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My wife gave me a video camera for Christmas and I have finally gotten around to playing with it. I've made several videos but absolutely refuse to show them!! I look like I am sailing at a 90 degree angle to the lake. I need to learn how to keep the camera steady. I have been just holding the camera but I am also moving around a lot to steer, haul in lines etc.

Michel, how do you keep your videos so even?

By the way, I went out today with boat speeds hovering at a terrifying 3.5 knots. When I looked at the video it seemed the boat was moving much faster. So, that's nice!!!

Well!... The stability with an handheld camera only really comes with practice. If you look at my older videos , you will notice that my stability was not as good then.

But I have a few guidelines that I follow:

- I film by taking short shots. 10 to 15 seconds are enough.

-I use fixed plans: I don't move the camera around and prefer to let the action move instead.

- If I decide to move the camera, I do it at the very end of a shot. I move slowly.

- I prefer to avoid using the zoom. I use it only if i really need to and prefer to zoom before activating the camera. The zoom greatly amplify the shaking.

That's about it. The rest of it is in your vision of what you want to show in your video. We all have our good and bad days in that area!

You should also study Dylan Winter's video. He is a master.

Thank you. First thing I am going to do is cut down on the length of time I am "filming". I did notice that I can keep the scene steady for 15 or 20 seconds at a time. It also keeps it more interesting. I fastened the camera to the mast once and that kept it steady but all I got was me twitching back and forth on the tiller.

lustyslogger wrote: all I got was me twitching back and forth on the tiller.

I think that all would like to see that!

free video stabilization software...

http://www.nchsoftware.com/videopad/

Slugger.
If that involved a bottle of wine that might indeed bring a smile. Youtube has all sorts of films with those ingredients.