added 8 December 2001

 

The DV Caddie Camera Support
by Tom Callaway

Tom Callaway is a cinematographer in the Los Angeles area.

Problem #1: You pick up the Canon XL1 and start shooting hand-held but within the hour your arm is cramped and your hand is numb.

Problem #2: You have a camera without a shoulder mount and even with the image stabilizer on, when you zoom in things get shaky.

The Answer: Well there are a lot of them, but the one I chose came in the form of a DV Caddie.

The Caddie is designed to support the weight of the camera while still allowing full mobility. Unlike the shoulder mounts that typically add weight to balance out the front heavy XL1, the Caddie uses a guitar style strap slung over your left shoulder to take up most of the weight of the camera and give you a rather neutrally balanced platform to work off of. This also means that you don't have to rest the camera on your shoulder, so it also works well for smaller cameras with a flip-out screen. The strap is adjustable so it easy to find a comfortable fit. I was a little worried that the bottom would dig into my side, but I've got mine set up so it rests just in front of my right hipbone and rarely notice it while shooting, though some padding might be nice.

Out of the box, the Caddie is a little hard to control. The "float," as it's referred to in the literature, takes some getting used to. It's got two parallel bars that keep the camera from wanting to dutch, though you still can if you want to. It also has a pan and tilt built pretty much in line with your wrist so that after a little practice I got some fluid moves without strain on my right arm or wrist. All these features had a way to lock them off, which I found helpful in many cases.

The camera attaches via a thumbscrew, but taking it on and off quickly is a bit of a pain. You'll find it easier just to leave the camera attached and slip the whole rig off over you head since there's also no easy way to unhook the strap. By the second time I used it, I'd added a Bogen quick release so I could go quickly to and from my tripod when needed. Without the camera on, the Caddie slips on and off much easier and is so light that I sometimes left it on and just let it dangle at my side.

Made mostly of anodized aluminum, it's rated to support cameras up to 25 pounds, so no worries about it disintegrating on you. My next test will be to see if the Caddie can support my 35mm Eymo, we'll see. Probably the best thing about the Caddie is its versatility. When I locked it off, I got steadier shots, when I didn't I got fluid movements without my arm falling off. I also tried some of the tricks they show you on the web site -- locking it off and using it as a handle while walking, setting it on the ground and positioning it up for low angle shots, etc. -- and it yielded some nice shots with virtually no set-up time.

Sure, it's no Steadicam. But it did seem to help smooth out shots when I was moving, especially on wide lenses, just not to the degree that something gimbaled can. The Caddie is, however, much less conspicuous than wearing a vest and sprung-loaded arm and much less strenuous than trying to hold up any of the gimbaled devices by hand or carrying around extra weight as a counterbalance.

While not a do-all, it's an excellent addition to my arsenal of camera support equipment that makes shooting with smaller cameras such a joy. Priced right around $200, there's nothing else like it out there.