Lens stabilisation using another tripod
Greetings and salutations.
Some of you may own cameras or lenses that have stabilisation, but sometimes, that may not be enough when taking certain photos.
My dilemma started when I got myself a macro lens that weighed almost as heavy as the camera itself. When I mount my DSLR camera equipped with this lens on to my flimsy tripod, it is not very stable, since the lens will be pulling the camera forward and downward. This particular lens (Canon EF 100mm macro) has a space to add a tripod collar, which will shift the centre of gravity a bit further forward to better balance the lens, but it costs almost as much as a flashgun *facepalm*.
I'm bringing this up because when I mount it on my rickety tripod and take a snap, the motion of the mirror inside the camera actually makes the whole camera shake. This is sometimes known as "mirror slap". If you happen to be shooting objects using long exposure, you will most likely end up with slightly blur images caused by this "mirror slap".
So, in order to overcome this problem, I had to find a way to prevent the mirror from shaking up my whole camera. Then it hit me: why not use something like a bipod, that's what they use for the M60 machine guns, right? (Photo from www.warboats.org)
Now I experimented with some tripods I had around the house, none were really successful, but the following setup did help me to get some proper photos of the previous post. Here's how it looks like:
Another look:
Yeah, the tip of the lens is resting on another tripod, which is resting on the edge of my bed. The little white thing on top of my Gorillapod is actually an eraser:
I drilled a little hole in the middle to accommodate the tripod's screw. And of course, the white background you saw in the previous post is actually a big piece of cardboard.
With this setup, I can easily set whatever shutter speed I want without worry of mirror slap vibration messing up my shots. Although you do need to be careful when moving around because the whole thing is actually a very delicate balancing act. One wrong move and you might knock your camera to the ground *gulp*.
So cheapskates everywhere, do be careful when balancing this.
Here's another macro shot to end this long winded post:
Yeah, this figurine is about 5.5 cm long - as you can deduce from the cutting mat's lines.
Thanks for reading.
Some of you may own cameras or lenses that have stabilisation, but sometimes, that may not be enough when taking certain photos.
My dilemma started when I got myself a macro lens that weighed almost as heavy as the camera itself. When I mount my DSLR camera equipped with this lens on to my flimsy tripod, it is not very stable, since the lens will be pulling the camera forward and downward. This particular lens (Canon EF 100mm macro) has a space to add a tripod collar, which will shift the centre of gravity a bit further forward to better balance the lens, but it costs almost as much as a flashgun *facepalm*.
I'm bringing this up because when I mount it on my rickety tripod and take a snap, the motion of the mirror inside the camera actually makes the whole camera shake. This is sometimes known as "mirror slap". If you happen to be shooting objects using long exposure, you will most likely end up with slightly blur images caused by this "mirror slap".
So, in order to overcome this problem, I had to find a way to prevent the mirror from shaking up my whole camera. Then it hit me: why not use something like a bipod, that's what they use for the M60 machine guns, right? (Photo from www.warboats.org)
Now I experimented with some tripods I had around the house, none were really successful, but the following setup did help me to get some proper photos of the previous post. Here's how it looks like:
Another look:
Yeah, the tip of the lens is resting on another tripod, which is resting on the edge of my bed. The little white thing on top of my Gorillapod is actually an eraser:
I drilled a little hole in the middle to accommodate the tripod's screw. And of course, the white background you saw in the previous post is actually a big piece of cardboard.
With this setup, I can easily set whatever shutter speed I want without worry of mirror slap vibration messing up my shots. Although you do need to be careful when moving around because the whole thing is actually a very delicate balancing act. One wrong move and you might knock your camera to the ground *gulp*.
So cheapskates everywhere, do be careful when balancing this.
Here's another macro shot to end this long winded post:
Thanks for reading.
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