A (shock-) shake- ing tripod experience

[S8 Booster]

Just had a "frightening" experience while testing the PRO8mm neg films on my Canon 1014 Xl: To do the tests a bit professionally I used the tripod and a remote release switch to get the best and most stable images available. The tripod I used was a "standard" Slik Master- Standard, quite rugged design compared to many other AMA tripods I have seen.

What I noticed was that when the cam was mounted on the tripod and running, the whole cam started to oscillate quite severely like (when I looked into the viewfinder) a transverse oscillation/"jitter".

At first I thought the cam was broken because the F-indicator oscillated badly but when I moved back and watched the cam I saw the whole thing (Cam & tripod head) shake too.

I was shocked: shooting expensive PRO8mm stock with "forced" jitter? Well, I finished off the tests by free hand filming because the outdoor light situation was so unique to test the neg film in extremely bright light vs deep shadows with low angle sun. Combined with Hi-res demand motives I really wanted to see what the neg film is good for compared to the K40. Just have to add that I never really had any problem with the K40s but I believe that I can tweak the Negs more, and that they can produce slightly better images for DV filmmaking.

The camera´s film advance mechanics is apparently heavy enough to put the cam in oscillation when the tripod is not sufficiently rigid. The film advancement claw system is a quite big (and complex) multipart piece of engineered metal, I have got the maintenance manual so I know what it is like.

Next time I obviously have to bring my big Libec 30.

Might be a factor to be aware of now that the new improved Kodak S8 Cartriges seem to eliminate the cart jitter.

RGDS