Steady Shot On or Off at DVinfo.net

Samuel Birkan · October 28th, 2004, 01:04 PM

I saw a thread on the VX2100 board that suggested turning steady shot off when using a tripod (steadycam also ?)
Can someone give some more info as to pro's and cons of doing this
Thanks

Boyd Ostroff · October 28th, 2004, 03:12 PM

The "collective wisdom" is to turn off steadyshot for tripod work. It can cause sudden jerks during a pan or tilt. However my experience is that there are a lot of variables to this equation, and you really need to experiment a little in your particular situation. I think activating steadyshot when you are zoomed out wide on a tripod is usually a bad idea - and not needed as well.

However, if you're zoomed all the way in to a telephoto shot then you very well may want to activate steadyshot. I have experimented with this a lot while filming performances at a distance of over 100' from the stage. In this situation steadyshot vastly improves things. It almost never creates a problem with panning or tilting in this situation, and it really smooths out any vibration or bumps during camera movement. In fact, a couple days ago I shot a whole performance with closeups using a 2x telephoto adaptor on my PDX-10. I was zoomed in to the max (24x equivalent) such that a singer's head and chest filled the whole frame. This type of shot would not have been usable without steadyshot - just BREATHING on the camera creates movement in a situation like this! The only times when I've seen a problem with steadyshot in this situation was during a very fast pan, and that's something I rarely do.

I occasionally use a Glidecam 2000 with my PDX-10. In this case I found that activating steadyshot created jerky movements that looked bad, and I liked the results better with it turned off.

So I would encourage you to try some experiments for yourself and learn what to expect from the optical image stabilization under different conditions.

October 28th, 2004, 01:04 PM	#1
Samuel Birkan Regular Crew Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Cincinnati Ohio Posts: 79	Steady Shot On or Off I saw a thread on the VX2100 board that suggested turning steady shot off when using a tripod (steadycam also ?) Can someone give some more info as to pro's and cons of doing this Thanks

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October 28th, 2004, 03:12 PM	#2
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,787	The "collective wisdom" is to turn off steadyshot for tripod work. It can cause sudden jerks during a pan or tilt. However my experience is that there are a lot of variables to this equation, and you really need to experiment a little in your particular situation. I think activating steadyshot when you are zoomed out wide on a tripod is usually a bad idea - and not needed as well. However, if you're zoomed all the way in to a telephoto shot then you very well may want to activate steadyshot. I have experimented with this a lot while filming performances at a distance of over 100' from the stage. In this situation steadyshot vastly improves things. It almost never creates a problem with panning or tilting in this situation, and it really smooths out any vibration or bumps during camera movement. In fact, a couple days ago I shot a whole performance with closeups using a 2x telephoto adaptor on my PDX-10. I was zoomed in to the max (24x equivalent) such that a singer's head and chest filled the whole frame. This type of shot would not have been usable without steadyshot - just BREATHING on the camera creates movement in a situation like this! The only times when I've seen a problem with steadyshot in this situation was during a very fast pan, and that's something I rarely do. I occasionally use a Glidecam 2000 with my PDX-10. In this case I found that activating steadyshot created jerky movements that looked bad, and I liked the results better with it turned off. So I would encourage you to try some experiments for yourself and learn what to expect from the optical image stabilization under different conditions.