DIY Steadicam for you YouTubers

Hey guys and girls!

On my quest to become more tech savvy and improve the quality of sharing life experiences with others, I was looking for a nice new camcorder that's EZ to operate and edit videos from.  Not only that, but I wanted the videos to be of a higher quality that what I've been using.

I won't bore you with past attempts, because there are so many NEW choices out there today... and cheap.  I could buy 3 camcorders for just the cost of the one I already have (that sux).

I really like the new Kodak Zi8 full HD pocket camcorder.  It has a bunch of really cool features, but to sum it up, it's small, had no moving lens pieces, has a normal/macro slide switch right on top, shoots 1080p, 720p and another lower quality version and in different frame rates, has a nice LCD, and has a line input for an external microphone, but best of all it's only about $149 with free shipping on Amazon right now in black, blue, and a kind of reddish pink (if you can rock that one).  I like the blue personally.  If you look at the buying choices there's one for $141.19 from AllAbout Electronics but it's a few more for shipping and it's not worth it if you have to return it in my opinion.  Amazon makes you deal with the 3rd party, and that could be good or bad.  Amazon is always good.  Anyhoo... it does require a memory card, and a Transcend 16GB class 6 card (class 6 is faster than 4) is about $35.

http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Zi8-Poc...onics&qid=1256695811&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Mem...ckaging/dp/B001ECQVTM/ref=pd_cp_e_1

This is all good, but if you start to look around at test videos of ANY of these pocket camcorders, they all suffer from one thing... shakiness.  They don't have optical stabilization (the Zi8 is actually the first to have electronic image stabilization, but it doesn't seem to take the BIG shakes out), but that would jack up the price so we don't care about that... but there is a way to solve the shakiness... a steadicam!  Of the ones I see out there that work well... they are big and cost a lot.  The smaller one I found is only sold in the UK.  So in my quest to find a DIY project that was GOOD and CHEAP, I found one that fit the bill PERFECTLY!  

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/VY3ilWXPRK4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/VY3ilWXPRK4</a>
(watch this in HD)

http://www.protodojo.com/content/20.../mini-camera-stabilizer-flip-float/

If you guys get something out of this, great!  Otherwise I hope you can at least appreciate my efforts to smooooth out the jerky videos on YouTube

Thanks for the info Brett. Just bought the Zi8 about 2 weeks ago. Payed a little more than the posted prices though. I guess thats the way it goes these days.  I have made a few test movies and they really don't come out that bad. Just need to be focused on keeping a steady hand and sweep slow. Another thing that helps is doing image stabilization in processing. I can't speak for the software that comes with windows, but in iMovie on the Mac, you can run a stabilization process on the video to take out the jitter.

Another tip for the Zi8 is to update the firmware that was released earlier this month. The firmware fixes the zoom to make it smooth instead of choppy and fixes some audio issue which I didn't have. I think I saw the choppy zoom in one of McNickle's videos. McNickle, If you do have the Zi8 you can check out this link for more info on how to update the firmware. Makes a huge difference.

http://www.kodak.com/global/mul/ser...pq-path=15504&product=EKN036561

Hope this helps.

Thanks for enlightening me on this subject.... You learn something new every day....

Thanks for sharing...I know you will put something together... Can't wait to see it...

Cool idea.....

[DOES NOT]

That is awesome buddy!!! That would be sweet to make or if someeone made them and sold them!!!! I have a Sony Webie and its a little bigger than a pocket cam but its still small enough to fit into a pocket, it has standard video, 720p, & 1080p (my new videos are all in the 720p to still keep the editing time of the video short) and it also DOES NOT have a stabilization function. I got mine from bestbuy.com as its an on-line only product for like $180. Oh and it doesn't have an eye piece, it just has an LCD viewer and it takes ok closeup pix (I still use my old video cam for my closeup pix).

[DOES NOT]

That is awesome buddy!!! That would be sweet to make or if someeone made them and sold them!!!! I have a Sony Webie and its a little bigger than a pocket cam but its still small enough to fit into a pocket, it has standard video, 720p, & 1080p (my new videos are all in the 720p to still keep the editing time of the video short) and it also DOES NOT have a stabilization function. I got mine from bestbuy.com as its an on-line only product for like $180. Oh and it doesn't have an eye piece, it just has an LCD viewer and it takes ok closeup pix (I still use my old video cam for my closeup pix).

I bet the advantage of the Webie is that it has a large optical zoom   Everything lacks SOME feature that's nice though.

The price went back up to $176 and it was there for a long time... so I nabbed it thinking I could try to get a credit if it dropped again.  Well I haven't even gotten the camera yet and the price dropped $21.25 last night, down to $155.70 from amazon with free shipping.  I did get a credit also, but it was against Amazon's policy, so I consider it a one time thing.

Thought I would update and let you guys know the price is down again though.

LOL... I just checked its now $145.99 !!!!!

LOL... I just checked its now $145.99 !!!!!

Hahaha, hilarious.  Yeah, it's been around there for a while now.  Shortly after I posted the 155 price it dropped further to less than that even.  Amazon is wacky with their prices, but you can get a good deal if you keep checking their site.  Are you going to join the Zi8 ranks?  I got a little Sony plug in mic with mine as well... it works great and looks great too.  I'll post some videos when I get a chance to edit the clips together.