Trigger Pressure Sensitivity

Trigger Pressure Sensitivity is yet another nifty tool in the Capture Artist's toolbox. While most modern gamepad input is digital, in order to get a smooth crane ramp up/down speed, we need something more analog, more granular, with many more steps between the maximum and minimum values.

This isn't a crash course on analog vs digital signals, but just understand this: Digital signal is going to be comprised of 1's and 0's, on or off, and nothing in-between. Analog signal is a waveform, with every point along that wave being a piece of information, or a value, that we can read and apply to the camera's position.

The figure above is a quick attempt at demonstrating this; 

• Digital Input (pressure sens disabled), whenever you press down on the trigger, you move at the maximum vertical speed you have set. There is no speed in-between, you are either craning at a set speed or you are not moving at all.

• Analog Input (pressure sens enabled), whenever you press down on the trigger you will gradually increase in speed until you have fully pressed down the trigger, at which point (and only at that point) will you move at the maximum vertical speed you have set.

There is no type of input that is "better" than the other; they both have advantages and disadvantages depending on what you are trying to shoot. But understanding how, or why, they are different can better inform you on when to use one over the other, and in the long run, it will expand the types of shots you can comfortably capture.