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The “GimbalGun” wants to give your arms a rest by shifting the weight of your rig to your shoulders

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I really have no idea how I feel about this thing. This is the GimbalGun. It looks like something you’d use to take tanks out, but it’s actually a support system designed for use with single-handed gimbals to give you even more stability. It’s not available just yet, but it’s coming to Kickstarter soon.

Essentially it’s a long metal box with a bunch of 1/4-20″ holes for connecting devices. A gimbal, monitor, microphone, lights, mini tripods, or whatever you need to carry around with your gimbal. But its goal is to help take the weight off your arms and onto your more substantial shoulders.

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“Shaky video is dead!” proclaims GoPro after strapping the Hero 7 to an eagle

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Ever since the GoPro Hero7 leaked online, the emphasis was on the new and improved stabilization. Then, the company promised “hypersmooth” and “gimbal-like stabilization” when the camera was announced. To show off the capabilities of the new Hero 7, GoPro strapped the camera to an eagle and let it fly over a soccer field. And apparently, they weren’t joking when they said that “shaky video is dead.”

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How to stabilise shaky footage without using warp stabiliser

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It’s funny how things go around in circles. The Warp Stabiliser was added to After Effects and Premiere to eliminate the need for techniques like the one shown in this video from Matti Haapoja. Introduced with Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 in 2011, it was supposed to make our lives easier and our footage perfect. But, as more and more people take to shooting video, the more and more its failures become apparent.

Although the Warp Stabiliser can do some wonderful things, and sometimes does its job perfectly, there are still times when it just doesn’t get it right. It’s a good video, and very useful information to know. At one time, this was just “the way”, but now it’s just one technique in our ever-growing arsenal.

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Glidecam and Ronin M gimbal stabiliser go head-to-head in these running shot action tests

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Camera stabilisation has always been a big deal. It’s the difference between a good shot and a piece of footage you can barely watch. Until fairly recently, stabilisation was the realm of Hollywood. Mere mortals could one day only hope to see a Steadicam in person. Now, though, that’s all changed. There’a a whole plethora of camera stabilisation tools on the market.

Two of the most popular are the Glidecam range of gravity stabilisers and motorised gimbals. Photographer Ed Gregory puts the two to task in this side-by-side comparison. The Glidecam HD-2000 goes up against the mighty DJI Ronin M in this side-by-side comparison. The comparison shows some fairly common but also quite tough shooting tests. And, just for a laugh, the Canon G7X with its electronic image stabilisation (EIS) is thrown in, too.

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Get smooth handheld video footage without a gimbal or other stabiliser

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I often get behind the scenes video when I’m out on a shoot. I have a couple of DSLRs packed in the bag just for this purpose. One usually gets locked off on a tripod covering a wide shot. The other goes handheld. But getting smooth handheld footage can be a pain. A gimbal or steadicam would be fantastic, but often overkill. And it’s a lot more weight for me to carry out into the wilderness. Fortunately, there are other options.

In this video, photographer Peter McKinnon shows us some of the methods he uses to get stable handheld footage. I regularly use a few of these techniques myself. But there’s definitely some new ones here I hadn’t thought of that I’ll be trying in the future.

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DIY hacks for stabilizing video when you don’t have the right gear

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It’s hard to get smooth video without stabilizer, that’s for sure. But unfortunately, sometimes you’ll be stuck without it and you’ll have to improvise. There are various tricks for stabilization, and Ted Sim from Apurture shares six DIY hacks each of us can use. They involve readily available items, and some of them even involve relying only on your body and don’t require any props. So whichever situation you find yourself in, you will find at least one of these tricks handy for getting smoother footage.

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How to stabilize your camera even in horrible light conditions

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Working in low light conditions can be very frustrating for photographers. If you have a tripod and shoot a steady scene – well, you basically don’t have a problem here. But the conditions are often far from ideal. First, you don’t have a tripod. The light is horrible to say the least, yet you must shoot from hand. Naturally, this can drive you insane because it’s hard to get sharp photos, even with the steadiest hands. But fortunately, you can stabilize the camera, reduce shake and make sharp images even in crappy light. David Bergman will show you how.

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