I have owned a Gitzo tilt/pan head and a B1 ballhead for some time now and wondered how they compare in terms of vibration control. Since I work for an agreeable employer in the aerospace industry, I borrowed an accelerometer this weekend and find out.

Equipment: 10.4mV/G miniature accelerometer PCB 480 accelerometer power unit Tektronix THS730A digital storage scope

Gitzo G1325 MK2 carbon tripod legset Pentax 67II Camera Body Pentax AE Prism 67 Pentax 67 200mm f4

For all measurements: The shutter setting was < second. Aperture was set at f4. The mirror was locked up prior to shutter release. The tripod legs were locked in the fully retracted (short) position. This was done to prevent legset vibration from obscuring the head vibration measurements. The accelerometer was mounted to the UV filter ring, sensing in the yaw axis. I only looked at the transient generated by the shutter opening. The background noise in the test setup made interpretation of the results a bit difficult.

First, I measured vibration with the camera mounted on an Arca-Swiss B1 ballhead. The ballhead was mounted to the legset with a custom machined 1 inch aluminum riser. The 1 piece riser clamped directly into the legset and replaced the tripod top plate. Wall thickness in the riser was 0.200. The RRS quick release plate was used on the camera. The pan thumbscrew was locked with the camera pointing directly away from the slot in the legset yoke. Results: 0.35G peak acceleration. 14mS ringing period. Ringing damped out in 80mS.

Next, I removed the RRS plate and mounted a Gitzo G1318 carbon column in the legset. I mounted a Gitzo 1370M tilt/pan head to the column and attached the camera. The column was locked down at minimum extension. The tilt/pan head was locked down pointing directly away from the slot in the legset yoke. Results: 0.23G peak acceleration. Higher frequency compound resonance, difficult to measure period. Ringing damped out in 40mS.

Next, I raised the column to half extension and locked it Results: .033G peak acceleration. 27mS ringing period. Ringing damps out somewhere past 90mS Note: this lower frequency of motion will result in more movement than that seen with the ballhead even with the slightly lower acceleration.

My Conclusion: For vibration control Im better off using the tilt/pan setup than the ballhead, as long as the column isnt extended. Performance deteriorates rapidly as the column is extended. The two setups are probably equal in performance somewhere around < extension. And yes, I realize there are many other reasons to choose a tripod head.

-- Chuck Bernards (chuckb@hevanet.com), March 10, 2000

Answers

But wait, there's more...

For the last measurement I mounted the G1370 head to the G1325 legset with the Gitzo flat top plate, no column. Results: 0.19G Peak acceleration. 14mS ringing period. Ringing damps out in 30mS.

I expected these results. This looks like the best option I have available for vibration control. Unfortuntely I have other reasons to leave the column on the legset. Also remember that vibration will get much worse as the legs are extended. I only ran these tests to decide what head to use for critical shots.

-- Chuck Bernards (chuckb@hevanet.com), March 11, 2000.

Fine to have precise metering results instead of opinions, for a while... If I understood right, you measured the wibration in the vertical direction? The shutter operates horizontally (for landscape format, of course. Why not a couple of measurements in that direction, too?

Sakari

-- Sakari Makela (sakari.makela@koulut.vantaa.fi), March 13, 2000.

The measurements were horizontal. When the shutter releases, the camera tends to twist about the axis of the center column. That is the yaw axis. Up and down would have been movement about the pitch axis.

A bit more information not included in the original posts: The camera was horizontal or in landscape mode for all tests. All shutter releases were by self timer.

-- Chuck Bernards (chuckb@hevanet.com), March 13, 2000.

Chuck, these are really interesting results. I didn't expect to see that much of a reduction with the flat plate. I'd sure be curious to see what deltas you'd get when switching between horizontal and vertical framing.

Thanks for publishing these measurements.

-- Bill Baker (wab@well.com), March 14, 2000.

Well,

The equipment has been returned and the super-glue cleaned off my filter ring. It's just a guess but I'd expect less degradation going to portrait mode with the center column. Especially with your gear bag hanging under the center column. There shouldn't be any reduction in yaw axis movement from weighting the column. I don't believe this practice improves landscape mode shots.

-- Chuck Bernards (chuckb@hevanet.com), March 17, 2000.