I have been using my beholder almost exclusively the last 3 weddings I did and left my blackbird steadicam in the trunk of my car as bakcup. I can talk about how it was to work with it but I rather show a trailer that consist for a major part out of beholder footage with a gh3 and a 12mm lens.

I don't want to share the trailer publicly, not even with a password but I can show it to members of this forum here if you just PM me and I will provide a link and password. It's not that the contents are so sensitive but I have no approval to share and even in the members area with a password it could end up in the wrong place, if I receive direct requests by PM then I at least know who is viewing it and narrow the viewers down to exactly who is interested to see what this stabilizer is capable off. This trailer will only be online for a limited time.

If you have any questions about the stabilizer then ofcourse I can answer them if I know the answer. :)

Cheers Noa, i would say its pretty smooth, smoother than my hd glidecam 4000. Is the footage slowed down 70% or more? Was it the gh4 on there. The photog just did not want to get out of your way ha? Steve

Can you email me the link Noa

I don't see any PM functions in this forum!?

Would this be an ideal tool to use with an A6000 ? how QUICK is the set up and can you put it down easily when not using it.

Beholder MS1 3 Axis Electronic Gimbal Camera Stabilizer for A7S/GH4/BMPCC video | eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beholder-MS1-3-Axis-Electronic-Gimbal-Camera-Stabilizer-for-A7S-GH4-BMPCC-video-/161882753416?hash=item25b0f6c988:g:kBgAAOSwT4lWRIY9)

This link in Belgium? Any good Noa? Seems cheap and can get more down in price if provide my vat number

Just watched the video Noa. Fantastic trailer once again.

Looks like an amazing device.

The footage I watched, any POST stabilization applied ? or is that raw footage with just colour grading.

How long does it take to set up ? Once set up is it easy to put down say if I need to quickly run to the toilet or have a meal ?

The trailer footage has been slowed down 50% and about half of it was post stabilized in edius using a stabilizer plugin. The gimbal does introduce jitters when you move fast, especially if you are walking on a uneven floor and the camera shakes left to right then causing these small jitters. Edius stabilization sometimes does a great job, sometimes not at all, much depends if there are any nearby objects passing while you walk that can confuse the plugin. If you move slowly with the gimbal, like when I do with the first dance circling the couple, then the footage looks fine.

The initial balancing of the camera can be cumbersome, there is only a small tripod plate that you can move left to right on your camera and front to back on the gimbal. The problem is to find the right balance point left to right you first need to attach the tripodplate to your camera and tighten the screw not too much so your camera can slide sideways, then slide the camera onto the gimbal, then move your camera sideways to find the balance point but when you have found that, you can't tighten te screw of the tripod plate because you have to take your camera of the gimbal again hoping you don't accidental move it to left or right. Once it's of the gimbal you can tighten the screw.

This initial balancing took the longest for me but once I found the right place for the tripodplate I made a marking on the tripodplate where the screw is so following times it's just a matter of placing the tripodplate to the right position where I marked it and tighten the screw.

Then it's very easy to do the final balancing, you just slide the camera onto the gimbal and slide it forward and backward until it balances and then tighten te screw. I use a gh3 with a 12mm at weddings so I just attach the tripod plate to the camera before i leave and at the wedding it takes me 30-60 seconds to have camera stabilised.

What I don't like:

The tripodscrew is of poor quality, it's a soft metal that easily can get damaged, I use a 2 euro cent to tighten it but I fear that sooner or later the groove to put the coin in might get damaged to much, not sure if a new screw can be easily found that fits.

It sometimes is difficult to slide the tripodplate into the gimbal sled as there is much friction, not sure what is causing this.

Often the sled which holds the camera leans a bit to the left or right after I start up the gimbal, this is fixable by placing the handle on a straight surface and pushing the joystick on front for 2 seconds, the stabilisation then shuts off and restarts and then it recalibrates the sled so it's horizontal again. Only sometimes I have to redo that after a while.

You cannot adjust parameters of the gimbal, this would allow you to take out any jitters, if you know what you are doing but otherwise it does have the advantage of just working like it is without any further trial and error of changing parameter setting in the software.

Panning motion is harder to control, when you turn the handle left or right it starts to turn but it's difficult to maintain a smooth motion when panning.

The start up button is very small but can be accidental pushed in, it has happened more then once that I pick the gimbal up and that the gimbal activated while that was not the intention.

You cannot flip out the lcd screen and it's not very easy to see the lcd screen on the back of the camera.

Eventhough my gh4 with a 12mm and 9-18mm balances easily as soon as I add a small microphone on top of the camera I"m not able to balance it anymore, not sure why that is.

What I like:

There is a screw hole under the handle so you can attach a minitripod to it, or a tripodplate so you can place it on a tripod when not in use, or you can attach it to a belt, like the photogs use to attach their dslr to their waste, don't know the name for that.

It's very fast to set up and start shooting.

It's insensitive to wind and it always stays level so you can do some very cool and controlled movements.

The battery seems to last quite long, I still had a green light after using it quite long each wedding.

It's very small and light and it folds up nicely so you can place it together with the camera in a small bag.

There are hard stops when turning the gimbal sled so you cannot accidental break the wiring.

The gimbal motors are quiite strong so you can do simple operation on your camera without the gimbal going haywire like the enbula 4000 does.

Beholder MS1 3 Axis Electronic Gimbal Camera Stabilizer for A7S/GH4/BMPCC video | eBay (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Beholder-MS1-3-Axis-Electronic-Gimbal-Camera-Stabilizer-for-A7S-GH4-BMPCC-video-/161882753416?hash=item25b0f6c988:g:kBgAAOSwT4lWRIY9)

This link in Belgium? Any good Noa? Seems cheap and can get more down in price if provide my vat number

Not sure if this guy will provide you with an invoice that has salestax mentioned separately but you can always ask, if I convert to euro it's about the same price as I paid for mine.

Cheers Noa thanks for your time and great explanation.

I will send you a new link shortly to a second film but with some raw unedited footage so you get a much better idea of the gimbal performance. They contain longer continuous shots.

Thanks for the comprehensive write up.

You also might consider the Beholder DS1, their new version which is 200 dollar more but looks more versatile. The MS1 is certainly not perfect but for it's price it's more then decent, I wanted to try such a stabilizer out but wanted to spend as less as possible. I have had the nebula 4000 before for a few days to try out but was not impressed, I would say it performed the same out of the box but you could fine tune parameters on that one to smooth out jitters, that is if you understand what you where doing because there is no clear manual available.

I did enjoy using the beholder the past weddings, I used it a lot more then my blackbird, being able to do all these controlled moves that are impossible to do with the blackbird or just to shoot outside, even when it's windy is very addictive. :) + it gives your film a higher production value as it makes it look more professional.

Cheers Noa thanks for your time and great explanation.

If you buy within th EU Steve i think there is no import tax to pay

I order a lot from the UK and never have to pay additional taxes and as company I buy tax free as VAT is not charged on EU sales to Non-UK based EU customers with VAT number, the only thing you need to watch out for with companies like Panamoz is that some say tax is included and no extra costs for the client but when you ask for a vat free invoice or ask if vat is mentioned on the invoice they all say they are a not a VAT company so basically the price you see does not allow you to deduct the tax.

What I always feared finally happened yesterday, my beholder ms1 refused to start up. I was absolutely sure the battery was fully loaded as I had a green blinking light at the end of the charging period and when I wanted to start up the gimbal at the venue it did...nothing, nada.

Good thing I had my blackbird in the trunk of my car as backup and it saved the day.

Now lets see how good their customerservice is.

Weird, I just attached the battery to the loader to notice it was completely drained, yesterday while loading I had it next to me and could see it starting off with a red light only, then longer and longer green flashes in between and eventually a full green light meaning fully charged. I did put the battery the first time in the beholder when I needed it, before that it was in a sidepocket of a bag that holds the gimbal. So this means the battery has drained itself empty overnight. This needs some more investigation.

I have 3 batteries for my gimbal and occasionally 1 of those will say full charge, when it isn't. I've taken to charging all 3 after use then giving them another charge before the day just in case. Not sure why the battery doesn't charge first time in rare cases, but its best never to always believe those green lights.

I can't charge the batteries separately as they are too large to fit in a standard battery loader, as usual these kind of products always have strange sized and non standard batteries. To load them I need to leave all 3 in the batterycage they are in which slides into the handle of the gimbal and attach a mini usb cable in that cage and connect that cable either to the pc or to a adapter and a power socket.

First time this happened, now it's loaded again so have to see how it looks like tomorrow.

Just got my Beholder MS1 and balanced my NEX 5N on it ...

I needed ideas for cool steadicam shots.

And came across this ...

Wow

The most ridiculous steadicam shot. Eurovision steadicam Karsten Jacobsen - YouTube

Just got my Beholder MS1 and balanced my NEX 5N on it ...

I needed ideas for cool steadicam shots.

And came across this ...

Wow
James, you are a bit late finding that clip as it's one of the classic pieces of Steadicam work even more impressive for the fact that it's live & no retakes are possible. Very risky as there are several places where he could literally have fallen flat on his face.

Check out Steadishots.org : A Tribute and Study of Steadicam Operators and Their Work (http://www.steadishots.org) for a wonderful collection of Steadicam work with descriptions & critiques from the operators. The one that everyone quotes as a classic Steadicam shot is Larry McConkey's work on 'Goodfellas' Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Larry McConkey from Goodfellas (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=2). My particular favourites are Peter Robinson for that amazing 5 minute single-take shot of the beach & evacuation from Dunkirk from 'Atonement' Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Peter Robertson from Atonement (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=298) plus Charles Papert for a scene from 'Ugly Betty' where there is so much going on & the choreography is fantastic Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Charles Papert from Ugly Betty (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=284)

We have to applaud the physical skill & co-ordination of the Steadicam operators but these clips show that even if operating a Steadicam was to become to some extent deskilled by use of an electronic gimbal there is still an enormous amount of skill & creativity in moving & framing the shots that goes far beyond simply being able to move the camera around without introducing wobbles.

And came across this ...

They probably copied it from me, did this once during the first dance, guests did look a bit weird at me after that, don't know why.

Actually, a few years back before I got a steadicam I hired a steadicam operator with a pilot, I didn't give him much instructions and just let him do his thing, only during the first dance he did a similar circular move around the couple running like an idiot, the footage looked very cool but when I saw him running around the couple I was so embarrassed I told him afterwards never ever to do that again. :)

I wonder if I can re-create 'The Russian Ark' with my Merlin!

James, you are a bit late finding that clip as it's one of the classic pieces of Steadicam work even more impressive for the fact that it's live & no retakes are possible. Very risky as there are several places where he could literally have fallen flat on his face.

Check out Steadishots.org : A Tribute and Study of Steadicam Operators and Their Work (http://www.steadishots.org) for a wonderful collection of Steadicam work with descriptions & critiques from the operators. The one that everyone quotes as a classic Steadicam shot is Larry McConkey's work on 'Goodfellas' Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Larry McConkey from Goodfellas (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=2). My particular favourites are Peter Robinson for that amazing 5 minute single-take shot of the beach & evacuation from Dunkirk from 'Atonement' Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Peter Robertson from Atonement (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=298) plus Charles Papert for a scene from 'Ugly Betty' where there is so much going on & the choreography is fantastic Steadishots.org : Steadicam Shot by Charles Papert from Ugly Betty (http://www.steadishots.org/shots_detail.cfm?shotID=284)

We have to applaud the physical skill & co-ordination of the Steadicam operators but these clips show that even if operating a Steadicam was to become to some extent deskilled by use of an electronic gimbal there is still an enormous amount of skill & creativity in moving & framing the shots that goes far beyond simply being able to move the camera around without introducing wobbles.

Completely agree Nigel.

Stunning sequences. I have always loved the Goodfellas one.

It's a whole different ball game being aware of your surroundings whilst keeping an eye on the screen / framing of your shot whilst using a steadicam. And I thought framing static shots were tricky !

They probably copied it from me, did this once during the first dance, guests did look a bit weird at me after that, don't know why.

Actually, a few years back before I got a steadicam I hired a steadicam operator with a pilot, I didn't give him much instructions and just let him do his thing, only during the first dance he did a similar circular move around the couple running like an idiot, the footage looked very cool but when I saw him running around the couple I was so embarrassed I told him afterwards never ever to do that again. :)

Haha, I agree. Definitely not to be done at a wedding. I know couples certainly love ubobtrusive operators.

I genuinely don't think my MS1 will get much use. I have always preferred stable static shots and slider shots for opening sequences at weddings anyway. My MS1 will be used a lot during park/outdoor shoots if anything.

I thought I would post this clip too in case there is anybody who hasn't seen this particular Steadicam work before. This is another from Larry McConkey this time on the Martin Scorsese film 'Hugo' & gives an interesting behind the scenes view as he is flying a 3D camera & stuck a GoPro on the rig so you get to see some of what is going on around the set out of frame.
Incredible Steadicam shot Behind the Scenes of Hugo - YouTube

Here's the finished scene with all VFX added & the GoPro footage as a PiP

https://youtu.be/XhEOa82KL_c

I genuinely don't think my MS1 will get much use.

My steadicam work has been particularly important for my trailers, I have used it during the photoshoot but won't anymore as the shoot is often outside the venue in a city and I don't like to drag this thing along, once I arrive at the venue though it gets used quite a lot, The most important parts when I always use it is when the couple enters the venue, during the first dance and when they bring in the cake.
For the remaining parts it's venue shots or when everyone is outside at a reception it's always nice to get a Steadicam shot of that, I also following the waiters serving the food and drinks, just anything that the steadicam is beneficial for.

I have used a slider in the past but I find a steadicam much more versatile, I can do sliding moves, crane moves and I find it very useful to capture events that are difficult to capture with a camera on a tripod, like sometimes they give flowers to both parents at the same time and with the steadicam I can move wherever is the best position and I can use everything in one continuous shot no matter where I move to with the camera.

Oh how I'd like to get a good shot of the couple entering the venue - nearly always one of my least satisfying shots of the day. The doors open and the couple enter to thundering applause and then....well that's as much as I get as the crowded tables means the bride goes first, and the groom has to follow about 6 foot behind, staring intently down trying not to step on her dress!

I always give the couple the tip to let the groom go first and that he holds her hand or something like that, how many times I have witnessed the groom stepping on the dress or even worse the veil (not sure if that's the right name but it's the part they attach to the brides hair and it can be like 3 meters long) and I have seen the brides head snapping back and the veil flying out of her hair because the groom stepped on it. It also looks ridiculous when you see the groom hopping behind the bride trying to hold on to her hand while avoiding the dress. I always follow the couple from behind and then while I go slowly lift the steadicam up high so you get to see the entire venue as well. This gives the photog all the room he need for the photos that he takes from the front.

Nice tip Noa - have a word first so the groom goes in front - :)

Thanks Noa, these are very good tips on positioning yourself correctly.