Finding Vibrations with the Wave

I apologize, but this will be a little long. The thing about the Wave as it comes to vibrations is that there are 2 main routes you need to look down - one involving the wave directly, and one involving the entire rest of your sled and the camera. I’m going to assume you have access to a camera of appropriate weight and a large monitor that you can hook up, so you may find it easiest to do this testing at a rental house.

The first thing to check is for vibrations in the Wave itself. First thing, with a camera on ideally a long stiff dovetail (I like the Zalex plate), unlock the Wave (it shouldn’t be powered on) and grab the dovetail and the post and see if you can easily flex the dovetail up and down in relation to the sled. If you feel a “click” or you can see an obvious jump up and down of the moving section inside the rollers, then the rollers may need to be adjusted. You can also see if the rollers seem to be making good contact with the rails of the Wave. Not all 8 will make firm contact all of the time, but if all of them on one side are loose, or too many are loose, you could have wiggle coming from there. Some flex is normal, but it shouldn’t be an obvious pop.

Second, if you see no obvious wiggle, I would now turn on the Wave, let it warm up (1-2 minutes after you get power to it, and unlock it), and put the sled up on the balancing pin. Now, roll the sled back and forth through the Wave’s motion, while looking at the picture from the camera on a large stationary monitor. If you see a “hitch” as you move the wave through the middle of its range, the motor power needs to be turned up. This can look like a vibration if you’re close to level with your sled as you can end up moving through the bump often. Also, if your motor power is too high, you could in theory get vibrations as you roll around, as the motor is trying “too hard” to stabilize the camera, and creating resonance.

Apart from that, there is nothing on the Wave that creates vibration. So there go the easy parts. Most vibration issues people have with the Wave come from the fact that with the Wave you’re adding height and weight and moving the leverage of the camera 3” higher than it ever was. In reality, flying a normal 25-30 pound camera on the Wave is akin to flying a 45-50 pound camera normally, and it is much more prone to causing the sled to vibrate. Most sleds will have some degree of vibration, and even my sled which I have spent literally years tuning out every source of vibration can still have the occasional issue if I am not keeping things in top shape. This is a rabbit hole, so prepare to be going down this road for a while.

In my experience, the only real way to sort out micro-vibrations is to do things scientifically. So I’m going to walk you through my procedure for testing for vibrations with a specific camera build. More specifically, I’m going to walk you through how I found the vibrations that ended in me selling my PRO sled.

First of all, get the same (or as close as possible) camera package you had on your sled when you noticed the vibrations. Please make it as similar as possible - weight being the same is highly important, as is vertical CG. A big heavy weight plate will not place the same stresses on your sled as a camera with a higher CG, and if the camera was the thing vibrating (or resonating with something else vibrating), you may never be able to find the source. Then, put on the rig, and stomp around as you walk around, while recording a clip. You will almost certainly see vibrations. If not, figure out what changed. Were you running? Were you moving sideways? Think about your body’s motions as they can make the arm clank into itself or the sled perform differently, or they may just make you step harder.

Now that you have a baseline, your process needs to be to change one item at a time. Only one. For instance, turn off the Wave. Then repeat the test. Then move your camera so that the mounting point of the camera is right over the center post, and balance with the base of the sled, and repeat the test. (This would show that it is dovetail flex, an issue I’ve had with several dovetails). Then move your monitor and battery in, and maybe add some string or bongo ties to see if you can stiffen the monitor bracket, as almost all of them vibrate. Then test again. Add Velcro to your battery plates, then test again. Remove AKS from the camera, then test again. Remove the Wave, but keep the post the same length. Then shorten the post. Watch how each test affects what vibrations you see.

With my rig (at the time a PRO 2), I found 2 huge issues. One was that the topstage wasn’t solid. The PRO DB2 is notorious for vibrations, even though nobody talks about it, and it was completely unusable with that camera weight and height. But the more significant issue (and not as easily fixable) was that my post was ringing. With the post fully extended, even with the Wave removed, the whole post would bend with every step and cause vibrations to come up into the camera. When I shortened the post, it all went away. I bought a new rig within the week, and sold that rig on.

You probably don’t have to look that hard to find vibrations, however. Almost every camera build you get will vibrate. Try to prevent accessories held on via Velcro. Do not ever let them use a “paddle” for an MDR - they all bounce, especially if the MDR is Velcroed on. Dual Lock is solid if you use enough of it, but assistants dislike it because it’s harder to detach. Velcro is only good for things light enough to not vibrate. Make sure the camera battery plate has Velcro on it if you have a battery on it. Make sure the battery plate on the camera is solid and not vibrating. Check any mounting for Cinetapes as they’re notoriously badly mounted. Remove all AKS not needed off the body. Try to reduce the amount of stuff between the camera body and your stage. Use bongo ties to tie down anything that can wiggle. Sorry this is a lot, but it’s the thought process I go through the moment I see a camera body for Steadicam.

Also, start looking at your monitor bracket on your sled. I have yet to find one out of the box that doesn’t vibrate. Even the Cam-Jam does, though it is less than most. The trick for seeing vibrations is this - put the rig on the dock, turn off the monitor, and look at something in the room on the reflection on the monitor’s surface. Now start tapping around on your rig. If the reflection flutters, the monitor is vibrating. With a properly built rig, this shouldn’t cause a huge transmission to the camera, but if something is loose on your camera build this can cause a sympathetic vibration and it can start resonating with something vibrating lower on your sled.

This is just a start, but I hope it gives you some ideas on how to troubleshoot. Let me know if you have any questions!