Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/28
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Joseph Codispoti wrote:
> Jeremy,
> Thanks for the education on tripods. I have always held that the heavier the
> tripod the better the photo.
Not necessarily. As Ansel Adams points out in _The Camera_, any tripod
will have a (set of) resonance characteristics (dependant on how it's set
up), as will any camera/lens/shutter speed combination. These effects
can interact in unfortunate ways.
Adams describes one tripod that was sufficient for his 8x10 setup that
wouldn't give sharp exposures with his 2.25^2 Hasselblad. Nevertheless,
a less substantial tripod gave great performance with the Hassy.
With respect to the current discussion, the damping characteristics of
composite materials *might* reduce resonance effects, particularly if such
damping were combined with mechanical stressing of the rig as several
others have suggested.
WRT general image quality issues (including camera support) I recently
read:
AUTHOR Williams, John B., 1941-
TITLE Image clarity : high-resolution photography
PUBLISHER Boston : Focal Press, c1990.
ISBN/ISSN 0240800338
PRICE Sixty bucks @ amazon.com
... and learned quite a lot. Williams has written something comparatively
unusual: a technical primer at a fairly high level that is neither
condescending nor inaccessible to the nonspecialist.
Regards,
..........................................................................
Alexey Merz | URL: http://www.webcom.com/alexey | email: alexey@webcom.com
| PGP public key: http://pgp5.ai.mit.edu/ | voice:503/494-6840