Steadycams....Would you buy this???

[Loren Simons]

Dear Charles,
Although I haven't seen it, Being that you did work on Superhero Movie, and worked with Nielsen! You are GOD! hahaha and don't worry, steadicam will never die!

[Nick Tsamandanis]

Originally Posted by Dave Blackhurst

Then again, with "reality" style shooting, bouncing about seems to be accepted!

I suppose It depends on your personal goal, I'm not interested in just getting by. I try (and try) to emulate the quality shots that the pro Steadicam ops produce in the motion picture industry in my work as well, wether it's a wedding production, corporate shoot or just filming the kids at the park.

[Jack Walker]

I remember a couple of years ago either reading or hearing in a director's commentary the director saying, "We wanted a feeling of uneasy excitement, so the look we were going for was 'bad steadicam.'"

[Afton Grant]

Originally Posted by Loren Simons

Dear Charles,
don't worry, steadicam will never die!

It will as soon as this telekinesis thing catches on.

Hey Charles. Have you ever entertained mounting a director's viewfinder and video tap on top of a Pilot? With the weight of the lens, that would probably be right in the zone of the Pilot, as well as give you the proper framing.

I've been thinking recently about a setup to make shot rehearsals and choreography easier. Originally, I was just thinking about a "Larry-cam" type setup - just a viewfinder with a video tap and transmitter, handheld. However, your mention of getting a Pilot for rehearsals made me think about combining the two. Overkill? Probably. Isn't that what we're all about though?

[David L. Holmes]

Hello everyone,

Funny how a simple question morphs into a bigger then anticipated conversation. Steadycam is an art all to itself, which is wrapped up with physics, engineering, and talent on the operator. My "comprehension" of the original question was about a $15.00 rig and what could be accomplished on a tight budget. I'm an amateur vidographer, I don’t live in Hollywood, I don’t work in movies, and nobody in their right mind would ever hire me for a full budget production movie or television show. I'm paying for all of my gear with money my wife gives me :) so I have to conceder what is "reality" or not. $15.00 is real, a couple of hundred dollars in spare parts is real, 2 grand is really stretching my imagination. $120.000 is so far out in space that I would have to consider changing my career field and selling my house.

Absolutely, without question there is no comparison between $15.00 rig and one that cost many tens of thousands of dollars. There is no way I can build anything that could come close to what professionals use. That's fine, I'm not a professional to begin with, and I never claimed to be. What I am is a guy who on weekends, or time after work will video my sisters Elementary school concerts, family weddings, or have fun shooting short videos with my cousins.

Thanks Charles for the link and names of people that have information about homebuilt stabilizers. We all have to start somewhere, and help from professionals and people who have tried and succeeded with their own tinkering really helps me from reinventing the wheel.

Sincerely,
Your humble backyard videographer...

[Charles Papert]

Originally Posted by Afton Grant

Hey Charles. Have you ever entertained mounting a director's viewfinder and video tap on top of a Pilot? With the weight of the lens, that would probably be right in the zone of the Pilot, as well as give you the proper framing.

That's one of the things I was thinking about also, Afton. Certainly for film jobs there's a logic to that, since the image will be very similar to what will be seen once you mount up. The whole idea is to make the transition from rehearsal to the actual shooting takes as invisible as possible for the director and AD's (who are setting background etc). Up until now it has been somewhat impractical and a bit silly to consider doing so with a vest/arm setup, and the finder itself is bulky enough to make a handheld version "unpleasant".

However, for rehearsals on HD jobs it makes more sense to deliver a full-raster color image that more closely replicates what the HD camera will look like. Thus I am considering either my XHA1 on a pilot, or my HV20 on a Merlin. With either, I will potentially have to hardwire, so I would have to get production to rent a component video to HD-SDI converter (easier to mount and power on the Pilot) so we could use the existing cable setup. Then it's just a matter of dialing the zoom in to match the framing of the selected lens on the Genesis, and away we go (and see how many people end up "preferring" the image from the A1!)

Whether or not it is overkill depends on the shot. Knowing that we will be spending all day preparing and shooting this one particular 5-6 minute shot, I think it will be well worthwhile. I'll be able to get my head into all of the various framing and negotiating issues while exerting very little energy to do so.

[Kelsey Emuss]

OP here!

Just wanted to say how much I wished I'd never asked this question!! LOL!

Thanks for all the info...I'll start my savings acct now! My children don't need an education anyhow!!

This will be a thread that I'll keep my eye on!

[Terry Thompson]

"...perhaps they will move on to spending the "serious" money on a 3rd party rig like the Indicam. Now that's a perfectly good rig, Terry has worked hard on developing it over the years (I gave him some feedback on it early on) and it's a good product at that price. But even he will admit that the Steadicam Flyer or Pilot have components that perform over and above, the arm in particular."

I will say personally that in regards to the Steadicam Flyer and Steadicam Pilot, I like the Steadicam Pilot better because they seem to have done most things right. They put an extension post on the Steadicam Pilot where as the Flyer has none. The Steadicam Pilot just feels better to me overall. I know they are for different weights of cameras but I'm with Charles on which one I like better.

In comparison of the two Pilots (Steadicam and Indicam) the Steadicam Pilot excels in ease of adjustability on the fly for both the arm, camera stage, and socket block. It's a beautiful piece of equipment as you would expect coming from Tiffen. It's like their big systems but not big.

The Indicam PILOT excels in affordability, camera weight handling capability and range (2 lbs to 14 lbs for the 214 system-down to .5 lbs handheld), ease of balancing, as well as the ability to use the sled handheld. This shouldn't be overlooked because there are many shots which can be done that don't warrant using a full support system. This saves some time and is much easier to tote around. Example...We shot handheld many scenes on a cruise ship highlighting their different activities. Our full support system was used for the "Hairiest Legs" contest (which was about an hour in duration) as well as the final night review of the ship. Enough on that.

The bottom line is...A good steadycam system (generic spelling) will still be in use years after the "latest" camera has been replaced. It's like getting a great computer monitor...You'll be using the same one though you will have replaced your computer many times over.

Sorry for rambling...It's 1 o'clock in the morning and I need sleep.

Tery
Indicam

[Charles Papert]

An hour of "hairiest legs?" oy vey! Hopefully you were in low mode!

Agreed on the sled design of the Pilot, Terry. It's a slam-dunk that the next generation of Flyer will incorporate all of the good features of the Pilot, and likely take it to the next level. I've heard whispers here and there about some of the design elements that are being dreamed about for upcoming models, and there are some amazing ideas being batted around (like concept cars though, hard to say what will see the light of day). The ability to add the Merlin weights onto the ends of the camera stage and lower sled to increase inertia was a genius move and a major part of why the Pilot feels better than the Flyer.

Off to bed with visions of the Hairy Leg contest floating in my brain...gee thanks Terry!

[Terry Thompson]

Sorry Charles...it wasn't a favorite of mine either. Now the Mardi Gras parade around the ship was interesting though.

See you at NAB

Tery
Indicam

[Mikko Wilson]

Originally Posted by Charles Papert

[...] I am considering either my XHA1 on a pilot, or my HV20 on a Merlin. With either, I will potentially have to hardwire, so I would have to get production to rent a component video to HD-SDI converter (easier to mount and power on the Pilot) so we could use the existing cable setup.

It might almost make sense to trade out the A1 for the G1 - that would give you a native HD-SDI output, so no converters [and associated power supplies/cables] to worry about.

- Mikko

[Charles Papert]

Indeed, except that I already own the A1! (was also thinking about EX1, probably a bit easier to find than the G1). The rental on the converter will likely be less. As it turns out, my running rig might actually be ready in time to do the job....will be a good bit heavier than the Pilot but still much lighter than the shooting setup. So dealing with power for the converter should be easy. The only wrinkle is that we might be feeding fiber rather than HD SDI...I'll find out soon enough.

[Brian Boyko]

You know, I actually built one of those things - but instead of throwing it out... I don't know... I think I might actually be able to make one of those things work.

But I'd change up the design more than a little bit.

First, I'd want a way to attach a tripod head. Doesn't need to be a -video- tripod head, but I'd like to angle the camera so that it's level. Second, I'll need some way to attach a gimble to it.

Hmm... *hamster goes round in wheel*