Camera Support - Video Basics

by Allen Kingsbury & Jarret Brown

How you hold your camera can make a big difference in how your video looks to your audience. Shaky Cam—rough hand held camera movement—is widely used in film making to give a film a documentary or real life feel.

Tripods
Compare these two examples. The first is hand-held; the other is on a tripod. Which would you rather look at? Modern cameras do have built-in image stabilization. So you may be able to hand hold a camera with adequate stability. However, if you can, a tripod will always give you better results.

The same shot this time using a tripod.

Note: When you zoom in with a handheld camera, the image stabilization doesn't work as well.

Remember, a level camera is very important.

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