Here is a tropical house I shot the other day with the Blackbird.
11 Jagera Kamerunga Cairns Real Estate LJ Hooker Marlin Coast - YouTube (http://youtu.be/2olHM1lrTMw)

Shooting real estate like this takes no time to shoot so I can keep the cost down.
BTW that house is going for 650K AUD, there are some bargains in Cairns that's for sure. :-)

I posted on youtube as well, but nice work. I hope I can get that good w/ my blackbird one of these days.

Just takes time and your second hand is just there to guide it ever so lightly.
Using two weights on each end with the slider shaft on number 15 ish.

nice one as ever Wags.

you shooting these at full-wide on the tokina, right ? 11mm?
and what aperture you typically picking, f8 to get enough depth-of-field as the focus point is fixed for each clip?

cheers

Hi Stu

Yep sure are..full wide, locked focus to infinity at f2.8 :-)
Just don't get to close to things.
It's a fantastic sharp lens.

Here is another one...
Kuranda Home Tropical Cairns Rainforest Steady Cam on Vimeo

nice paul.

hey, is the stuff up to around 25secs slowed down a percentage?? looks super smooth. either you slowed it down a tad, or you're just darn good with the blackbird.

Looks great!

On the tour through the house I wanted it to be slightly slower with longer pauses. For fun, I tried a similar move in my own house, handheld. I walked slowly and paused for what felt like a long time. When I reviewed the footage, my timing was very similar to yours. :) Of course, handheld, it was not nearly as smooth...

It might be good to develop a "count" procedure where you pause at each room (maybe with very subtle motion) and count to a given number before turning and walking to the next location.

I was especially impressed with how smooth you were able to walk and how level you were able to keep the camera.

Hey Paul,
May i ask a few questions?

Do you use auto iso for some shots?
Do you normally balance with a slight tilt forward to favor the floor?
How long does it take you to do a standard home? On-site and Post?
Does this keep you busy or is it just a once in a while gig?

Sorry if you feel like you're being interviewed. ;)
I'm thinking of offering this service in my area.

Hello and thanks for your comments.

At first I was just flying through in one go to keep it simple and fast to edit but looks like there is a need to offer more detailed shots of rooms now. I may get a merlin vest as its getting just too hard to hold now for long periods and I seem to be getting more and more work.

Yes I am on auto ISO some times. These Canon DSLR's are very bad for H.264 compression banding on walls and moire is bad too. Looking to get another camera with a better codec. Any suggestions?
I have Magic Lantern and have lessen the compression but its still bad. OKAY for the net I suppose.

Non of the footage is slowed down, its how it was shot.

I can shoot a normal home in 15-20 minutes like this if its set up, but I spend more time chatting to the agent or owners lol. Raw files dropped straight into EDIUS for a quick edit then rendered out and loaded to the net.

Not a full time GIG yet but things are picking up.
It takes lots of work to get the agents on board :-)

Yeah, i've heard that the agents are slow to spend money. Perhaps the owner would share the cost if they are permitted to keep the video if they 'agent hop'. Sure seems that all but the cheapest homes should have video at these prices.

I was thinking of getting detail shots of some of the features - jib and slider shots of surfaces, appliances . . . upgrades to the house that would show the detailed quality. That would surely be added time, though.
I was also thinking that offering photos would be almost mandatory so they can dispense with the $100 fee for a separate photographer.

The XF codec should do better, but i don't think it's necessary . . . i think the moire and banding are a necessary evil at this price point. While you may be able to get a wide angle adapter for the XF100, i don't think it would compare to flying the Tokina 11-16 . . . especially in dim rooms.

These Canon DSLR's are very bad for H.264 compression banding on walls and moire is bad too.

The 5D3 looks like a nice solution. The moire seems to be solved. I've seen some shots where the banding is much reduced. Also the sensitivity is much higher, so it will do better in low light.

I hear that the Tokina 11-16 will work on the 5D at 16mm. That's a similar view to what you have now.

Many like the GH2, but it might be a challenge to get wide lenses.

Paul, you have a very developed sense of "cornering", that is, dialing in the pan as you approach and take a corner or doorframe. Budding stabilizer operators should take note. The technique requires starting the pan before you get to the corner, so that the corner remains in frame as your pivot around it. If you wait too long to start the pan, the camera makes a seemingly arbitrary rotation in space and you lose some of the geography. Examine Paul's work closely and you should see what I mean. It feels effortless, but it does take conscious thought to achieve.

On a more boring technical level, the Tokina 16-28 is a full frame lens that on a 5D will deliver the equivalent field of view of the 11-16 on the APS cameras like the 7D, Rebels etc (actually, the long end is closer to a 17 or 18mm, so you get a bit more bang for the buck). I have this lens and it is great, one of the few full-frame Tokina zoom that is in current production. So if you move up to the 5DMKIII, you won't have to sacrifice the look of that 11-16.

If I was to move up to the new 5D I think I would get a Sony SF100 instead so in the end I can do more with it. Looks like there is an adapter to put the Tokina on it too. There is a guy down the road with a XF100, I will go and have a play with his camera as I do like that MPEG2 50mbps 4.2.2 but not sure how well it would go.

Yes Charles you are correct, start turning before you get to the corner and try not to bump into anything.

Looks like the GH2 has banding and moire too from what I have read.

Mark the more fancy shots you get means the more time on location and editing so then the price goes up. Keep it simple I say so everyone can afford to have them. I have been taking images too but if they want super high end ones then its best to leave it to a dedicated artistic photo guy. Once you get busy you will not have enough time to do both and images take way longer to shoot than a fly through.

Hi

Fine tuning my technique with the Blackbird, this one came out pretty good. Another hard day in tropical Cairns :-) I spent more time chatting to the tenants than shooting ...

Propeller Street Trinity Beach House For Sale LJ Hooker Cairns Marlin Coast - YouTube (http://youtu.be/p0_8NK68dgE)

Impressive how you do the whole house in one take. I assume you walk thru and get a plan of the path and the moves you'll make.

Do you ever get to the house and it's not staged?
Ever have clients get picky on the music?

Hi Mark

How do I shoot in one go?
I don't know, just turn up, walk through, turn on all the lights and stuff and then off I go.
That last one was not stage, just had to hide a few things, sent the people outside then shot it first go, so it's very quick. Then the photo guy moved in to do his thing .There was one room where I reversed in as the tenants did not what certain things in the room shot.

So far no one has complained about the music tracks.:-)

Got two display home lined up next so be good to see how they come out. Will be shooting them in more detail though.

I'm sure as I do more and more others will copy what I am doing, but by that time I will be way out in front with my technique. The thing is Mark people want to see the nuts and bolts of a property in a nice way, there are not interested in how creative and technical the artistic shooter is or their sensitive editing. KISS

You got that nicely balanced, as long as I move forward it's no problem but if I move sideways my blackbird tends to loose it's balance and tilts sidesways slightly. I have been using my blackbird for over a year now and use it on almost every paid job, the only thing I wish could be done better is controlled tilts but that's very difficult to achieve and I think a limitation of the way it's designed.

Every stabilizer of this type is prone to the issue as you described, Noa (losing horizon when moving sideways). It's not a design issue as much as part of the finesse of the operator. The solution is to apply the small amount of counter-force to the gimbal when you accelerate sideways (i.e. the opposite side from the direction you are moving). It has to be the right amount of force and for the right amount of time or it will influence the rig unduly. Horizon control is a significant part of the skill of operating and it can take a long time to get really good at this (more like months/years than minutes/hours!)

I'm wondering considering your concern with tilts if you are working too bottom-heavy. Make sure your drop time isn't faster than 2 seconds. This can affect your side-to-side issue as well.

Thx for the tip Charles, I will try to see if I can avoid the sideways tilting by applying a bit of counter force. The droptime on my blackbird is not faster then 2 seconds but I think one problem might also be that I use a 550d and a 14mm lens and that combined with the blackbird is a very light set-up (I just need one small disc as counterbalance wheight on the ends of the horizontal tube) . Is it not so that if I would use a much heavier camera and a full set of wheights to counterbalance that it would be easier to keep it balanced and to operate?

Yes gimble control is half of it, fingers only there to guide ever so lightly and always think ahead for your next continuous move.

On the 60D I have started to use the LCD flipped out so you can hold it down lower and look down into it as having to hold it up out in front of you. Its a great little camera, except for moire and compression banding.
Make sure the gimble friction is set completely off so its 100% completely smooth..
Not good for outside though like that in the wind, in the wind make it more bottom heavy and you need to be more aggressive with the gimble.
With tilting just try gimble rocking instead of moving the whole thing.
I find every time I do one now I learn a little bit more.

Noa you go any clips online?

Mr Greb from cmr was so nice to contact me when he saw my post here, he also said my blackbird set up was very light which causes relatively low moments of inertia and requires more finesse (or delicate touch)*to control. He suggests to add some weight (like a zoom recorder) which will make it easier to “fly”. (Just want to say that Mr Greb gives awesome support)

My problem is I have a bad back and my current set up is light enough and allows me to use it for an extended period of time. I will have to see if adding accessories to add weight is something I can carry long enough but unfortunately, it’s my back that will dictate what can be allowed. :)
Like I said, moving forward and following a subject is no problem but the steadicam is very sensitive to touch due to the very light wheight. I do fly without any friction to the gimbal, did use friction in the beginning as it really helps during a movement but it can also cause unwanted small movements if you are holding it still. Now I”m comfortable enough using it without friction and getting good results, but I have to watch out for side movements, if I execute them slow enough I can stay level but like running around a person and keep focus on their face the steadicam quickly starts to drift sideways. Here also Mr Greb suggested to put the control fingers up on the gimbal extender to get more leverage, will try that to see if it will help.

Also in regard to the controlled tilts, what I meant with the “design issue" charles was referring to is something like this: Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Jacques Jouffret from Flightplan (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=198)
The camera starts off horizontal, then goes down the stairs and the camera tilts up and once she is down the camera goes to horizontal again. I thought this is only possible on a steadicam like the pilot and not a blackbird due to it’s design, at least not as controlled as in the example I gave?

Noa you go any clips online?
Non work related that I can show but I do have a short clip which containes about 50% blackbird shots when I just got the steadicam, I was testing it in an old building together with a home made slider. Just that you know, the steadicam shots that go backwards are actually reversed in post, I was moving forwards each time :)

castle on Vimeo