Hey all.
I've just shot some footage with the XL1s in 16:9 mode.
One of the shots I wanted to use was handheld using the manual lens. Needless to say, the image needs to be stabilized.

Have a look here (less than 200k)

http://www.fusionarena.com/forumpost/shaky.mov

Since it was shot in 16:9, I can't pan and scan or whatever because there is nothing to work with outside this frame.

Is there anything I could possibly do in After Effects or Premiere to solve this? Or photoshop? I was thinking I could create a bitmap of everything surrounding him, thus simulating like it was shot 4:3, then try to adjust from there.

Thanks for any advice. (and yes, I've learned my lesson: when in doubt, mount the manual lens on a tripod ;-) )

If it is a really short clip, you could use a still caputured from the original shot.
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Because your shot moves around a lot, perhaps you can do manual frame by frame stabilization in photoshop or whatever, and just use copied edge bits from other frames to reconstructively 'fill in' where you panned small sections out of frame.

This clip is of a non moving face so I say it would be easy slow mo the clip which will give the impression it was a more steady shot. It might blur it a bit but give it a try.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll try both those methods.

After Effects (PB version) does have an image stabilisation function. But it simply works by moving the anchor point of the frame, so that the edges get cut off and opposite edges are black. OK if you're still within the screen-safe limits and only outputting to TV. You could couple this with a still shot as recommended above, matting so that it fills in any black areas though.

I recall asking this question some time ago, and the answer I got (http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5625&highlight=steadyhand) led me to a piece of software called SteadyHand that specifically operates to remove camera shake from footage. Check it out!

either STEADYHAND or the motion stabilizer within Boris Red will suit your problem. My preference in these apps is to stabilize without cropping or zooming. as you remarked, since there is no video info outside of the image frame, this will result in changing black borders around the stabilized video. After importing this into your favorite NLE/compositor, you can then crop the images to eliminate the annoying black borders.

thanks guys!

That software looks cool, I'm downloading it now.

wow! That software works wonders. It really does clean up the shakiness, at the expense of a slight zoom in, but I can't really see the decrease in quality. Works for me!

Our pleasure, Brad.