Saved by the Rod!

[Tom Van den Berghe]

and the pictures

[Chris Harding]

Perfect Tom

There is no specific side to use the rig. Most can work on the left or the right... Yours is a centre mount so all you need to do is swing the solid arm over to the left or the right. Try both sides and see what feels more comfortable ...I have my arm on my right ..but that's my preference.

Sounds like you have everything set up well and you weight looks about right ...If you hold the arm gently the top of the spring frame should be horizontal ..that way you have maximum boom up and boom down distances.

[Noa Put]

Hi Tom! I see you are still using the ea50, just a quick question, the way you hold teh steadicam with your left hand on the photo's, is that the way you hold it while you are flying?

[Tom Van den Berghe]

Noa, I hold the handle with my right hand because I'm right handed.
I use my left hand to gently guide the flycam. And that's so diificult in the beginning. When I start to walk I loose the control.

[Noa Put]

But do you hold the vertical rod as low down as shown in the pictures?

[Tom Van den Berghe]

Yes Noa, I think I walk like that. Still learning how to hold it and walk.

With my right hand i can hold the handle lower and closer to me. otherwise the spring bump the handle all the way up.

Always nice to hear some tips to use it

[Noa Put]

Your left hand that controlls the direction your camera is facing is positioned way to low, you should use that hand only to gently touch the vertical bar just below the position of the handle and with gently touching I mean like pinching/tapping it with 2 or 3 fingers just to give it direction and if it's going to the right direction don't touch it anymore. Nver grab that bar with your full hand. Your balance seems to be off as well and it looks bottom heavy, if you would test it I would do that inside where there is no wind beause that can trow it off balance. Just google on steadicam balancing and you will find many video how to balance and use a steadiam properly.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Tom

The correct left hand position should be your thumb and 3 fingers very gently touching the post just below the gimbal ..it's only for control and rotation. If you take your left hand away the sled should just sit there as long as you stand still ... also in the normal straight ahead position your right hand only needs to also lightly tough the foam handle ..nothing harder! If you have to fight the arm to keep the camera in position then it's not set up right at all. If you stand still and let both hands go what happens?? The camera and sled should remain directly in front of you hands free and the arm bones top and bottom should be horizontal ... If any effort is needed to control the camera and sled then you need to redo your setup, balance and dynamic balance!! I honestly think that a single spring arm is not tough enough on that rig for a 3kg camera ...you may need to get a bigger spring if it bottoms out???

[Tom Van den Berghe]

NOa, Chris,

I looked several tutorials for setting this up. The drop time is about 2 seconds I think. When I stand still the camcorder is balanced correcly I think. It's not gong to the front or back and not going to left or right

But when I start walking it begins to turn or going left or right of front or back. Maybe not balanced perfectly or I have to do lots of practising.with my left hand I touch i gently.
But touching gently seems not strong enough to avoid it turning

[Noa Put]

If it sways left or right or front to back means it's not balanced right, when it starts to turn left or right when you move doesn't sound normal to me, might be an inferior quality gimbal that is causing this. Does it also turn left or right when you hold it still?

[Tom Van den Berghe]

Noa, Chris,

I just did a test. Sorry for the bad quality. My wife filmed with a camera

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUcb...ature=youtu.be

Let me know what's still wrong, what's already good,... thank you!

[Chris Harding]

Hi Tom

That looks pretty good for balance and the springs also look about right. OK, here's what is wrong.. your arm connection to the vest is MUCH too high ..see how high the camera is?? On the front of the vest is adjustments for the static arm connector joint ..drop that down about 6" at least!! It's way ,way too high!!! I can see that your own arm is getting in the way of the spring arm so everything should be a LOT lower.. Just readjust the front plate of the vest so the static arm is much lower ..it should be close to your waist and the camera when static should be around shoulder height or even lower .. I can see the camera is blocking your vision which is crazy ..the top of your EA-50 needs to be no higher than your cheek ...If you look at your wife's video you will see that you are pulling the whole arm down just to see where you are going. Now the other thing you need to get is an LCD display and put it on the bottom sled where you can see what you are shooting ... Just find one they normally sells for use in cars (7" TFT LCD) and then get a CCTV 12v lithium battery to power it ...(should be less than $50.00) ... With the camera at the correct stedicam height you should NOT be able to see the camera EVF as it will be too low ..hence the need for a bottom LCD.

Hope this helps

Chris

[Tom Van den Berghe]

hey Chris,

thx for wathing my video. Now you said this from it's way too high my wife confirmed what you are saying.
I was so focused on balancing I didn't put attention on that. Now I lowered the vest and now it's at the lowest setting. It looks and feels much better now!

Thank you so much again. I will practice again soon with this new adjustments.

The LCD screen looks perfectly to watch without an external monitor.

[Chris Harding]

Much better Tom

I bet that's a lot more comfortable too!! Your camera is now at the correct height and the spring tension looks pretty much perfect too!! You will find that it will be much easier to fly too and your elbow will be clear of the spring arm.

Also get your drop time closer to 3 seconds ..(proper 3 seconds so count 1001, 1002, 1003) You will find that most 2 second drops are more like 1.5 seconds ...when you let the sled go from horizontal the sled should appear to almost float before dropping and needs to swing thru the centre just before you say the "1003" ... a bottom heavy sled will give you annoying sway which you don't want especially with a single spring arm!!

Now go out and shoot some footage!!

[Tom Van den Berghe]

I shoot some footage for real this time. I walked 3 hours around with the nex-ea50 and the flycam HD-3000 +arm and vest. My back didn't hurt surprisingly. only my shoulders hurt a bit.

Here is a quick testvideo of it. I'm happy with the result.

testfilmpje blozen bloemencorso - YouTube