Video: iPhone 3GS gets professional shoulder mount, we giggle

So, the first time we watched this Macbreak video, we thought to ourselves, "now, this is downright silly" but the second time? Well... we probably won't be investing $300 in a pro Red Rocks Micro shoulder mount for any iPhone 3GSs anytime soon, but the video does demonstrate what we all already knew: if you stabilize an even decent mobile phone cam, the results are better than if you don't. Insane? Surely. Hit the second read link for the video.

[Via Wired]

Read - Video on the iPhone 3GS: How Far is Too Far?
Read - Video of iPhone 3GS with shoulder mount

[Luke @ Jun 25th 2009 1:21AM]

Umm....

[Quix @ Jun 25th 2009 1:34AM]

Someone please tell the Winbots that are fawning all over MS in the Zune HD story (YOU SWIPE TO CONTROL IT! THE INNOVATION IS ASTOUNDING!!!) that there's a new Apple story up - they need to get on over here and make crude comments about Steve Jobs and rage about fanboys and such.

Quickly now!

[Wes @ Jun 25th 2009 1:37AM]

I'm thinking the same thing as you Luke. Umm...is that the annoying guy from Cloverfield who never puts the camera down even in face of certain doom and is all the rage at parties?

[panid @ Jun 25th 2009 1:37AM]

these are the guys that feed the trolls...

[basroil @ Jun 25th 2009 1:50AM]

@panid, my thoughts exactly

@luke, my thoughts exactly

Some people have too much free time/money... Only thing good enough to need this type of rig is an SLR or maybe a very high end point and shoot (or most $400+ consumer camcorders), putting it on a phone is pointless. Now, using your iphone as a touchscreen remote/viewfinder for a decent camera (especially slrs), that would be something.

[Look_Around_You @ Jun 25th 2009 2:06AM]

@Quix.

Wow, you Apple fanatics are so pathetic now that you need to pre-troll a story in order to try to cover for how silly some of this stuff is.

[Gus @ Jun 25th 2009 2:58AM]

obvious troll is obvious

i still don't understand why people like Look_Around_You are spending so much time trying to undo the trolling and pointing it out to others... it's funny the first few times watching these trolls getting pwn3d by u guys, but it's now getting tiresome

if you guys just leave these trolls alone, they'll die on their own without the feeding. you guys are just seemingly feeding the fire... i'm not sure if you guys are doing it on purpose (just like these trolls starting the flame on purpose) or you guys are just plain stupid and can't recognise what they're doing...

[WhyohWhy @ Jun 25th 2009 3:28AM]

Leave it to Apple to do the best.

Now that is creative. :)


Watch as M$ tries to copy this for their Zune HD... Opps, oh, the Zune HD has no Camera.

Well, M$ fanboys will need to wait until Zune HDX-554 is out.

[tm23 @ Jun 25th 2009 5:02AM]

Yeah it's overkill.

As a filmmaker I can say that the crazy thing is though the iphone will be shooting 720p video (the ARM processor in already has the capacity to do this)by June next year and 1080p in 2011 or 2012 - people will be making feature films on mobile phones very shortly. By 2015 phones will have 2K resolution video as a pretty standard feature AND the footage will be amazing off them.

[loocas @ Jun 25th 2009 8:36AM]

@ tm23

Yes, but even with 8K footage coming from iPhone, it'll never EVER match the quality and DOF as it's simply just too small. Not even trying to mention colors, light response etc... But hey, I've seen some amazing footage shot on very low end electronics, so who knows?

Don't show Peter Jackson though...

[OneLove @ Jun 25th 2009 10:10AM]

That guy was very annoying

[Tsing Tao @ Jun 25th 2009 12:21PM]

@Gus Umm you do realize that Look is the ultimate troll right? Seen an apple article that he hasn’t posted negatively in lately? Nope didn’t think so. Obviously Quix IS a moron though.

[David Castro @ Jun 25th 2009 3:42PM]

awww !!

look at this

http://blogs.nokia.com/nseries/index.php/2009/06/25/noisettes-shoot-latest-video-on-the-nokia-n95-8gb-and-5800/

[bryanapa @ Jun 25th 2009 1:23AM]

Leave it to Alex. I'm surprised that didn't cost 2k :)

[CL @ Jun 25th 2009 1:56AM]

You mean 3 Alexes? :-p

[Fernando @ Jun 25th 2009 1:26AM]

FAIL

[Quix @ Jun 25th 2009 1:35AM]

Yes Fernando, you usually do.

[ash chapman @ Jun 25th 2009 4:05AM]

The iPhone 3GS retainer add-on. Never lose your phone or retainer again as they are fused together in this summer's tech hit wardrobe accessory must-have. Double-handles will allow you to hold on tight during bumpy station wagon rides to the local dentist or during one of the many ass-kickings you'll become accustomed to receiving.

[GeeTek @ Jun 25th 2009 1:27AM]

why??

[darkmax @ Jun 25th 2009 1:27AM]

Gosh.... isn't this going too far for a 3mpx camera with no optical zoom..

[LondonConsultant @ Jun 25th 2009 2:47AM]

What is the relevance of the 3MP resolution of the still camera? This rig is for video, which is VGA resolution.

[JoshSpazJosh @ Jun 25th 2009 1:30AM]

Alex Lindsay FTW as far as I'm concerned. Wow!

[erik1080 @ Jun 25th 2009 2:04AM]

I was thinking more along the lines of WTF.

[Jude @ Jun 25th 2009 1:36AM]

wow, thats pretty lame.

[Einhanderkiller @ Jun 25th 2009 1:36AM]

Not enough shoulder-mounted 3GS video.

[pbase @ Jun 25th 2009 1:37AM]

It almost resembles a transformer…

[jpg @ Jun 25th 2009 11:36AM]

looks more like johnny 5

[Wes @ Jun 25th 2009 1:37AM]

Now, do they make this for the new Nikon and Canon cameras that shoot fairly good quality 1080p videos?

[Nick @ Jun 25th 2009 1:43AM]

Yes.

http://www.redrockmicro.com/dslr/

[Shyam D @ Jun 25th 2009 1:48AM]

Yes, but you can't afford them.

[Nick @ Jun 25th 2009 1:54AM]

If you really need a shoulder rig to shoot video with your D-SLR, then you're probably making money off of that video and the shoulder rig is a justifiable business expense. Of course, they're still overpriced.

[va jj @ Jun 25th 2009 1:37AM]

virtual boy?

[atomicmatt @ Jun 25th 2009 1:39AM]

It still seems a little shaky for me considering you have a crap load of hardware attached. I think they missed the point on the convenient thing. If I had a case to carry all of that equipment attached to the iphone, then I would also have the pro. camera to go along with it. Unless they can make it so it is like go go gadget iphone rig, then I will pass.

[acniehaus04 @ Jun 25th 2009 1:42AM]

Wow... thats just... wow...

[noirnoir @ Jun 25th 2009 1:47AM]

If they weren't concerned about size they should have made it bigger

[Mark @ Jun 25th 2009 1:47AM]

Worst thing is that he seems to believe the phone is the first to be able to upload to youtube while on the phone. Considering how many phones can do that already the number of Iphones will fail in comparison to all the phones that currently allow this.

[McPOW @ Jun 25th 2009 2:02AM]

No no, its on THE iPhone, therefore, Apple invented it. QED.

[Chris Dunning @ Jun 25th 2009 1:47AM]

Apparently there are a number of you who take things far to seriously. It's a joke people. Obviously they have a very nice camera already, but every gadget nerd loves to actually PLAY with their gadgets, right? I don't think he means that any serious pro videographer is going to be trying this out. They did it for fun.

[lordmorgul @ Jun 25th 2009 3:32AM]

Stress and envy do that to normally functioning individuals.

[Michael @ Jun 25th 2009 9:18AM]

Thank you for being the first rational person to point that out here. I'm starting to get sick of the kind of comments I see on Engadget, digg and sites like it. People are way too cynical these days, they can't seem to realize that sometimes gadget geeks just do outrageous things for sh*ts and giggles.

[Tsing Tao @ Jun 25th 2009 12:24PM]

Exactly. When i was working for a wireless ISP in fort worth, we had a LAN party at the park like a picnic. Everyone came out with their computers, i tapped into the wireless and we BBQ'd and played MOHAA and COD2 until the generators ran out of gas. We could have just had the lan party in a spot that you know, had power and Internet, but that’s not as much fun.

[VanillaSpice @ Jun 25th 2009 9:54PM]

They're not 'taking things far too seriously', they're just doing their usual anti-Apple trolling, that they do on every single article (Apple-related or not).

The immature Apple-bashing has been going on now for more than a year, it keeps on getting worse and worse as the bad (Saad Rabia) give way to the terrible (Look_Around_You).

Engadget have never looked like they're going to do anything about it ... but they'll try to "protect" the MS crowd - I remember seeing a 'please Apple fans, don't troll' message on a MS launch article that was never reciprocated on any Apple article, despite the hysteria, slander and outright personal attacks that the anti-Apple trolls engage in.

[Shiz @ Jun 25th 2009 2:03AM]

I'm going to stick with "Umm....."

[aaron @ Jun 25th 2009 2:04AM]

I heard Transformers 3 is going to be shot this way. Makes a way better crash cam than a $30,000+ film camera.

[mc-fizzle @ Jun 25th 2009 10:32AM]

lol wouldn't be much worse than part 2 according to the reviews.

[KeegdnaB @ Jun 25th 2009 2:04AM]

That would be a joke even if it was made for a phone that actually has a good camera

[mikethevee @ Jun 25th 2009 2:12AM]

roflmao. 'nuff said.

[Solaro44 @ Jun 25th 2009 2:25AM]

Kudos to Chris Dunning.. these guys are just having fun with their new toy.. this is obviously not meant to be taken very seriously... LIGHTEN UP PEOPLE! don't be a hater.

[gerbick @ Jun 25th 2009 2:29AM]

Overkill.

[Mike V @ Jun 25th 2009 2:32AM]

Stuff like this gets done all the time for commercials or feature films.

The director wants a particular look for a particular shot.
To get it you need to shoot on a handicam or a mobile phone or whatever crappy camera is suitable.

Except even though you want a crappy image, you still need it smooth or in focus or whatever, so you need to add normal accessories to it, like you would a big camera.

Whole music videos have been shot on mobile phones.

I'm not aware of any feature films that have been shot on mobile phones, but several features have been shot on Fisher Price Pixelvision toy cameras for example.