Indie Equipment Review: Steadicam on a budget – the Atlas Camera Support System

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It has been far too long since I’ve posted a good product review and today I’m going to fix that with a doozy. Like every other low budget, indie or guerrilla filmmaker out there, one of the things I wish for every day of my life is a good, low budget option to a steadicam. Lacking that, I’m always looking for a way to make my handheld shots smoother and more manageable.

Unfortunately, up until now there really hasn’t been much out on the market. Options are either crappy hand made, no-gimbal “Poor man’s steadicam” units, horribly made knock-offs from India or paying an obscene amount of money for a true steadicam set-up. For me, none of those options were really options at all. Because of that, it always seemed like an affordable camera stabilizer was always going to be out of my reach as a low budget, guerrilla filmmaker.

Luckily, I’ve got some of the best readers on the Internet and I had my eyes opened to one of the most fantastic pieces of indie filmmaking equipment out there. The unit I’m talking about is a little thing called the Atlas Camera Support System (also known as the Atlas Camera Stabilizer and formerly the Indie Steadicam). Created by Michael Knowles (no relation to Harry), an indie filmmaker in his own right, the Atlas Camera Support is billed an affordable camera stabilizer that gives you the ability to shoot hand held for longer periods of time and get smoother shots. Full Story →