Hi Shiv. While I agree with you that the design could be better for anyone with large quick release plates, it's really not a big deal. Some spongy tape or adhesive rubber pads will easily solve the airgap problem and stop the camera rocking. Canon is not forcing you to buy any additional gizmos from them.

Richard

I just attached a larger tripod plate that overlaps the surface area. The camera is completely stable. With pans, tilts, and zooms, it’s rock solid even with the small space there. The “flaw” might be with your tripod since you are the only one who is experiencing this.

Actually Eric........
 

he's not the only one experiencing this.

I run my XH A1 on a Vinten Vision 3 head mounted on a set of Vinten FiberTechs, and I can assure you, what I'm seeing on "the big screen" isn't either of them moving.

Anything but the lightest touch on the focus ring (the ZR1000 Lanc remote does not allow accurate use of focus, a "design limitation" according to Canon), the use of the Zoom/ Focus Position Preset facility (not even provided on the ZR2000) etc causes a distinct wobble of the camera on the mounting plate.

That so little of the real estate available on the base of these cameras has been utilised for mounting plate/ camera contact, means that what forces are applied to the rubber compound of the "landing area" by the plate under stress is limited to a small area.

The more force applied per unit area to a surface, the more it will deform. If the landing area had been even just twice the size of the existing, it would have made a significant difference to the amount of deformation possible in this rubber compound, thus lessening the ability to wobble.

The use of "pro" twin 3/8" machine screws instead of a pathetic single 1/4" fixing would have made "fore - aft" rocking absolutely impossible.

As I said in my first post, this type of camera/ plate connection may have been all well and good for small/ medium SD cameras (it was never considered acceptable on "Pro" SD cameras, hence the twin 3/8" screw), but I do not consider it so for HD.

That this particular mounting arrangement has been a Canon "feature" across 4 camera systems is neither here nor there, it may have seemed a good idea at the time, but the systems have outrun it, well and truly.

When the next itteration of HD cams hits the ground with 30X Zooms, is this pathetic arrangement still going to be a Canon feature?

I think not (well, I certainly HOPE not!).


CS

Chris,
Well put!

Richard,
Yes, it's never a big deal. We'll always find a solution to design and other shortcomings. Heck we don't touch the camera! :). Rather than make the manufacturers clean up their act we'll simply find ways around it, buy additional toys to circumvent and simply "live with it".

No seriously, I don't believe it's a big deal. If it were, I'd have made the subject, "Major design Flaw" or something to that affect. In fact, it's because it's not such a big deal I am even more surpised it exists and will continue to exists so long as we continue to say there is no problem.

I'm also surprised that a lot of folks "defend" such flaws. I mean this is not rocket science it's just common sense. Besides, how else will Canon (or anyone else for that matter) improve their product if users don’t tell them?

Eric,
The battery cover hinge thing...well, that's a bad design too :). One bad design led to another in my opinion:). I mean you can't tell me the battery cover design necessitated a bad tripod mount? Or that they gave the battery cover (of all things) precedence over a stable camera :)

I know, we’ve all done our research, zeroed in on the A1 and spent some serious hard earned money. How could we possibly consider that there is anything bad, flawed or could be better?

Please don’t take anything I say personally (I know that's such a cliché). But I honestly don’t mean it like that, I love my A1 and defend it tooth and nail.

Technically speaking, yes, I'm the only one experiencing the camera shake. So you are correct there. I didn't read the part in the manual or the dozens of videography books I've read or hundereds of on-line articles and nor did I go to film school where they must have surely said, "Don't touch the camera stupid". :)

FYI: Others have confirmed the problem does exist.

My appologies if my post seems offensive. I don't mean it to be.

Shiv.

I've noticed the problem when working outdoors, with a mic in a hairy wind-muff on the shoe mount. If it's windy and you are zoomed in more than about 75%, the camera will sometimes rock or shake on the tripod mount enough to be noticable. I'm going to try to find some thin, squashy material to put between the QR plate and the camera base. BTW, I use a Manfroto 501 head and a ZR1000 remote on the pan handle.