Presenting the Steadycam… and a short tour of my house

Recently, a few friends and I are asked to film a promotional video for our school. In return, our school is willing to provide us with some equipments. One of the equipments we asked is Steadycam, and I just got it today!

What is it?

Okay, a little lecture on this Steadycam thing. Full name is Camera Stabilizer. It uses a heavy weight on the bottom to balance the shakes out on the camera. (Insert physics explanation here). Professionals use it too, except they use a MUCH MORE EXPENSIVE version. Actually, edit that. The one we just purchased is a MUCH cheaper rendition of the original version.

Steadycams (or camera stabilizers) are attachments used to capture smooth looking video even when the camera and camera operator are in motion. The camera operator may walk (or even jog), move through tight hallways and doorways, and even climb up and down stairs without shaking the camera. Unfortunately, professional steadycams cost around $1500. Even the cheap 3rd party ones cost $600+. Not exactly a bargain considering many of us use cameras in that price range. So, I decided to make my own version. It turns out, it only costs $14.

(From Steadycam.org)

I was told about it quite a while ago. Looking at their website and their demo videos, it actually looks quite promising. And $40 isn’t really that much (The shipping actually costed more – $50). So I ordered on Monday, and surprisingly, I got it on Friday. Delivery was fast, yet safe.

Box Opening

Here comes the best part of buying anything – opening the box. I am not going to say much, so see for yourself.

This is everything in the UPS box. A white box and a copy of instructions manual + warranty.

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In the box: 3 “sticks”, 1 “connector” (?), 1 inverse bracket, and 1 weight.

And yup, this is what it becomes when you put them together (I didn’t use the inverse bracket)

Demo Videos

I quickly took two short videos around my (small) house with a digital camera. (Wonder why not with the huge camcorder in the picture above? Well, I couldn’t find a 1394 line…)

1st try testing the $14 Steadycam from Peter Zhang on Vimeo.

2nd try testing the $14 Steadycam from Peter Zhang on Vimeo.

(I was too excited to test it… so I might not know what exactly I am doing in the vid :P)

Conclusion

Man, this thing is cheap! $40 for a really decent quality stabilizer, not bad! As you can see, the shakes can be barely seen in the videos above (Or maybe I am just a super bad camera operator). Anyhow, I am in love with this thing at the moment and I am going to play around with it for some more.

If you need something like this and not quite have the money to buy anything expensive, do consider this!