How to Use a Camcorder: Keeping Your Image Steady (page 2)

Here're some extra tips for walking shots:

• Here again, keep your knees bent, though walking like this makes you resemble Groucho Marx loping in pursuit of Margaret Dumont.
• When walking parallel to a moving subject, move sideways in semi-crab fashion.
• Pretend that the camcorder is a very full cup of very hot coffee that you must carry without spilling a single drop. It's amazing how that will steady your hand.

Finally, whether you're braced or unbraced, moving or still, shoot hand-held footage with the lens at the widest angle setting that's practical. Remember that wide angle lenses tend to minimize the effects of camera shake.

The first step up from hand-holding is a monopod--a one-legged camera support. At its simplest, a monopod is just a walking stick with a bolt on top that threads into the camcorder's tripod socket. More elaborate monopods consist of two sections that you can adjust for height or collapse completely for stowing.

The good news about monopods is that they are very light and compact, and setup is simple. The bad news is that they permit only limited horizontal camcorder movement (panning) and almost no vertical movement (tilting). The reason is that with a monopod, the pivot point is not directly beneath the camera (as with a tripod) but way down where the tip of the stick meets the ground. This means that any tilt must be made on almost a six-foot radius.

For smooth panning and tilting, you need a tripod. (Why not use a "quadrapod," trivia fans? Answer: because you can set three legs on any uneven surface without a wobble. Four legs require a flat floor.)

Here are some tips for using a tripod effectively. First, make sure it is perfectly level, especially if you'll be panning. A camera on a tilted tripod may show a level horizon line when you start a shot, but when you rotate the camera by panning, the horizon will tilt farther and farther as you turn. Better tripods have built-in bubble levels, and the best models have heads that can be leveled independently of the legs.

Next, adjust the tension controls so that the tripod head slightly resists your attempts to move it. This will help smooth out your pans and tilts. Make sure that the vertical tension is high enough so that the camera doesn't tilt forward or backward when left unattended. Not only can this hurt the camera, but it makes you look (and feel) like an idiot.

Some tripods are fitted with two-way feet for rough or smooth surfaces, as you can see from figure 1. The smooth-floor knobs will work adequately outdoors on gravel or turf, but the rough-surface pins will mar tile or vinyl floors, so never use them indoors.

Another approach to steadying the camera is the stabilizer, the best known of which is the Steadicam JR ($499 NTSC, $695 PAL, 310-836-7991). GlideCam is another well-regarded brand of stabilizer ($1,399 DUAL-G, 800-949-2089).

A camcorder stabilizer consists of a camera platform with a hand grip and a counterbalancing arm. An external LCD monitor usually sits on the counterbalance.

To use a stabilizer, you begin by mounting the camera on the plate and adjusting the counterbalance until it compensates perfectly for the mass of the camera. (This can be a time-consuming process.) Once the camera is counterbalanced, you operate it by holding the stabilizer hand grip and watching the external LCD screen as you shoot.

Users report that stabilizers require considerable practice to master, and they are not especially convenient in tight spaces. But once you have your stabilizer under good control, you can make moves that look as if the camera were on a dolly or crane, or floating along on a magic carpet.

A very inexpensive alternative to stabilizers is the Biddlestick, which you can buy from the manufacturer for under $20 (401-423-1682). This is essentially a length of pipe with a tripod bolt at the top and a hand grip at the bottom. Just screw the Biddlestick into the camcorder's tripod socket, grasp the grip, and shoot. Despite its extreme simplicity, this product adds considerable stability to the camcorder, and its many users swear by it.

The simplest camcorder stabilizer of all is a tripod, preferably a lightweight model suitable for still camera work. To use it, simply collapse the tripod legs and mount the camcorder on the head. Then carry camera and tripod about by the head as you shoot. The hanging weight of the legs will counterbalance the camcorder.

At the times when conventional tripods are impractical or unavailable, a special-purpose camera support may fill the bill. Personally, I depend on my table-top tripod. Three six-inch legs hide in the eight- inch tube of its body for storage, and its ball-and-socket mounted head lets me aim a camcorder precisely. I often turn the body horizontal, at right angles to the upright camera, and press it to a wall with my left hand while operating the camera with my right.

For mounting cameras in odd places, lighting equipment companies like Lowel and Bogen offer threaded tripod bolts that can be clamped to light stands, century stands or pipes. Some Hollywood production companies have camera mounts with suction cup bases, for mounting on glass or smooth metal.

But that takes us into pretty esoteric territory, so let's double back toward cheap and simple ways to steady your camcorder.

• Digg This!
• del.icio.us
• Technorati
• StumbleUpon
• Reddit