How to Stop Camera Shake
Photography Solutions: Prevent Camera Vibration
These days, in order to be competitive in the field of artistic, every day, or journalistic photography, you really have to go where no man has gone before. You need to be able to shoot pictures in a variety of situations and from a wide variety of angles, so this means that you can’t worry about things like camera vibration messing up your final shots. Luckily, there are many different ways to solve the problem of a vibrating camera, and there are hundreds of new technological advancements coming out for cameras and photographers every day.
The Challenge of Camera Vibration
Some cameras will automatically cancel out some minor vibrations, and cameras don’t have to be held nearly as still as they once did when shutter speed was incredibly slow. However, this doesn’t always drown out all vibrations. What if you’re doing a shoot on a racetrack or jet airplane where the noises are so loud that you can literally feel them vibrating in your chest? Or what if you’re shooting from a moving vehicle, which is how many photographers are getting their best and most interesting shots?
Sorbothane®–The Solution for Stopping Camera Shake
In that case, you need a better solution for camera vibration: Sorbothane. This material is a viscoelastic material, which means that it has properties of both a liquid and a solid. You don’t have to be a physicist to understand what this can do for your photography, so just hang in there for the explanation.
How Does Sorbothane Work?
Basically, a vibration is a transference of energy, and vibration can occur because of a number of factors, including things like friction and noise. When energy from a vibration reaches your camera, it makes your camera move back and forth. Besides ruining your shot, extended exposure to vibration can actually make your camera wear down faster, since it can cause the delicate parts inside your camera to rub against one another or even to work themselves loose.
So, how does Sorbothane® fix this energy problem? Basically, the visco – or liquid-like – properties of the substance make it absorb energy like water does. If you put a vibrating toothbrush in water, you won’t hear the noise from the toothbrush anymore because the water will be absorbing all that energy. The elastic – or solid-like – properties of Sorbothane actually store energy. When you pull on a piece of elastic, it is actually storing all that energy, which it will use to bounce back when you release it. Sorbothane® is similar, but it absorbs vibration energy only to release it later as heat energy, so instead of vibration, your camera will only have to deal with tiny amounts of heat that are released gradually.
How to Use Sorbothane to Stop Camera Shake
In order to use Sorbothane, photographers normally mount their cameras to Sorbothane-padded tripods or mounts. As vibrations hit the mount for the camera, the Sorbothane absorbs some of the energy and transfers some of it to heat, so your camera doesn’t actually move around as much. This will save your shots in even the worst of conditions, and it will also protect your camera from the wear and tear vibration can cause.
SHOTOVER Anti-Vibration Camera Mounts
Sorbothane is a proven solution to preventing camera vibration. SHOTOVER, a provider of high-performance mobile and UAV camera platforms tailored for the broadcast, motion picture, and industrial sectors, faced the challenge of creating an anti-vibration mobile camera system that seamlessly integrated stability, versatility, and ease of use. To tackle this, they collaborated with Sorbothane, Inc. engineers to develop specialized components capable of isolating vibrations from the cameras mounted on their mobile systems. Through meticulous design, production, and testing, Sorbothane parts proved effective in controlling vibration in the gyro-stabilized SHOTOVER camera platforms. As a result, SHOTOVER’s comprehensive line of camera platforms now offers unparalleled stability and control, making them suitable for mounting on helicopters, ground vehicles, and watercraft.
Innovative Solutions for Complex Problems
Check out our Solutions Showcase to see how Sorbothane, Inc. has partnered with engineers and entrepreneurs to solve complex problems and invent innovative solutions. Have questions about Sorbothane? Contact us today.