prospective buyer seeking advice

[Henry Cho]

i've been shopping around for a reasonably priced camera stabilization solution for my xl1 and have perused this forum for the past three hours looking for a little assistance. With about a grand USD i'd like to spend, i'm not feeling very optimistic. As an aside, thank you to everyone for the bevy of information presented here.

initially, i was set on the glidecam 4000, but after a little reading (and the fact that i like my arm), the two combinations that entice me are the glidecam smooth shooter/glidecam 4000 kit and the varizoom dv sportster/flowpod package. throw in the lcd monitors, and i've already blown my budget by at least 2x.

with the kind of money i might spend, i'm starting to think the smarter solution would be to buy a used VX1000 or GL1, throw it on a glidecam 2000 (or flowpod), spend the money i save on a weekend trip to mexico, and call it a day. also, to be honest, i'm not thrilled at the prospect of throwing on a weighted vest every time i'm inclined to shoot something floaty

as you know, these kinds of thoughts tend to create more questions. how far down the rabbit hole do i want to go? is the gl1/glidecam 2000 still too heavy to be useful?

all that said, i would love to hear what your recommendations are for a good, lightweight, relatively inexpensive camera/hand-stabilizer combo.

thanks for your assistance.

[Mikko Wilson]

Getting one of those "tube" cameras like the GL or VX then you will definatly give you mroe options at the lower end as they are considerably lighter.

those cameras will also work well with a Steadicam JR, and the new Merlin (though that may be pushing your price a little by the sounds of the MSRP.


- Mikko.

[Dan Selakovich]

The GL isn't at all too heavy to be useful. I like that option with mexico. Keep in mind that these rigs take some practice, so you will naturally increase your strength. Personally, I think there is way too much emphasis put on the weight of a hand-held rig. While it can be nasty, it can also be overcome with 20 minutes a day of practice with the rig--practice you need to do anyway. In my book, I suggest getting a tai-chi video. The movements in tai-chi are great for developing work with a stabilizer. Have fun in Mexico!

Dan
www.DVcameraRigs.com

[Terry Thompson]

Having hand held a Glidecam 2000 and then moved over to a vest and arm arrangement...I really like the vest and arm system for several reasons.

1. The obvious one is length of shooting time is much, much longer that handheld.

2. Lower shots are usable and easier whereas handheld lower shots tend to have the handle hit the camera platform.

3. Static shots are much easier and better. I know, the reason for a stabilizer is not to take static shots but you would be supprised how many of them you will do in the course of shooting. Going from static to dynamic and back to static is also easier on you arm and whole body for that matter.

If you are shooting with a small camera and are taking short clips then you would be fine with the stabilizer alone but when you find out how good the video looks you will want to do more and more shots with a stabilization system. I just finished a two hour dance festival shoot using my Indicam rig and it was cake. The shots looked so good that it was hard to use video from the other three static cameras but they came in handy.

Tery