What is it for?
As we mentioned a moment ago, a camera stabilization system serves, essentially, to follow the characters. In different ways but that's their mission. It's weird for a manager to ask his operator to do something different than that. In addition, the nature of the images achieved by this resource always suggests the execution of movements in pursuit. Sometimes very fast with the help of other resources such as a motor vehicle, others very slow, but always images that demand the camera to follow behind the protagonists of the action.
This is achieved with a camera stabilizer to achieve possibilities different from those found with a dolly, a crane or a car grip. Together with other technology solutions that have been developed in order to integrate the motion versatility of the stabilizer with other production tools, such as helicopters, robotic heads, etc., camera stabilization systems offer infinite alternatives for realization.
A stabilizer allows you to follow a character at eye level or at chopped or counter-chopped angles that can also be varied during execution. The camera on this equipment can assume the point of view of a child, an adult or a pet. But you can also follow them or let yourself be followed by them. You can go up or down stairs in the company of the characters, make 360-degree turns, get closer and farther away from them as much as the production demands. It offers ample possibilities to create movements that otherwise would not be possible to perform.
What are the options that exist?
First of all, we must affirm that Steadicam is still the king of this type of systems. However, thanks to ingenuity and the very needs of realization, some operators have been creating improvements and solutions that have made their evolution faster. This has triggered the manufacture of many alternatives that are distinguished from each other by their design concepts, use of materials and of course, their price.
Steadicam offers 8 different models that vary depending on the load capacity, its configuration and the accessories it includes. Glidecam offers 7 models within which are some for small cameras for home use and others with the option of rotating stabilizers. Hollywood Lite also offers some models for this type of cameras. The prices presented in the table are list prices advertised by the manufacturers. Those values may vary at the time of purchase by distributor and do not include tax, handling, and shipping costs. In addition, in some cases the value represents the cost of the basic configuration that usually does not include batteries, mounting systems for batteries and some accessories such as cables, carrying cases, video transmitters, motors for focus, iris or zoom control, rotary stabilizers, frame generators or options for mounting in car mount vehicle or for low mode use . Some models do not include the video monitor within the basic settings.
