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Camera Stabilizer

Make yourself this DIY camera stabiliser rig for under $5

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This is an old one, but a good one. In the days where we’ve got so many camera stabilisation options it’ll make your head spin, sometimes it’s nice to get things back down to the bare basics with a project you can make yourself for virtually no money at all. Especially when it produces the kinds of results we’re happy with.

In this short 3-part series, the folks at CineFix show us how we can build our own DIY camera rig along with some tips and techniques for how to use it effectively. While you might feel you need a gimbal to get steady footage, that’s not always true. And with modern developments like IBIS, rigs like these can be very effective.

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Ditch those batteries with the GravGrip hydraulic stabiliser for smartphones and action cameras

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With the massive range of gimbals and stabilisers out there and the number of different companies making them, you’d think we’d see something truly new and different on a regular basis. Instead, we mostly see iterations. Really good iterations, but they’re often quite minimal changes with just a bump in spec. Of course, there are exceptions.

Here, though, we have the GravGrip, which is a very interesting take on stabilisation for smartphones and action cameras that has no motors, uses no batteries whatsoever and is small enough to slip into your pocket (really!). It’s currently on Kickstarter, where it’s already raised over $280K with just over two weeks left to go.

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This is the world’s most advanced “handheld” camera stabiliser rig

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I’m a big fan of gimbals. I have several from companies like Zhiyun and Moza. For my needs, they’re awesome and fit into my different workflows wonderfully. But in the grand scheme of things, the gimbals most of us own pale in comparison to the $50,000+ Arri Trinity – the world’s most advanced camera stabiliser.

Potato Jet got the chance to go speak with one of the masters of the Steadicam, Ari Robbins (before this whole quarantine thing) at the Arri store in Burbank California to check out the Trinity rig that allows him to get some of the most amazing shots you ever saw.

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The ultralight Moza AirCross 2 lets you mount the Pocket 4K without a cage – even vertically

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The recently announced Moza AirCross 2 is the latest 3-axis motorised gimbal from Gudsen. It was originally teased at NAB 2019, but now it’s been officially announced and is available to order. Gudsen were showing off the Moza AirCross 2 at IBC 2019 in Amsterdam, so we went to go talk to them and find out more about it.

And, yes, while this will upset some and make others giddy, you can mount your camera to it vertically. Of course, it does accept cameras the old fashioned horizontal way, too.

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Gudsen’s new Moza AirCross 2 is an ultra light gimbal with 360° rotation on all axes and 7lb load capacity

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First shown off at NAB 2019, Gudsen has now announced availability and pricing for the Moza AirCross 2. It weighs in at only 950g with a 3.2kg (7lb load capacity), contains a 3,000mAh battery offering 12 hours of runtime, it fits the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 4K (and 6K) natively without weird offset brackets and it’s only $429.

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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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DJI announces pricing and availability for Ronin-S camera stabiliser, should you get it or the Crane 2?

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DJI’s line of Ronin camera stabilisers, however, is very well regarded, and they work pretty flawlessly. So, when DJI announced a handheld 3-axis stabilised gimbal for DSLRs and mirrorless cameras, a lot of people got excited. But the big concern was the price. DJI’s gimbals haven’t exactly known for being low budget. Now, though, we learn that the Ronin-S is actually less expensive than its closest competitor, the Zhiyun Crane 2.

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Steadicam’s new Volt electronic smartphone stabiliser keeps working even when the batteries die

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Steadicam, the devices famous for stabilising Hollywood’s footage for decades, are refocusing their efforts towards phones. Tiffen, Steadicam’s owners, have just announced the Steadicam Volt. Taking square aim at the influx of motorised handheld gimbals launched recently, the Volt works a little differently. It also offers advantages over those motorised gimbals we’ve come to know.

It’s also been awarded as an Honoree of the 2017 CES Innovation Awards. Tiffen have released smartphone stabilisers before. The Steadicam Smoothee, for example. Unlike the Smoothee, though, this one is electronic. They’ve teamed up with drone makers, Yuneec to load it up with some pretty cool stabilisation tech. This lets it achieve camera moves no current motorised stabilisers can.[Read More…]

Advanced video stabilisation with Premiere and After Effects

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One of the most off putting things for viewers of video is shaky footage. The best way to keep the camera steady is to use a tripod, but sometimes we want to add a little motion. Quality sliders can still cost a fair amount of money, and not everybody has a gimbal or other stabiliser. We just have to go regular handheld. But this often leads to bumpy footage. So, what can we do?

Adobe Premiere Pro has a built in Warp Stabiliser, but it doesn’t always do the best job. When it works, it works extremely well, but it often falls over and gives results we really didn’t expect. In this video from Miesner Media, Theo takes us on a round trip from Premiere to After Effects, and back to Premiere again, resulting in perfectly stabilised footage.

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Police Detectives Mistake Camera-Stabilizing Rig For A Drone; Warn Crew Not To Fly It

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A rather funny, and perhaps somewhat worrying, video shows an encounter between Dallas Police detectives and a camera crew that took place a couple of days ago.

As we’ve seen too often lately, police are quick on the scene once a drone is around and in this case they were making sure the team wasn’t flying the device near the airport.

That would all be perfectly fine, except the ‘drone’ in this case wasn’t flying anywhere, with our without the FAA’s approval.

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