YouTube Trick for reducing Camera Shake?

Basically the author suggests that you tie a string to a screw that will fit in your tripod mount and tie a metal washer on the other end of the string. Then apparently if you step on the washer and pull against the string it will help reduce camera shake. I wonder if it would actually work?

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=LLlJl7TbXTA

seems logical actually. kind of want to try it out now haha....

It does, but it's definitely no replacement for a monopod or tripod.

Though it's great for museums and light lenses, I wouldn't try it with anything heavier than a 70-200 f4

D_Rezz wrote in post #8437586
Basically the author suggests that you tie a string to a screw that will fit in your tripod mount and tie a metal washer on the other end of the string. Then apparently if you step on the washer and pull against the string it will help reduce camera shake. I wonder if it would actually work?

http://www.youtube.com​/watch?v=LLlJl7TbXTA

That 'trick' was around even when I started in photography (36years ago). It does work to - to a point. As has been said there is no substitute for a good mono/tripod.

Gofer, it's been around a heck of a lot longer than that. I have seen friends of my Dad use the string on binoculars, when they are out flying early RC airplanes, over 50 years ago, and maybe they picked it up during WW2, since they were all in it together.

canonloader wrote in post #8437854
Gofer, it's been around a heck of a lot longer than that. I have seen friends of my Dad use the string on binoculars, when they are out flying early RC airplanes, over 50 years ago, and maybe they picked it up during WW2, since they were all in it together.

It's older even than that. You can find references to it as far back as the late 1700s. I think some old musketeer must have figured it out.

Wouldn't surprise me a bit. It seems like a perfectly natural thing to do.

All very good but why would you post a video while wearing a pair of slippers like that !!

I will make one for myself as it costs little and may come in handy some time.

It has indeed been around a long time. In the photography world, it's typically called a "chainpod," and consists of a ¼-20 screw and a lightweight chain; chains hold up better than string, and don't require a weight at the end.

Try googling "chainpod" and see what happens. I get 1680 responses (including POTN references).

The things I'm oblivious to. I'm excited to try this now! I have a monopod but since I'm such an amateur I feel like a tool carrying around a bunch of extra equipment - people will start to expect too much !

This would have came in handy the other day when i went out shooting in this alley by my work downtown. I had spotted a composition that I wanted to capture a while ago and was finally downtown at dusk to get some good light. I thought i would come away with some nice shots but they were all shakey and none were crisp enough to show here. The problem is that I just have the shakes - they also don't help when I'm trying to draw for school!

In retrospect I probably should have used a larger appeture and my dad just told me that little trick of not shooting with a slower shutter speed than the focal length of your lens. Oh well - this is how we learn!

D_Rezz wrote in post #8438935
The things I'm oblivious to. I'm excited to try this now! I have a monopod but since I'm such an amateur I feel like a tool carrying around a bunch of extra equipment - people will start to expect too much !

This would have came in handy the other day when i went out shooting in this alley by my work downtown. I had spotted a composition that I wanted to capture a while ago and was finally downtown at dusk to get some good light. I thought i would come away with some nice shots but they were all shakey and none were crisp enough to show here. The problem is that I just have the shakes - they also don't help when I'm trying to draw for school!

In retrospect I probably should have used a larger appeture and my dad just told me that little trick of not shooting with a slower shutter speed than the focal length of your lens. Oh well - this is how we learn!

Actually, the "rule" is not shooting hand held with a shutter speed slower than 1/(FL×sf), where "FL" is the lens focal length and "sf" is the sensor factor of the camera. For your camera, this becomes 1/(1.6×FL).

This is one of the very few places where the sensor factor (or, if you insist, the "crop factor") has any value. This is because the factor affects angle of view, and camera shake is also an angular thing.

The actual slowest hand-held shutter speed varies for each of us. Some lucky individuals are very steady, and can hand hold at speeds that would produce nothing but blur for the rest of us. If, as you say, you are naturally shaky, you might try using minimum shutters speeds that are 1/(2×FL). Whatever will work for you is correct.

Thanks for the advice! I wrote it down in my notebook and I'll try it out. This place is really an invaluable resource!

It's enough to send one to drink... and that would make camera shake even worse.

nemo man wrote in post #8439843
It's enough to send one to drink... and that would make camera shake even worse.

Actually, I've learned from having to do freehand perspective drawings for studio projects on final boards at 5 in the morning 4 hours before an assignments due on 0 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours - that a beer or two can actually settle the shakes! lol But that might just be my physiology.

Wow! The magic disappearing trick. Can you do it again?