Anybody who has used a video camera knows that too much movement can make even the toughest viewer to get a headache and thanks to stabilization technology, this has become less and less of a problem with today’s digital video camera’s. If you were to peel away all the plastic casings and other parts, you will come upon the CCD detector or the image capturing part of your camera, you’ll find that it is enclosed within a metal frame with the detector itself mounted on voice-coils (magnetic coils that move up and down or left to right).
This is the part of the camera that allows the detector to sense movement and by telling the voice coils the camera is moving in this direction, it counteracts this by moving in the opposite direction making for a stable picture without the jarring and movement of older cameras. Called steady cam technology, the detector moves in all directions to compensate for the movement of your hand during a moving shot making it as stable as it could. The technology is as easy as setting or turning it on and leaving the rest to the microprocessor to stabilize your shot. This however has it’s limits for the camera’s size limits the amount of movement the detector can do, so a good tripod is still your best weapon against vertigo. Or if you are finding it too bulky, a monopod (a tripod without two legs) can serve the same purpose, minimizing movement for nice, crisp shots.