Folks,
I am here to burst the bubble of a myth that has been propagating on this list
since at least the late nineties. It has to do with the familiar technique of
grabbing the camera with both hands and pressing it against the tripod in order
to minimize vibrations. The gist: It does not work. You can stop now, or read
on if you wish.
I bought my Olympus OM1 after an extensive research. My main goal was to do
celestial photography. That was back in 1997, I joined this list the same year.
Unfortunately, life did not present me with the opportunity to use it as
intended, because I never got to buy a decent telescope. (I don't post much
anymore and felt obligated to reintroduce myself...:) )
Recently, my neighbor let me borrow his Sigma APO 110-500 and I have been
pointing it at the moon with my Sony A65 attached to the back of it. It is a
zoom lens and it gets to be 16 inches when fully extended. I have an excellent
tripod, but the load with the lens is so unbalanced, that any time I touch the
camera, it trembles like it just looked death in the eyes.
I have the habit of using my remote control to activate the shutter anytime the
camera is mounted on the tripod, but was unable to do so, because its battery
just died. Today, I "discovered" that I could activate the built in two second
delay function also from the camera and that is the technique I used tonight to
take yet another picture of the moon. The pictures turned significantly sharper
than those from the previous day during which I attempted the following
vibration mitigation techniques:
1. "pinching" the camera i.e. I would place my index finger on the bottom plate
and slowly press the shutter button with the thumb.
2. Just gently and steadily press the shutter button with my index finger.
3. The "mythical" technique of wrapping the camera with both hands and pressing
it gently against the tripod. I have used it in the past thinking that would
eliminate the vibrations induced by the mirror flip.
I listed all the methods in order from best to worst. Based on my findings, I
would advice against using any of them if using a tripod, just the remote
control and possibly employ the image stabilization system.
Phew, I feel much, much better after having finally contributed something
meaningful to the discussion here...
Best
Boris
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