Deshaker

To use Gunnar Thalin’s Deshaker software you first need to get VirtualDub, a free video capture/processing utility for Windows. You see, Deshaker is a filter for VirtualDub. By using this filter you can remove camera shakiness from vides and you can make panning, rotation and zooming smoother.

To get started with VirtualDub and Deshaker, you won’t have to install anything, because neither of these applications have to be installed. To get started with VirtualDub, you must download an archive, extract its contents, and run the VirtualDub executable. To get started with Deshaker, you must add it to VirtualDub’s list of filters. You can do that from within VirtualDub, by going to Video -> Filters -> Add -> Load. Or better yet, you can just copy & paste Deshaker to VirtualDub’s Plugins folder.

Deshaker being a filter and all, doesn’t have an actual interface. Just a configuration dialog that’s split into Pass 1 and Pass 2, and lets you access a lot of settings that govern how Deshaker does its job. A long and detailed presentation of all these settings is available on Deshaker’s official website here. I advise you to visit the page if you want a detailed look at all of Deshaker’s settings.

How do you use Deshaker? The quick answer is this: open a video file in VirtualDub -> add the Deshaker filter -> select the correct "Source pixel aspect" and "Video type" from Deshaker’s configuration dialog -> go over the video -> select "Pass 2" from Deshaker’s configuration dialog -> pick a video codec and encode your video.

Deshaker is offered for the great price of free. As Gunnar Thalin put it, "if you feel like giving me a little something for my efforts…" then consider making a donation to support the project.

If you have a shaky video that’s not very smooth, use VirtualDub and Deshaker to remove the camera shakiness and stabilize panning, rotation and zooming. Both applications are free and fairly easy to use.