Stabiliser for 60D

[omar]

I need a stabiliser for my 60D

On eBay and Amazon I can get one for £70 say (at the cheaper end)
No idea how good these are

Or... should I make one myself...?
YouTube has zillions of videos showing people making their own

Thanks


Omar

 

[sjschall]

Do you mean like a glidecam, for moving shots? I'd look for a used one from a good brand, but I have heard of people getting good shots with homemade systems. I think the best results will come from a Glidecam (2000 or 4000 series) or like a steadicam Merlin. You can find any of those for around $300-$500 used, at least here in the US.

 

[paul13walnut5]

I use and so can only speak for this:

http://www.haguecamerasupports.com/products/steadicam_stabilizers/hcs_camera_stabilizer.shtml

Works well with EOS 600D & Tokina 11-16 f2.8.

For run and gun stuff I also use this:

http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/cvp_shoulder_mount (I also wrote the review here)

For more static or longer lens stuff I ALSO use this, ball foot is smooth enough for short pans and where a tripod would have too large a foot print, a monopod also lets you elevate the camera, say over a crowd:

http://www.manfrotto.com/fluid-video-monopod-with-head

I used to use a fig-rig, the only occassions I'll still use it if I'm I'm recording kids or small animals and I want to have the camera at their level without me having to crawl on my belly. It's a bit front heavy for long sequences, but with the right technique, in some situations, can work as well as a sabiliser.

 

[Kristofgss]

I've been experimenting with the steadicam after getting fed up with the way my shots looked and I must say that it's very nice and easy to balance, despite a lot of reviews saying that it's horribly hard to do, but the fact that it has so little friction means that any movement, once induced, will not stop, so it takes planning ahead if you want to make sure your panning moves work out. It does take a lot of practice, but you immediately see the result.
A friend of mine has a longboard for skateboarding, so the next experiment is to combine these two by having somebody on the longboard with the steadicam getting pushed by a second person.
I was thinking about the cheaper options as well, but so far, every time I bought some cheap copy of something I really liked, I ended up regretting it, so when the merlin was on promotion, I just got it and played around with it; It's also nice that you can use it in really crowded places without getting in the way.

 

[Meatball_Sub]

I have something similar to the steadicam people are talking about (specifically, http://opteka.com/svexmkii.aspx). I got it because it was pretty cheap and I needed something that was better than nothing. That's basically what I got. I find this thing hard to balance just right (I have a T4i and I switch between a small Canon 50 1.4 and a large Samyang 35 1.4, so swapping between these two very different lenses is especially burdensome), and I find that sometimes even if I align it right the bottom part will loosen and slip, causing balance to randomly reset. If you can get it set, you can get shots that are smoother than what is probably possible with bare hands, but even then they aren't mind-blowing in any way.

It could be that I just haven't mastered this device yet. That being said, I would look further than what I got if I were in your shoes.