Hand-held camera

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Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a film and video technique in which a camera is literally held in the camera-operator's hands--as opposed to being placed on a tripod. (Cameras may also be placed on operators' shoulders or in braces on their chests.) The result is an image that is perceptibly shakier than that of a tripod-mounted camera. The use of hand-held cameras has polarized moviegoing audiences. One camp says it gives the image an added intimacy and allows them to feel as if they're inside the film's action. Others, however, say it robs the image of clarity and can even lead to physical feelings of nausea.

[edit] History

The hand-held camera was first used and experimented with in the years prior to 1927; when silent films were the norm. It wasn't until the late 1950s and early 1960s that the hand-held camera came back into widespread use starting with the French New Wave and with documentary filmmaking (Ascher, 237).