OK, this is probably something I should have guessed, but is there a certain type of sled that has a method to run wires down to the bottom?

Basically I need the camera on top and possibly a led light, that light has a very heavy battery that can be wired down, also I need to connect a firestore which is rather heavy, it would be great to have the firestore and battery mounted on the bottom plate, but it seems that makes the camera near impossibly to balance since a wire runs around the arm from top to bottom, kind of applying some resistance on smooth turns and pans.

So is there a sled that has wire routing down somehow? I have seen setups with monitors and such below so they must be wired as well? It should be for 10-15lbs at least I guess.

Thanks.

Many rigs are wired internally, and many have space inside the post for custom cables. Check with the manufacturer of any paticular rig about the possibilty of pulling your own wires through the post. I'm sure Terry will answer about Ind!cam himself shortly...


If you can't get cables down through the sled, the nest best thing is to pull them down from the front of the stage to the top of the monitor (or front of the lower section of the sled if you don't have a monitor) This keeps the cables nicly out of the way - as you never block the lens during a shot anyway.

- Mikko

I have seen some that have a wiring system in place to mount them through a box at top and they pop out at the bottom.

Hows it balancing with all the weight?

terry is away on vacation this week, so I did not want to bother him, I can wait till next week when hes back to ask certain things, just figured I would get some advice from what others are doing, thanks for the info, I am looking into potential options for a sled with an internal setup for wiring because I would like two wires at least be it firestore and LED or soon a screen and firestore combo to be mounted at the bottom. I have the firestore mounted at the bottom and the wire running down now but it seems to through it off once it starts to rotate in either direction since it will always exert some type of resistance to movement.

The setup XHA1 LED light Sony large LED with large sony battery large canon battery in place, firestore with normal battery all mounted is a pretty heavy device I could not imagine handholding it at all reall and getting anything usable, with the double upgraded arm its amazingly easy to keep steady, just the sled is not balanced perfect with the wire running. Still the video running around the house and backyard is amazing, I thought it would be much harder than it is seeming to be and I am only just starting (this is not doing anything fancy just yet, only straight walking and slow turns around)


Stephen Eastwood
http://www.StephenEastwood.com

Thanks Mikko for your help.

================

Stephen,

We're back for the week long shoot in Lake Tahoe and Reno NV (Hot August Nights car show) and are just getting to emails and posts.

We have run a video cable inside the post by drilling a hole just below the camera stage and another one just above the bottom plate. It can be tricky as the cable has to be long enough to allow for the post extension (if needed) and one end has to be soldered (or connected) after it comes out of the post.

We're attaching a couple of pictures of the set up we did just to show you.

Tery
Indicam

Any ready to purchase sled options out there I am not sure I want to cut a firewire and than trust it to be drop free afterwards, and looking at them it would have to be a very big hole to fit it through without cutting off the tip and reconnection.

Stephen:

Having external cables run from top to bottom of the rig doesn't cause any issues with balance or influence on operation, it's only when they run from the rig to something off the rig (arm, vest, shoulder, outboard monitor etc). If you have them dressed nice and tightly so they don't flop around, they won't cause you any issues as long as you don't snag them on something! My first rig didn't have internal cabling and I worked for years with a mass of cables on the outside. You can't spin balance this way but for most shots it is no problem.

So now that I keep getting emails from this guy, I see that his sled may offer an internal wire system, anyone know if the gimbal is a good one or if the sled is good for a load of about 18lbs spread top and bottom?


http://www.fsprostab.com/english/components/gimbal_head.htm

he does not sell the sled separately so it does not matter,

in any event maybe its the way I have the wires set up, here is a shot of me playing with it http://stepheneastwood.com/stuff/shotsofme/vr2d2673copy%202.htm you can see the wire on the bottom, its hanging around and seems to pull the top when it would otherwise move freely around the center column?

Stephen,

Cool picture by the way.

I had to cut off a video cable and then reconnect it when I ran it through the post and I don't know how that would work with a firewire. There are probably solder on firewire connectors but I'm not sure because I have never looked for any.

Where there is a will there is a way.

Tery
Indicam

I am curious doesn't anyone make a sled that has built into it a slot for wiring? I have seen them in shots are they all custom made? if not does anyone know who sells them, I am looking myself to run several cables down the shaft of one.

Stephen and Chris,

One of the problems is what cables and for what use. The big guys have cables built in but they are set up for video and battery. I don't know if anyone has a solderable firewire cable but someone out there might know.

Come to think of it...I had to replace a firewire connector on one of my Sony cameras and I bought the part at Frys. It was exactly the right replacement for the bad one on my camera.

I'll have to make a stop at Frys and see if they still have the connector I bought earlier. Always looking for ways of improving our system.

Here's a link to a firewire solder part...http://www.mouser.com/catalog/specsheets/KC-300177.pdf

Tery
Indicam

nice update Terry.. haven been following up on this. Time to do some practise on the indi again.. watz the size of that LCD? I may like to hook one up as well..

Sean,

The two sizes of "Active Matrix" LCD monitors we have are a 5" regular and a 5.8 wide screen. Either would work fine for framing a shot. I'm kind of learning towards the smaller one just because it is smaller and lighter. It's not a high definition monitor and it's not real expensive. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would want a high definition monitor on a steadicam type system when you are just using it for framing.

Hey, we're working on our new website and will be having an area for our users to show different applications. It will feature text, a still picture, and a flash video from the user showing how he (or she) is using the Indicam PILOT. I'll let you know via regular email more about it.

Smooth shooting,

Tery
Indicam

Great to hear, so are you selling the screens if so how much? and how difficult is it to modify to fit the wire down the shaft? and are you selling a sled already wired? if so how much?

Also ever think of making the top of the sled a bit more user friendly with adjustable dials like a macro tripod head that allows you to dial in forward and backward as well as left right movement, you could even have a diagonal, but adjusting the diagonal by hand and having an easy dial adjustment for/aft and side to side would be such a great setup improvement and timesaver.

Stephen,

Actually, the camera stage is very easy to balance once you know how to balance a steadicam type system. We can usually do it in 5 minutes or less with a new camera.

Manfrotto makes micro adjustable plates and if someone wanted to, they could buy two of them and connect them at right angles to each other.

Link: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/162665-REG/Bogen_Manfrotto_3419_3419_Micro_Positioning_Plate.html

Your idea is a good one and we have thought about it for a while so we'll buy a couple of these plates and see how well they work out.

We just bought the 5.8 wide screen monitor so we'll make a sled and see how much extra time it takes.

The 5.0 monitor sells for $559 and the 5.8 monitor goes for $699 without being mounted.

Thanks for your suggestions.


Tery
Indicam

diagonal...??!!

The real advantage of a micrometer-based stage is that it is easier to fine-tune while you are wearing the rig. It is often not stressed that balancing a Steadicam is not something that happens once a day, but actually should be an ongoing process where it is tuned for each shot, sometimes between takes. A shot that has a lot of tilt in it (following someone up stairs) will be easier if the rig is made less bottom-heavy by adjusting the gimbal (or telescoping the post if the gimbal does not move), which will require tweaking up top. This is good if the shot also has level elements in it outside of the tilts. However, if the shot requires continual tilting, it may be easier just to dial the fore-aft balance backwards so the rig requires no effort to hold in a tilted position. An experienced operator will make minute adjustments to fore and aft for every shot so that the headroom is trimmed just so, again minimizing the amount of control necessary to make perfect frames. Much of these adjustments will be done with the rig on the body, thus the more that can be done with one hand, the better. A micrometer stage is obviously much more useful in this instance than a friction stage; one that functions without the need of a locking mechanism is even better. Tiffen has integrated this concept into all of their top stages and are one of the few manufacturers to do so, which is part of why their rigs are significantly more expensive.

The idea of an add-on stage is a really good idea for the budget-conscious though--buying an Indicam and adding the option of fingertip control as desired is good! The major drawback I see is raising the camera relative to the gimbal, which will requiring raising the gimbal on the post--with a heavy camera this may also mean extending the center post or adding counterweight, whichever is preferable. For a light camera this may actually be a boon. The other issue might be vibration, with these assemblies stacked and a relatively small common footprint between them (you are now leveraging your camera of the intersection of these two assemblies which is perhaps a 2x2 square).

Excellent Charles!

We use the Manfrotto dovetail plate which marries to our tripod as well. When we need to do a shot that requires a special tilt it is relatively easy to move the camera fore or aft just a bit.

One of the tips on our "Stabilizer Basics" training DVD is that for a tilt change downward we move the eyepiece up to it's vertical position or somewhere in between. This moves some of the aft weight forward and therefor tilts the camera down. It is more evident when the drop time is longer. This only works for cameras with eyepieces that can move of course.

Thanks for jumping in Charles. Always a pleasure. Say Hi to A for me.

Tery
Indicam

That's a cool tip, Terry.