This is a very interesting video that explains several techniques for image stabilization on your still camera or camcorder. They are all very inexpensive and their effectiveness varies.

The water bottle technique would be best if you are on the go (walking) but if you’re doing stationary shots, the string technique would best. Enjoy!

Here is another DIY camera stabilization solution that is a bit more involved.  It is a very inexpensive version of the Glidecam 2000, which is what we use for X7 Media for our videos using our Canon GL2 camcorder.

Earlier this year when I had my Motorola Q I posted this entry about how to disable the shutter sound of that phone. Now that I have the iPhone, I was trying to figure out how to do the same thing since the shutter sound effect is loud and annoying.

As long as you have iBrickr (Win) or Breezy (Mac) it’s very easy. Just install the Mobile Finder app through the Installer.app. The Finder app allows you to browse all of the folders and files on your iPhone, just like you can do on your Mac or PC.

The solution is to find the offending sound file and rename it so when the iPhone’s OS looks for the file it can’t find it. It still takes the picture without failure.

Before you continue, note that using any 3rd party app or modifying any system file can cause problems with your iPhone, so if you bust your phone while messing around with it, don’t go crying at me. Just restore your iPhone using the restore feature in iTunes if you screw something up.

Navigate to the folder /System/Library/Audio/UISounds. There you will find all of your system’s user interface sound files. Scroll down to the “photoShutter.caf” file and double-tap it to view its file properties. Now tap once on the Filename, then rename it to something else. I renamed mine to “photoShutter-old.caf”.

Now exit the Mobile Finder.app and take a picture. Now sound will be heard!

Now before you ask, I do not know how to change these sound files to something else, but if you know, please post a comment!