Spring-based Components

The Nebula 4200 (left) and Flycam Galaxy Arm (right), pictures courtesy of cinema5D and Camerabag.

The spring-based components of the stabilisers in the market usually serve the purpose as the connector between the main stabiliser and the operator (see right). The “mechanical arms” in itself are free to move to a certain degree of freedom, while the springs averages out the impulses caused by the operator, hence results in a smoother, larger, movement of the stabiliser, not unlike that of a low-pass filter.

Fundamentally, it seems that using springs as a restoring force (like with car suspensions) is not usually used for camera stabilisation. This likely has to do with the degree of freedom involved: for cars, there is only one direction of movement that needs to be stabilised, while we need to stabilise the camera in every direction. Furthermore, rotational perturbations are more significant than translational perturbations for the camera, hence spring-based translational correction is not the priority in most stabilisation systems.

Gravitational Torque-based

The Redking Video Camera Stabilizer (left) and Bowens Comodo Orbit (right), pictures courtesy of Camerabag and ePHOTOzine.

The main stabilisation rig is usually some form of gravitational torque-based restoring mechanism. This can very simply be modelled as a pendulum.

Active Stabilisers

The DJI Ronin 2, picture courtesy of Digistore.