So far on this site, we have focused most of our research on understanding the relationship between tripod stiffness and conditions. Damping however, is also incredibly important but affects tripod performance in a very different way. In this post I want to lay the mathematical foundation for the testing we will do towards understanding how […]
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Calculating the Stiffness of a Complete Tripod + Head
Tripod legs and heads are typically sold separately. Even when they are not, they almost always connect at the tripod apex via a 3/8″ screw thread. The logic here is sound. Photographers and videographers use different sets of gear in different scenarios and therefore need to be able to mix and match equipment. The stiffness […]
Read MoreNew Rankings Page and Score Metric
I am updating the rankings page to incorporate a couple of developments regarding height and stiffness. Previously on the rankings page, I have reported the yaw stiffness for each tripod, and calculated a rough score metric by taking the stiffness*height/weight. This was simply the simplest thing I could think of at the time when I […]
Read MoreMeasuring the Stiffness of Tripod Heads
I have previously laid out the framework and methodology for testing the stability of tripod legs. Of course, the legs cannot be used by themselves; a head is necessary to point the camera in an arbitrary direction. Ultimately then, the stiffness of the combined head-leg system is going to support the camera. Here, I am […]
Read MoreMeasuring the Stiffness and Damping of a Tripod
In the previous post, I discussed the rationale behind modeling a tripod as a torsion spring. Here, I am going to measure the stiffness (spring constant) and damping of a tripod and discuss in detail the methods and assumptions made. As a warning, math will be involved for complete clarity of the procedure. It is […]
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The Torsion Spring Framework
After some exploratory testing, it is clear to me that the route to repeatable and comparable testing of tripods runs through the damped torsional harmonic oscillator model. If you are curious on the details the wikipedia article on the subject is thorough. However, I do not intend to make differential equations a prerequisite for understanding the testing […]
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