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Broken stabilizer reacquaints $70,000 camera with gravity

Broken stabilizer reacquaints $70,000 camera with gravity

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Pro tip: keep your hands on the demo equipment at all times

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One of the most important qualities of professionally shot video is smooth, stable footage. It's a simple idea that often requires what amounts to low-tech mech suits to execute, ones that cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars. That's what makes the video above so spectacularly horrifying. A momentary lapse of judgement and a mechanical failure are all that was necessary for this expensive stabilizer to fail at its one job: keeping the $70,000 camera it was supporting from smashing into pieces on the parking lot pavement.

The commenters (and the writer at PetaPixel, where we spotted this) seem split on what's more at fault here, the equipment or the man holding it, but it sure seems like no one is innocent. If this kind of breakage is possible, it's on the company to warn people, and to constantly remind them to be careful. Pro tip, though: it's probably a bad idea to dance while trying out really expensive equipment that isn't yours!

You had one job, stabilizer

Like all great viral videos, this one rewards repeat watchings — not just for the equipment carnage, but also for the reactions of the people in the background. There's the guy on the phone who lets out an "oh my god," a slew of passers-by who are clearly embarrassed by proxy, and the guy in the hat who actually seemed genuinely interested in the stabilizer until it snapped in two. The only shame is that the audio is terrible — a bit ironic, since this whole scene took place at a camera gear expo.

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