Camera Stabilizers

[David A. Schwartz]

Christopher <christianfilm at mac.com> wrote:

> Kathi,
>
> I found your post about Steadycams to be very useful and resourceful 
> and I think you are right. What do you suggest for a small indie 
> shoot? I am uncertain which stabalizer devide to go
> with. Steaditracker? Glidecam?
>
> Chris

Chris, go with the Glidecam if you can afford it. I'm a professional 
Steadicam operator and I've demo'd the Glidecam. It's one of the first 
Steadicam ripoffs to emerge legally after the expiration of the 
original Steadicam patents. As such, it's pretty good for what it is 
and probably up to the demands that a low (or no) budget indie would 
place on it. I'm talking about the body harness and spring arm version 
of the Glidecam. I think they also make a hand-held version, and these 
devices (like the SteadyTracker) have limitations in that they really 
don't isolate the operator's movement from the camera. They do help a 
bit by increasing the inertia of the camera so your moves are a little 
less squirrely, but they won't do much in the way of eliminating bumps 
and shakes from walking shots. For that, you're gonna need some 
springs. The Hollywood Lite was a pretty good-looking unit for DV 
cameras. I never actually tried one, but it looked like a credible 
version of a slimmed-down Steadicam. I'm not sure if they're still in 
production, but I'm sure you could find one somewhere out there.

Dave Schwartz