Joel Rosen's Posts
Using a handmade steadycam for the Kodak Zi6
Years ago, I'd did some video work for a school project and to get a more sophisticated look, I borrowed a Steadicam Jr. from a videographer friend. It really works, but it takes practice to use it well and it's too pricey for my budget. Since that time, I've seen several other products come on the market, also excellent and still too expensive for my budget. And then I found the poor man's steadicam which is perfect for my budget. I made one a while ago (mine cost about $16 to build) and I was pretty pleased with the results, particularly for recording kids sporting events. I could move up and down the sidelines and keep the action in the frame. I may have looked goofy but I don't mind and I like the resulting video. The basic concept is to counter-balance the weight of the camera. I have a typical mini-DV camcorder. It weighs about 20 oz.
After reading some reviews and comments about the Zi-6 and the shakiness of small video cameras in general, I wondered about if my stabilizer would help. The Zi-6 is really tiny, it's dwarfed by the weight of the stabilizer, even without the counterweight. Nonetheless, we thought we'd try it out and see how it went.
Keep in mind that this is with no practice and very little prep. We did 4 short clips here in the office.
First we tried without the stabilizer and moving quickly.
This is while walking backwards as fast as possible. It's pretty rough. You can see rapid small shaking with each footstep. Yes, that's Jenny riding a scooter.
Now, same path, but with the stabilizer attached.
It's still a bit rough, but much better than before. It doesn't make me seasick.
We tried slowing down next. No stabilizer.
There's not as much shake as the fast movement, but there's a steady up and down movement with each step. They felt so goofy walking down the hall like this.
Now with the stabilizer at a comfortable pace for walking backward.
Again, it's better than before. It's not as stable as I can do with the larger camcorder but it works. I am sure that with practice I could get even better.
(YouTube compresses these videos quite a bit... if you would like to see them at higher quality, go right to YouTube and click "watch in high quality" under each video Video 1, Video 2, Video 3, Video 4)
Using a stabilizer is sort of contrary to the idea of the Zi-6. The device is small and light and I've made it big and clunky. But I consider this test a success and I am inspired to make a smaller, lighter and more 'portable' stabilizer and give that try. Stay tuned.
If you've got a small video capture device and you've tried any stabilization techniques, let's hear about it!
Comments
Posted By: Brad (1/9/2009)
Comment: It was just like watching "The West Wing." Very nice. By the way, these are the type of posts that I absolutely love (though it probably would have worked better in the "plugged in" blog). This is a great article that shows you something fun and really cool that you can do with your Kodak product. It's the articles like these that make me come back and read more. Great post.
Posted By: Ed Ritter (1/8/2009)
Comment: Joel, No one else said it but I will - that's a lead pipe cinch! Ba da Boom!
Posted By: Lee Stacey (1/6/2009)
Comment: Playing brass in a marching band, I have exceptional camera steadying skills. What's the connection? When you play and march you learn to walk with a very steady upper body in order to maintain a strong embouchure (lip contact/shape on the mouthpiece). Steady camera skills are very similar. Roll step FTW!
Posted By: Kendall (1/5/2009)
Comment: re: Cyndy's comment: It isn't sexist if it's based on science/biology. As a big ol' clunky dude, I take no offense. The last camcorder I had was from the late 80's- a Panasonic contraption that weighed nearly 10 pounds. I got pretty good moving smoothly with it just by being conscious of my body movement and "sidling" with the camera. I'm a still photo kinda guy. I don't much care for video, though if given a videocam, I would probably make good use of it. The only time I've used the video function on my digital slr was by accident, but the shot of my feet moving in and out from beneath my belly was quite nice, quality-wise, if not very interesting.
Posted By: Joel (1/5/2009)
Comment: In all the holiday rush around the house, I forgot to provide the blog team with a picture of the stabilizer I built. Sorry. We'll be adding it to the post tomorrow. If you follow the link in the post to the Johnny Chung stabilizer, you'll see what I used as a model. Mine is pretty close to what you'll see there.
Posted By: cyndy green (1/4/2009)
Comment: This may sound sexist...but women, because they walk with their hips rather than their shoulders, tend to hold the camera steadier naturally. The hip walk tends to keep the head (and shoulders) stable.
Posted By: SBL Panorama stitching (1/3/2009)
Comment: Informative post. Thanks.
Posted By: Dave Kauffman (1/2/2009)
Comment: In the physical world, mass = quality. People think the heft of a car door, or the heaviness of a turning wheel conveys workmanship, at least for my generation that encountered machined parts. The steadicam idea adds mass and increased inertia to the camera to lose the "blair witch" problem of jerky video (compared to Kubrick's innovate use of the steadicam in The Shining). Watch the opening sequence of a movie, where the camera dollies into the action - this immediately conveys to the audience that this is a full production movie. You can simulate this with the johnny chung stabilizer (steadycam.org) or use an office chair. Perhaps the Zi-7 could have image stabilization built-in - a software steadicam!
Posted By: Scott R (1/2/2009)
Comment: Can we please see the actual stabilizer device Mr. Rosen constructed? Thank you.