangle support. But remember, less is better when in the water, while more is better when weight is the concern!