Quote Originally Posted by fuegocito View Post
My friend was making the same observation about the jiggly nature of the RR when it's all stretched out and manhandled. I didn't know this before but the common camera rigidity test seems to be mounting camera on whatever tripod system one intend for the camera to sit on, have the camera set up then tug at the front and rear standard and observe the flex. I guess the theory is that translate to how much it potentially vibrates/shakes in windy situations? But is this an absolute truth? Somehow I have never acquired this habit of testing a LF camera since I failed to see the logic in it. My thinking is that in practice I never go jiggling the camera during exposure, and I have rarely photographed in windy environments. Having said that, I totally see the potential validity of the test since obviously different cameras do react differently to this jiggliness test. In my observation it seems to come down to two criterias, one the stiffness of the camera base and two, the tripod head mount. I am basing this observation on owning and using Sinar P/F system, Zone VI, Wisner, Deardorff, Charmonix and the Richard Ritter, and the four tripod head systems I am comparing against, Ries A250, Gitzo PL5, Manfrotto 410, and AS B1 with QR plate. So with the RR810 mounted on the Ries head, it does not budge at all in regular focal length range(150mm-300mm) and expected amount of jiggliness when it's all stretch out (600mm range), and it get slighly more jiggly with Gitzo PL5, and progressively more with Arca B1 and the worst with Manfrotto 410. Charmonix fairs a lot better in this aspect all the way down to Manfrotto 410 since it has a much larger base surface, hence structure rigidness(?) This is also true with classic design like Deardorff. Given this observation, I now uses a large platform to mount my RR whenever possible but I am really liking Ben's idea of using bungy cord to taunt out the flex.

Robert
You do get a pretty good feel for how the camera will perform in the wind by jiggling it a bit. The wind will push on the bellows and if the front and/or rear standard aren't extremely rigid, you will most certainly have some issues with camera shake. When I had the RR 8x10 with my 600mm on it, you could see the image bounce around a bit on the GG in a slight breeze. By tensioning the camera, it calmed that quite a bit. The more rigid the front and rear standards (as well as the main part of the camera), the more it will resist this. When I was in Zion this past January, I was shooting a detail photo of a log covered in frost, and a rock was embedded in the log. The area I was photographing was maybe 18 inches wide, so I overextended the bellows and used my super lightweight Fujinon 300C. I made two exposures, and the exposure time was somewhere around 5 or 10 seconds. During the first exposure, there was a VERY slight breeze for part of the exposure, and the second was absolutely calm. The first photo suffered vibration, and the second was tack sharp. Even the slightest of breeze can make a big difference at times. For that photo, I didn't tension the camera with cord. Had I used the cord, it would have been fine.