8 part series
By Lorraine Grula
Internet Video Gal

PART 3
USEFUL CAMCORDER FEATURES – IMAGE STABILIZATION

Today’s video camcorders have bells and whistles that make video junkies like me drool.  Seriously. 

With technological advancements that make top-quality virtually guaranteed, today’s video camcorders are tiny marvels that get good video even in difficult situations.

One of the biggest video mistakes is CAMERA SHAKINESS.   Earthquake video I call it. 

The best way to stabilize earthquake video, of course, is to use a tripod.  Since that’s not always possible or practical, they invented image stabilization.   It can be a great feature, but not necessarily. 

Image Stabilization (IS) – Image Stabilization is a technology that’s now ubiquitous with camcorders because it helps the average Joe get a better shot.  The name is self-evident.   A stable image is a good image.  

Image stabilization reduces the blurry video that you frequently get in low light, when using a zoom lens, or while bouncing along the beach in a dune buggy.   (Sony camcorders call their image stabilization SteadyShot).

This feature tries to compensate for any movement of the camera to give you sharper images.  It’s a very valuable and useful option but in cheap models it often doesn’t work too well. 

As with all things photographic, optical stabilization is considerably better than digital stabilization.   More expensive too. 

This is one feature that changes considerable as you go up in price.  The image stabilization feature on a cheap camcorder can be next to worthless, but that $100,000 HD camera can get a steady shot out of a chopper in a rainstorm. 

Pick whatever your budget allows, but always remember that you can get good, steady video without any image stabilization at all…outside of a tripod. 

Related posts:

1. VIDEO CAMCORDER BASICS Part 2
2. VIDEO CAMCORDER BASICS Part 1
3. How to Simplify Video Production Part 3
4. How to Simplify Video Production Part 5
5. Video Equipment-The Camcorder