Turn your phone into a movie camera
Steadicams are just the ticket for that Hollywood experience
BEACH, VENICE
CALIF. We would all love to have smoother, more cinematic video footage like we see in the movies. We can now get that on mobile devices, at consumer prices, with an add-on device called a steadicam.
This week, we look at three mobile steadicams (also known as smoothcams, stabilizers or grips), the devices that aim to turn jumpy cellphone and camera video into sweeping views by using motors that steady the shot.
We begin with the new kid on the block, the Smove. At $139, it’s the lowest priced of the bunch. The DJI Osmo ($550) started the trend and continued it in 2016 with the lower-priced Osmo Mobile ($299), offering smooth video from the Chinese-based drone maker. And the GoPro Karma Grip, originally intended as an accessory for the Karma drone, is now sold individually, for $299.
All bring the motorized gimbal used on drones to the camera or phone to steady the image. How does this work? Many drones have “three-axis” gimbals — three motors, to work at stabilizing the footage as it soars through the skies. Cheaper drones have twoaxis gimbals, and thus, are not as steady. The same metrics apply to land-based steadicams. SMOVE The Smove has the twoaxis gimbal, compared to the three-axis for Osmo and GoPro. This means your footage will still look better on the Smove than it would without it, but not as good as the Osmo or GoPro. The Smove just came out of crowd funding on the IndieGogo website, where it raised $1.4 million, and is shipping now. Reader alert: the getsmove.com website redirects to Indiegogo, where it appears to still be looking for backers. The company assures us this isn’t the case: Click the $139 option, and you’ll get a unit shipped to you. The company says it will set up its own website soon. Besides smooth video, other features include the ability to charge your phone while shooting video, which is cool, but buyer beware: The unit is no fun to set up, with instructions that are hard to follow and little online help as well. But if you’re short on cash, the price is a bargain. OSMO I’ve written about the Osmo units in the past, and love both of them, although I’m partial to the $550 version, which comes with its own, super wide-angle camera.
The Osmo Mobile records footage to the iPhone or select Android models. As good as those cameras are, the Osmo camera is better, at least for getting wideangle cinematic footage without camera shake.
The $550 model connects via DJI private Wi-Fi, which can be problematic in big crowds, or bluetooth for the $299 version. Battery life is poor — the juice can peter out in as little as 45 minutes, and you’re draining your smartphone battery too.
GOPRO KARMA GRIP If you own a GoPro Hero 5 or Hero 4 camera, this is the smoothcam for you. It will dramatically improve your standard GoPro fare by solving the problem any GoPro camera owner has discovered: Why is the footage so shaky? (GoPros can be placed on surfboards, motorcycle helmets and dog collars, but guess what — tools to eliminate the shakes weren’t included, until now.) And unlike the Smove or Osmo, you don’t have to connect to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to operate the unit.
To operate the Grip, place the Hero camera in the cradle, snap it tight and power it up on the bottom of the unit. This, in turn, charges both the grip and camera. Once charged, turn on the power button on the grip, click record, and have fun.
The negative here is that you get less real estate to compose your images as with the others. With the Smove and Osmo units, the phone is your viewfinder, good for 4 to 5.5 inches vs. the 2 inches for the Hero. And if you have a Hero 5, you’ll need to spring for a $29.99 adapter to fit the unit into the Karma grip.
Yet for the ease of not having to pair to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, oneclick power starts, longer-lasting battery and fabulous footage, the victor is the Karma Grip.
For the ease of not having to pair to Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, one-click power starts, longerlasting battery and fabulous footage, the victor is the Karma Grip.