Stabilisation

We've seen plenty of video camera stabilizers, from ones aimed at steadying your wobbly smartphone footage to those which hold DSLRs. But while stabilizing rigs can be great at smoothing out your shakes, they're typically difficult to operate if you also want to change direction and pan while shooting. The Supraflux Video Camera Stabilizer aims to solve this problem by adding an electronic pan axis lock.  Read More

The skyrocketing popularity of smartphones and compact video cameras over the past several years has resulted in a certain class of products starting to show up a lot on Kickstarter – rigs for stabilizing video shot with the devices. We’ve recently covered models such as the Circle Thing, the Stabil-i Case, and the SteadeeGo. One of the latest such products, Steadibitz’ amazingly-named MojoFloCam, looks like it does a pretty good job at smoothing out the shakes.  Read More

As can be seen by the increasing number of stabilizing rigs available for DSLRs and small camcorders, people don’t like shaky hand-held video. Most of those rigs are inspired by the Steadicam Smoothee, utilizing a counter-weighted arm that extends below the gimbal-mounted camera. It’s an effective set-up, but one that’s also kind of fiddly. Fabricator and machinist Robert Stone has created something much more simple, in the form of the SteadyWheel.  Read More

It’s kind of funny ... no sooner does technology allow high-definition video cameras to be shrunk to the size of a smartphone, than people start adding stabilizing rigs – essentially making the cameras bigger – in order to smooth out the shakes in hand-held footage. One of the latest such devices is the Circle Thing, which takes a unique approach to steadying up small video cameras.  Read More

As someone who shoots web videos with a pocket camcorder, I can attest to how to infuriatingly difficult it is to keep the little things from shaking like a leaf when hand-holding them. Fortunately, various products aimed at minimizing that problem are now appearing in the market – the iPhone 4/4S-dedicated Stabil-i Case is one of the latest, and cheapest.  Read More

Amateur or low-budget videographers who want to smooth out their shaky handheld camera work have for some time now had the option of using the Smoothee, a simple rig made by none other than Steadicam. The product is intended for use with pocket camcorders and smartphones, however, which kind of leaves DSLR-users in the lurch. Well, those people now have a new affordable stabilizing system of their own, in the form of the Cam Caddie Scorpion.  Read More

Shooting movies and television shows using digital SLR (DSLR) cameras that also record high definition video is becoming much more widespread - in fact, the Season 6 finale of House was shot using Canon's EOS 5D Mark II camera, and Philip Bloom is said to have shot a number of scenes for the upcoming Lucasfilm World War II film Red Tails using the very same model. If you're looking to make your own DSLR epic, then you'll want to keep things steady while chasing someone down the stairs or running after your star through a busy city street. The Mount Kestrel Duopod concept from designer Ben Millett is a solid-looking shoulder-mounted steadicam rig that can also double as a floor-standing, two-legged camera platform.  Read More

It’s humbling, and in fact almost a little scary, when you realize just how far the video quality of mobile phones and pocket camcorders has progressed over the past few years. While features such as their resolution are truly something to behold, they do however have one distinct disadvantage when compared to their larger, heavier predecessors – they shake like crazy. It’s a shortcoming that’s addressed by the Steadicam Smoothee.  Read More

Another landmark in the unrelenting evolution of the digital camera was reached this week when Samsung announced two 12.2 mega-pixel point-and-shoot digital cameras with 15x optical zooms. The top of the line camera, to be known as the WB650 in Europe and the HZ35W in the U.S., sports a 3.0” AMOLED display, Dual Image Stabilisation (both optical and digital image stabilizers), a GPS (for geo-tagging) and 720p video at 30fps. It’s a stunning achievement to fit all this into a compact camera body just 30mm thick and with the PMA Show approaching, one wonders if this camera will still be winning the “mine’s bigger than yours” contest a month from now. Expect it in the showroom in March.  Read More