Video on a long lens always looks shakey

T

treynolds

Well-known member
I was shooting a high school football game again on Friday and since it was the last game of the year I hired on an extra operator to film my place and i shot b-roll stuff with my t2i. I was mostly experimenting on how well i could shoot action stuff with it and getting some good dramatic stuff for the highlight videos.

I was shooting with a relatively cheap lens, a Tamron zoom that i love for stills but i have never needed to shoot video with it. and i was always on a strong monopod or sticks

I normally shoot video on older wide manual primes so this was a bit new to me

The problem is that whenever the lens was longer than 150 it becomes uselessly shaky even though while shooting it I thought it looked ok.

Part of my concern is that the lens is not stabilized and is cheaply made so the whole front element was wobbling around.

Is anybody out there able to shoot video on a monopod with a 300mm lens? DO i just need practice or is it a waste of my time to even try in the future?


Thanks for the help guys.
 
Well, remember that a long lens magnifies everything. Even camera movement is enlarged, so to speak. A single mm of wobble on the camera can be the same as inches, or even feet, of wobble in the field of view, depending on how long the lens is.

So yeah, you're going to see terrible shake at 300mm if you aren't completely stabilized. Monopods are all well and good, and are fine for stills where the shake probably won't be an issue anyway... but for moving images, you really need to have a solid tripod with fluid head. VC or IS may help, too, but not guaranteed.
 
Yeah, i knew i was taking a risk on that long of a lens but i figured i would try it because i had the chance.

I guess my real question is does the IS or VC or whatever your lens maker wants to call it really make a large enough difference to make something like i was shooting usable?
 
300mm is where a fluid head comes into play. When I mean fluid I mean fluid - cartoni, sachtler
Forget manfrotto, the only manfrottos worth it are the same price as the cartoni's and sachtlers.
Remember you are not just paying for 3 sticks and a head, you are paying to have the image frame move, start and stop
without the earthquakes caused by micro millimeter movements when your hand lets go of the pan/tilt arm.

edit:
I'm using this one http://dvxuser.com/articles/cartfocus/
you can get them used with legs for around 850/900
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixXqLcOiHLs

Here is a test clip

Starts out at 70mm then i zoom in to somewhere just above 150 i think but i cant be perfectly sure.

I did get a few really good shots, and most of the shots on the wider end of the lens turned out great but this lens even locked down on a good tripod (granted its manfrotto) i can see the front element of the lens wobbling and shaking.

I think im trying to push a cheap lens a bit too hard.
maybe its time to ask Santa for something black and white with a red ring on the tip
 
If you're testing the 'fluidness' of a head a pan/tilt combo is what you want.
A lot of cheaper heads (eg manfrotto 701hdv) can handle pans like your libec test
but fail miserable at a pan/tilt at the same time.
 
treynolds said:
What lens is that? you said 300 but is it the same Tamron i was using? Your footage looks far more stable than mine ever does on my lens, even locked down
Click to expand...

That is a cheap Sigma 70-300 on good tripod and decent fluid head. Like the guys here have said... get a decent tripod and many of your problems with simply disappear.
 
Thanks for all of the help guys, I think in the future im just going to keep the lens on my sticks for sure and luckily its very rare that i need to shoot on a lens longer than my 60mm f/2
 
Thats great footage Brockraum. I need to get more practice constantly pulling focus for a shot like that. Im used to more planned out shooting, not event or action stuff like that. I think next season i will shoot a lot more with my t2i and hopefully ill have a nicer lens by then.
 
I've used that tamron 70-300 to record a rugby match, see link below

but first, lots of excuses
* it was one of my first DSLR videos
* I only had a borrowed 500D (t1i) back then, so only 720p30 and no manual control --> 360º shutter, with lots of over/under exposure, as the sun was constantly coming in and out from behind the clouds, and I didn't want to cut every couple of minutes to fight the camera again in order to get correct exposure

the last piece of shitty equipment is interesting here: I only had a super-cheap tripod, a Giottos VT-809 which cost me 70eur and only has "fluid" action on the pan axis (and that "fluid" is in quotes, mind you) (it's also quite light, but I hang my stuff on the hook to keep it steady)

still, the video looks awful, but it's not because it's shaky

(I must say that I think I stayed below 200mm for most of the game, but even so: I doubt your tripod is worse than mine)

my guess is that either your lens has a construction defect, or your tripod is showing some problems

here's the video:
http://www.vimeo.com/12033739
 
I.S is HUGE on longer lenses. I have the Canon 70-200L2 I.S. and even on a tripod, you can notice a difference with IS on and with it off. When on, it just eliminates a lot of micro shakes that come with long lenses. Without I.S., it can jitter a lot more. I use the 2x extension for filming surfing and the I.S. is nice. I haven't done it, but I think with the IS on the 70-200, you could maybe even film hand held, that how much of a difference it makes.
 
Funny, when I get out my 80-200 2.8, I seem to only like it handheld; seems like some "handheld" motion (not a crazy amount, more subtle) is part of the film language and can say "excitement, tension", etc.

I shot some live rock bands with it as a b-cam, handheld, and did a lot of crash zooms, etc - really dug it. Odd thing was it was with a D90, before I had any sort of rig for the thing.

If your actual lens is falling apart, it may be impossible to get anything useable without a tripod and a completely "hands off" approach - aim, focus, and let go completely.

If I were shooting sports at 160 - 300mm, I think I'd b-cam it handheld and try to get more "action feel" shots to intercut. (However, I'm not a sports fan and wouldn't know what to emulate as far as a broadcast look goes).
 
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