There aren’t too many announcements that really get me excited anymore, but this is definitely one of them. Announced only a few hours ago by none other than Vincent Laforet himself, the MÅVI is a revolutionary approach to camera motion and stabilization. It is a handheld 3-axis digital stabilized camera gimbal that promises butter smooth handheld shots with fast setup all in a relatively small package.
Since this announcement has pretty much flooded the web, I won’t ramble on too much about it. You can read a lot more about the MÅVI on Vincent’s blog or on Freefly’s website.
MÅVI BTS from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.
MÅVI in Action (Quick Video) from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.
I wonder if this will affect the steadicam
If all they talk about is how a product will allow you to accomplish all your dream more than the mechanics of the product, it’s probably just hype and lifestyle marketing.
Plus, when they shake the camera in the second video;, it looks like the camera doesn’t moving an inch. yet the reflection in the lens moves a lot. I smell an image stabilizer program (like Mercalli or Red Giant) help every shot they showed. Aside from all that, I just didn’t like the way it looked, if the camera man (somehow) makes movement like that without using an image stabilizing program, he should never be allowed to touch another camera. Like, I’ve never seen a shot with the camera that low, without involve a talking rat.
This device stabilizes pan-tilt and horizon wobble, but in no way stabilizes camera POSITION in space, like a Steadicam does. As such, i have no idea why you could claim it’s a Steadicam replacement – it’s just not. Try doing a 30 minute walk-and-talk with this thing – it wouldn’t work – yet walk-and talk is a basic Steadicam staple.