Vibration Dampening Performance - Quick Overview

a.k.a. how is the camera going to perform as a whole image making system 

The ultimate rigidity of the camera is the sum of all parts between film and lens/lens carrier and attachment to the tripod. The tripod itself is equally important.

Another factor is wind and air disturbances when used indoors (fans for example). Unstable floors can cause issues indoors.

To deal with this there are two common solutions.

1. Using short subject freezing flash durations in controlled indoor or outdoor setting.

2. Using a rigid camera on a well performing tripod. Meaning of well performing camera and tripod will be very different in no wind and high winds situations.

3. Using high shutter speeds when using cameras handheld.

What worked in testing and what didn't:

1. CCB Cameras in all 5 formats have exceptional performance in low and high winds. They easily equal or outperform most of the cameras I personally used. CCB 617C, CCB 612C and CCB 45PS produced tack sharp results on a smaller Manfrotto 055 tripod even in high winds with up to 60-70 km/h gusts and most importantly this was the case at all shutter speeds. A stable carbon fiber tripod would be very easy to carry and would likely exceed this performance. 

These CCB Cameras are made from ABS GF (Glass fiber infused ABS). This particular composite material has exceptional vibration dampening performance. Geometry of the center infill is further increasing its already excellent vibration dampening properties.

The setup with excellent vibration performance will likely outperform even cameras with larger film area that are not optimized in this regard.

2. Rigid cameras like Linhof Technika V come very close to the desired rigidity but it's conditional on the length of the extension. A camera that has a double bed extension will inevitably be less stable when fully extended. High wind performance is becoming abysmal with heavier cameras that have wobble in joints between bed/rail and front/rear standards.

3. Heavier studio cameras and wooden large format cameras can be extremely hard to stabilize properly in higher winds and with one tripod. If there's any wobble once everything is locked down, there's a good chance it's going to result in some blurring.

While in some cases observation of wobbles in joints on the camera or tripod can visually confirm the performance of the combo, it can be only determined by proper testing. The well performing camera/tripod setup, ideally, should produce tack sharp negatives in nearly all situations.

A good predictor is if the setup when knocked or disturbed, comes to stand still very quickly and without any noise. Short, immediate ‘thump’ will perform significantly better than a setup or a component that produces ringing or prolonged sound.