The new generation of lightweight digital cameras has greatly expanded opportunities for young people to try their hand at being filmmakers, but the results are sometimes unsatisfactory. Handheld cameras can be sensitive, every slightest movement resulting in jittery shaking on the screen. There are many options for Steadicam-type systems, but most of them are extremely complicated and expensive, often out of reach for the would-be director on a budget. Photographer/camera operator Stephen J. Payne has come up with a simple, elegant, and above all, affordable solution, which he calls “The Pstick.”
Payne built the prototype in order to shoot a project, and soon found that other camera operators wanted their own, so he began making them to order, refining the design each time. Finally he decided to manufacture them for public sale; he put up a website and started a fundraising campaign on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo.
The simplest camera stabilizer in the world.
The Pstick has no moving parts, using basic principles of physics to stabilize any camera. As Payne explains, “big cameras give you a steady shot because they have mass, but small cameras don’t. You could solve this by strapping a 20lb brick to your DSLR, but that would look silly.” Instead, Payne’s device suspends a weight at the bottom of a monopod, adding mass and lowering the center of gravity of the camera. By adding internal weights at the far ends of the crossbar, additional stability in other directions is added. It’s a simple and elegant solution. The device is simple enough for anyone with basic skills to make, but as Payne says, “why would you, when mine is so inexpensive?”
The Pstick, with its $65 price tag, is an ideal addition to any young filmmaker or photographer’s gear bag. Sponsors on Kickstarter can get them for as low as $45.
