Camera & Tripod plate problem

[Mark Hartopp]

I have a Sony DSR 370 and I have found that the camera wobbles slightly about 1-2mm when the camera is clipped into the plate. Has any one had problems like this and fixed it.

Cheer Mark

[Terry Lee]

You might have better luck posting this in the "support your local camera" section under tripods.

[Chris Hurd]

Moved to Support Your Local Camera > Tripod Sticks & Heads. Please identify the plate.

[Chris Soucy]

Can't say anything about your particlar setup (I have a Vision 3 head and a set of Vinten FiberTechs) but the "camera wobble" you speak of is, most likely, due to the pathetic 1/4" machine screw holding the camera to the plate, and excessive deformation of the rubber base plate at the camera/ base plate interface.

There is, as far as I know, only one real way to solve this, with equipment only equipped with this totally unsatisfactory mounting arrangement.

My answer has been to take a strap, long enough to do a complete loop around the camera handle, then pass it under the head/ plate assembly and do it up REAL TIGHT, so that the camera simply has nowhere to go.

Not possible on a lot of heads, as there simply is not enough real estate to allow the strap to have traction, but works with the Vinten V 3 and up heads.

The real answer is a completely different "in between plate" that can be bolted to the "quick release plate" with at least the usual 2 X 3/8" bolts (tho' in the one I'm designing, there will be four 3/8" bolts arranged in a rectangle to prevent for/ aft movement as well) and then a couple of "outrigger" lobes to take vertical support rods from the top of the camera to the "intermediate plate", thus rendering this rediculous wobble obsolete.

In your case, the strap may be the "quick fix", tho' not a particularly elegant one - but it does, indeed, work.


CS

[Ivan Snoeckx]

Originally Posted by Mark Hartopp

I have a Sony DSR 370 and I have found that the camera wobbles slightly about 1-2mm when the camera is clipped into the plate. Has any one had problems like this and fixed it.

Cheer Mark

Hi Mark,

Everybody who is using a DSR-3xx and up on a VCT-U14 tripod plate is having this problem. I own a Sony DSR-300P, and also had that problem since the first day.

The solution to this problem is simple. Sony also makes another tripod plate, the VCT-14. This plate is for cameras out of the DVW, HDW, MSW and PDW series and eliminates the wobble that occurs with the slightly cheaper VCT-U14 model.

Hope this helps!