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Portable support systems
I am a semi-decent still photographer who has been roped into doing a series of 1 minute satirical videos that need to be decent. I shoot with Canon Equipment and recently bought a 7D as a backup body and intend to use it for this project. However, shooting video is way different from shooting stills and I am a bit confused about the following.
When and why does one use a shoulder mount such as;
Versus using a Steadicam such as;
Thanks, I’ll try not to ask too many totally stupid questions as this project progresses. 🙂
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3 Replies
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Shoulder mounts are for when you want to be very mobile but not necessarily constantly moving while filming. For instance, you might be filming a sports event from the sidelines where it would be slow and inconvenient to be constantly moving your and resetting up your traditional tripod.
Steadicams are all about moving while filming, you are moving, following the action – giving you that “camera is flying through the air” feeling. By the way, Steadicams take a good while to master, it’s not something you can be great at using in only a day.
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Steve Crow
Executive Producer/Founder
Crow Digital Media
Palo Alto, CA
Steve@CrowDigitalMedia.com
https://www.CrowDigitalMedia.com
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It takes hours of practice to get good looking steadicam shoots. And hours I mean hundreds, not just an afternoon.
A good steadicam op gets around $1200/day (not including his rig rental which is $500/day) and they are worth every cent. Of course this is for major shoots that have the budget.
All this to say that for good steadicam shoots you have to access to the rig and put the time into it. For these smaller cameras there are good starter rigs and they give you a better job.
Easiest way to get a steady shot in motion is a dolly or slider.
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Thank you both for your input, it really helps clarify things. I’ll stick with picking up a decent shoulder rig for now as we are going to be able to do a lot of the shooting from a tripod. Any suggestions on shoulder rigs for $2K or less would be appreciated.
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