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A camera following a nurbs path and a damped track constraint :
At several locations of the curve, the camera rotates curiously.
But the tool tip of the constaint indicates "points toward a target performing the smallest rotation necessary".
Is the behavior shown in the gif above expected ?
The erratic motion appears to actually be due to the Path Animation 'Follow' setting - it seems to be interfering with the constraint. When the Follow setting is disabled the erratic motion no longer occurs and it snaps back to the rotation based only on the constraint.
The Damped Track constraint isn't really ideal for camera tracking - best to use the Track To since that is capable of maintaining the expected orientation of the camera (ie, so 'up' points towards the global 'up'). I believe Damped Track is better suited to bone or object rotations where it perhaps makes more sense (but only if the 'initial' rotation is not being modified before the constraint is evaluated).
I think I've seen similar in different situations. If so, the problem should dissapear if you separate the camera and the tracked point in for example Z-direction. I have not proof but it could have something to do with precision and the floating point math.
Also... Have you tried to constrain the rotation of the camera using lock_rotation?
