Helicopter crew filming spectators

Ted Szukalski

When we talk about photography often we are concerned with blur. Blur occurs if you or the subject of photography moves during the exposure. There are a number of techniques aimed at reducing the blur: increase the shutter speed, stabilise the camera on a tripod, buy a camera or lens with image stabilisation built in like the Canon EF IS lenses and so on. Seeing this camera man filming the crowds below from an open helicopter brings an interesting question: how do you keep images stable in a moving and vibrating helicopter? I would imagine just sitting in the open door like that presents a challenge of its own.



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Rhuarc

I don't know about hand holding, I would imagine that would be pretty rough looking. Most helicopters used for filming have dedicated camera pods that have video cameras mounted in them. THey are usually mounted on all manner of suppresion systems, have image stabilization built in, and are on 3 axis gyros. All that usually helps to eliminate the vibration from the image. Like I said though, I woudl imagine this guys video will be pretty choppy. Great capture though!!

LuckyBob

The human body's a fantastic vibration absorber - think about holding a cup of coffee in a moving car versus the in cup holder - you'd be much better at keeping it from spilling all over the place on a rough road than if it was in the cup holder. Even with smaller bumps/vibrations we can supress quite a bit of it. I'd bet that with a good IS lens and a "human" absorber, he'd do just fine.

Rhuarc

That cup holder isn't a computer controlled 3 axis gyro externally vibration supression mounted system though! Lol. While I'm sure that you are right about being able to do a decent job, have no doubt that the computerized system would do a better job, however, it is also LOTS of money!! Also, do they make IS lenses for video cameras? I've never seen these before.

colourbox

Rhuarc wrote:

Also, do they make IS lenses for video cameras?

You can definitely get IS in a video camera. The consumer Canon Elura I bought a few years ago has it. The cheaper cameras use electronic stabilization (which doesn't count) but mine has optical image stabilization. And it totally makes a difference with handheld telephoto shots.

GeorgeT

I suspect that this is a broadcast quality eng/efp camera and lens. Canon incorporates Shift-IS image stabilization into many of its lenses. This is good for low frequency shift such as you might expect sitting on a jumpseat of a copter. If he was shooting for a cine job you can expect him wearing a full gyro platform.George

Rhuarc

GeorgeT wrote:

I suspect that this is a broadcast quality eng/efp camera and lens. Canon incorporates Shift-IS image stabilization into many of its lenses. This is good for low frequency shift such as you might expect sitting on a jumpseat of a copter. If he was shooting for a cine job you can expect him wearing a full gyro platform.George

Interesting, you learn someting new every day!!