Stabilizing Your Camera Motion

Since the dawn of movies, stabilization equipment has been used on most sets around the world. As cameras became lighter and sound techniques were mastered, the camera became more or less free to move in any direction; it can now be attached to almost anything. This freedom has ushered in a popular visual style in recent history where a camera is simply handheld and the subtle shake and drift of the camera add to the visual storytelling. If you have worked with a video or film camera before and are used to handholding your camera, it will not work with a DSLR camera without some sort of stabilization rig.

You probably have heard that DSLR cameras are susceptible to what is called rolling shutter or the Jell-O effect. This effect is unique to any camera with a CMOS (which stands for complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) sensor and is particularly a problem in DSLR cameras. We will address these issues more in Chapter 9, “Troubleshooting.”