If you’ve not been following Shane Hurlbut’s blog on his and the Bandito Brothers use of Canon DSLRs for video, well you should be. They’ve been pushing the limits of DSLR filmmaking, applying their professional tools and knowledge to these very imperfect, but oh-so-tasty visual tools.

In Shane’s latest post, he talks about why he doesn’t like to add gyro stabilizers to his handheld HDSLR rigs. If you’ve never shot with a gyro before, it’s a small grenade shaped device that attaches to your rods and restricts jiggles and fast movement. They come in larger sizes as well. It can be an issue for whip pans, and Shane makes the case that it’s simply not necessary on these type of rigs (unless you are filming from a helicopter, etc).

This is not to slam gryos…they have their place in filmmaking. I’ve used gyros before for air-to-air shooting, and they are an invaluable tool in that application. They are also pretty reasonable to rent…around $150/day for a small camcorder gyro at places like Abel Cine.