Vibration Suppression Pads

[Paul Coppin]

Best of the season to all! A new product just coming available to the astronomy market may have good application to LF photography, particularly for l ong shutter times - Both Celestron Int'l and Meade are marketing "vibration suppression pads" initially intended for telescope tripods, which "reduces vibration time by almost 100% and also vibration amplitude", and are claimed to work on any surface. The Celestron pads are available now, and the buzz is that they do work. Last I hear d, Meade hadn't started to ship theirs yet. The tripod legs just sit on them. US list is abt $55, they are available off EBAY for abt $35 (search under "Celestr on"). I do have a small jpg I can email if you can't find a picture. I just rece ived a set and am anxious to to see how well they work for both camera and telescope. Regards All!

[Chad Jarvis]

In case you're interested, Orion, a long-time telescope retailer, has sold vibration suppression pads for years. They have a web site at www.telescope.com.

[Pete Andrews]

Sounds expensive for what can't be much more than 3 bits of rubber.

[Struan Gray]

For pads to work, their complience has to be matched to the weight of the thing they are supporting - and a good telescope and stand typically weighs more than even a LF camera. Even then, they don't do too well below about 100 Hz, because if they were soft enough to do it would become hard to point the camera precisely.

In any case, few photographers are actually troubled by vibrations of the floor because they work at much lower magnifications than astronomers do. Beefing up the point where the camera attaches to the tripod (or adding a second and third support point) will do far more for stabilty than putting rubber pads under your tripod legs.