Tech Tuesdays - Steadicam

Welcome to the all-new series, Tech Tuesdays, where I go over a popular piece of equipment used in film-making and tell you if it's worth the investment for your own videos. Today, we'll be looking at the Steadicam.

If you’ve ever tried shooting a video on your phone, you may have noticed that videos tend to be very shaky. People are constantly moving even when standing still—you can’t just not breathe, right?

A tripod does a terrific job at keeping shots steady, but that doesn’t help when you have to walk with your subject—not everyone wants their videos to look like Cloverfield.

Here enters the Steadicam.

Working a Steadicam can be great exercise as well.

The Steadicam, in essence, is a counterweight system designed to remove unwanted movement while filming. Products range from a stick with a handle all the way to a vest, mechanical arm, and two-handed gimbal system with counterweights for every degree of movement.

Image Source

Do you need a $3,000 Steadicam rig to film your make-up tutorials? No—at least I hope you don’t. But if you do a lot of videos that have movement, then a decent $100 Steadicam might be worth the investment. It all depends on what you want to shoot.

The problem with any piece of filming equipment is that they are tailored to doing one specific job. Many professional film-makers will actually have multiple Steadicams because some products are designed better for a specific shot than others.

That being said, if you’re a serious film-maker and want to take your films to the next level, the Steadicam is a great place to start.

If you had a Steadicam, what would you use it for? Also, be sure to check out No Film School, it's a terrific resource for learning about, tech, techniques, and logistics within the film industry.