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It’s true, I’ll shamelessly promote something that I believe in.  (And yes, I wear blue in every video I’m in.)

Introducing the DSLR Gunstock Shooters from Zacuto USA, Steve Weiss on Vimeo.

Okay, so I didn’t say a whole lot in that video, but it was an honor to be included.  Last year, Nick and I received our first Canon EOS 5D Mark II in the mail (serial number 12, I think), and immediately headed in the city.  We pulled into a parking garage, grabbed some lunch, and walked around under the loop, shooting amazing HD video the entire time.  If it worked, we knew this camera would be a good fit for a handful of upcoming projects (including the Bono documentary “Only Love”).

But we could tell that the three axes of movement (as opposed to two on a typical videocamera) would create a challenge, so we dropped by to see Steve Weiss at Zacuto.  We wanted to rent some parts for a couple of days to try different combinations that could help stabilize the camera.  We went back to Zacuto every few days to try new parts & improve upon the rig.  In the meantime, Steve had picked up a 5DmkII of his own and was working on even more stabilization solutions that had provisions for a matte box & follow focus.

Although my “go-to” rig is the DSLR Sniper, the Gorilla line of gunstock shooters more closely resembles some of those creations we came up with in those first couple of weeks.  In fact, Nick dubbed one of our inventions “the lone gunman” which may have helped inspire some of the current names & branding.

Despite the fact that we had to figure out stabilization and audio recording from scratch (the two biggest DSLR challenges) it was cool being one of the first houses to integrate the DLSR into our workflow.  And for those of you who didn’t have to disconnect the lens to keep the f-stop from changing, well, I suppose that’s our version of “we had to walk 10 miles to school every day”.  I’m just thrilled that the market has adapted so rapidly and that there are so many experts, solutions & options available.