On Mon, 8 Oct 2012 22:12:13 -0700 (PDT), RichA
wrote:

Not always true. It depends on the tripod. More weight can easily
mean worse vibration depending on how it deflects the tripod and the
head. Also, there is no guaranteed outcome when hand-holding lighter
or heavier cameras. A heavy camera which appears to "damp out" some
vibration can set-up more involuntary tremors in the hands and arms of
the person holding it. You just have to test each camera-lens
combo.

I guess I don't get it. I guess if you have a lightweight Walmart 3000
tripod, and a heavy lens with VR on, you could see that. I mean every
breeze will cause problems. On some soils, I could induce shake just
by walking around the tripod. And lighter lenses suffer more from
shutter slap.

OTOH, when I use a decent heavy (non-carbon) tripod like one of my
Bogens or Manfrotto 90 pro's, I can mount my RB67 well, or my D7000
w/300mm AI-S Nikkor 4.5, and get good results. Worse comes to worse, I
can always hang a canvas sack of sand from the tripod for even more
stability. BUt you do need to turn the VR off, as the motor will
induce vibration rather than reducing it.

A-