HI Ronald,
 
 
I have just completed a track which was great  in MM. I had all the same problems with  max 7 being one frame out and managed to figure that one on my own once i rendered out of max as pngs ( when it was sliding) and then composting in combustion over the same footage only to have it lock perfect.  
 
Any how the orignal footage was all steady cam stuff but although it was generally smooth camera motion is was the sort of wobbly that made you feel sea sick by watching it.  
 
Once the composite was done I stablized the whole shot post to get rid of that.
 
I have a number of steady cam shots coming up and am thinking of stablizing everything before doing the matchmove (hopefully making it even easier to track) . The thing is, stablizing crops into the footage. Is this going to create problems for matchmover.  
 
I am thinking that it might confuse the field of view etc although the ratio of the footage remains the same.  
 
I would like to discuss this with anyone who is doing or has done similar workflow.
 
Thanks all

Hi,
 
Yes, cropping the footage might introduce some discrepancies. Anyway, depending on your data, the impact may be limited.
 
Principal point (the projection of the camera center on the image):
The problem would be that the principal point might change. So, either you now where your new principal point is and you enter it in your camera settings, or you manage to keep your new principal point at the center.
 
Focal length:
The focal length is usually defined on the uncropped footage. So any fixed focal length you provide should be adjusted. If you let the software automatically adjust the focal length, and you use the same cropped footage within the composition package, it should be ok.
 
Hope this helps.