Video shot by my stablizer[2]

[Mikko Wilson]

wow...
*applause*

Thankyou Leigh, that cleared up a lot! :-)

Unfortunatly I'm stuck on a modem connection at the moment, so I haven't had a chance to watch your video clips yet, So I'll leave those coments to the others.

But as far as operating goes, and I think you'v allready been told this on the steadicamforum too, but before learning steadi, it is crucial to be a good regular operator too. - All the normal rules of shooting apply and form the base of steadicam shooting.
Keep it up, practice practice practice. And try to find some proper instruction somewhere in person. Again i'll say Workshop beacuse we always do.
But here is a sugestion from me for your next clip for the guys to review:
Shoot a short video (subject unimportant) WITHOUT your stabilizer. - show us your skills on a Tripod, and handheld (dont' worry about stability.. just show us the pictures you make)

- In fact i'd sugest simplifying it even furthur and just posting some still pictures, either shot as stills, or frame grabs from video. - And tell us why you posted them, show your best work and tell us why it's good, and also post some failed still shots, and tell us what is wrong with them.

First a picture, then moving pictures, then moving camera!

- Mikko

[Leigh Wanstead]

Hi Mikko,

Thanks for the encouragement.

I started practising still photo once I got my gs400 several months ago.

Here is the photo which I think was my best shot.

http://www.salenz.com/picture/IMGA1929.JPG

I love this photo as it is quite unique. You can see shallow depth of field. The focus is on the eye of the bug and it draw attention to the bug. All the back ground is out of focus. The skin of the bug likes knight's cloth. The color was painted like gold. 8 )

Here is the photo including the bug compare to my finger.

I shot some photos and I put on my site for your reference.

http://www.salenz.com/picture/

All shot by a minidv camera using still photo mode. The minidv camera is gs400.

The bad one is this one.

http://www.salenz.com/picture/house.jpg

Because my camera is just normal minidv camera which is not suitable for this kind of view. I found that my gs400 is really good at shoot tiny object. For big view, I need a digital SLR still camera. I don't want to spent extra money on SLR right now. So I just use my gs400 for practise.

Regards
Leigh

[Terry Thompson]

<<<-- Originally posted by Mikko Wilson : Great post Terry (and CP)
But MS word missed one.. (and I'm saying this for the benefit of anyone reading... Sorry if you allready know this Terry..) But it's Steadicam with an I - not a Y! :)


Mikko,

I use the term "steadycam" in the generic sense to refer to all camera stabilization systems (like mine) which owe their existence to the original "Steadicam". I spell it differently on purpose in respect to Garrett Brown (whom I have met) and all the Steadicam operators like Charles Papert (whom I have also met). We own a great deal to them.

Thanks for letting me clear this up.

Tery

[Charles Papert]

Ironically, the rig I use is not made by Tiffen, thus it is not a true Steadicam either...!

Leigh, thanks for your post, it cleared up a lot and please feel free to elaborate at length any time.

I have an impossibly early call tomorrow so I will try to give you notes on the latest video when I can get to it.

[Leigh Wanstead]

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles Papert : Ironically, the rig
I have an impossibly early call tomorrow so I will try to give you notes on the latest video when I can get to it. -->>>

Hi Charles,

Thanks

Don't worry about that.

Regards
Leigh

[Terry Thompson]

Charles,

I stand corrected but the idea is the same. I know you have a deep respect for Garrett and the origional Steadicam as well.

Even though there are many steadycam type rigs out there that are extremely well made like the MK-V they all stem from the same place. Just giving credit where credit is due.

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

Leigh,

I'm going to take a look at you last video and see what I can see...It looks like your server is down so I will look tomorrow.

Tery

[Mikko Wilson]

Terry:
I suspected this was the case. - I just hate when it's a misconseption, not the highly earned respect the name and it's history deserves. (yeah, [must show worthynes...] i'v met GB a few times too :-) - not CP yet though ;-)

Leigh:
I'm writing this post in 2 parts; this first part while I download the photos..
And I'll use this time to make a technical sugestion:
I would sugest compressing what you post somewhat.
Raw images are nice, and crucial for picture quality in production, but not for reviewing camera work.
Of course if focus is beeing addressed then sharper is better.
However in the situation we are workign in now, where we are looking at the other elements of shooting, framing, composition, and movement it doens't need as big images.
So please: can you shrink your files considerably before posting them. 1.5meg files per picture is just too large for me to download, use an image editor to bring them down to a few hundred k. - Those pictures you post wont' even fit on my monitor so that i can see them properly!
- The images on my site (http://mikko.n3.net/photos) show enough for what we are looking for, and they are only 650x433 and 89kb in size.
- Same goes for video, granted i knwo it's much bigger of course, but we dont' need full frame sizes here. - Heck very few camera viewfinders (and steadicam monitors) show full resolution!

Ok, enoguh technical mumbo.. the fiels have downloaded so i'll take a look at them:

first: The bug.
Cool photo! definatly has that "wow" element. and it's well framed and good composition too. The Eye appears ot be the most important part of the picture, it's in the right place (rule of 3rds) and it's sharp. The rest of the bug is cropped out, but that's ok, it's not meant to be in the picture beacuse it's a Extreme Close Up. The soft focus tells us that it's unimportant.

The house.
Yeah i'll agree, this is a preay boring shot. It's good for showing a (your?) house, but it doens't have much of a subject. With no real foreground it has no dpth to it, and really dones't look too special as a picture. That beeing said, it does show the house well, and maybe with the camera slightly more to the right with the flowers more as foreground, it's a very good wide or establishing shot of the house. "Here is a house" - the house is well within the frame, and has a propotionate amount of "headroom" - it's a very balanced shot.
As an intereting shot it fails, but as a basic shot showing a house, all teh elements of a basic picture are there.

I dont' have time to check all your pictures, agian becuse they are rather big to download.

I took a moment to download one more "flower1.jpg".
This shot failed in my oppinon. When i first looked at it, the first thign i saw was the house in the background. The flowers (which i presume to be the subject of the picture) are off balance, they are tucked away on the bottom righ of the frame, while the top and left side are empty. - That would be a good example of too much headroom.
I threw it into photoshop and cropped it quickly to my oppinion of a better composition. - file: http://mikko.n3.net/files/flower1_2.jpg
See the difference?

Don't worry about what camera you are using. I read an article about a guy who's favorite picture was taken with a disposable camera. (was a cool shot too). and Dont' futz too much with exposure, focus, etc for these stills.

You next assignment, take some pictures of people, or animals, and post them here (smaller files please). even the same person in the same setting, but with a bunch of placements within the shot. - give us 3 shots with different headroom and see if we choose the same one as you think is best.

I am off on vacation skiing this coming week, but I will be back on next week with hopes of seeing lots of (smaller) stills! Keep shooting!

- Mikko

[Charles Papert]

Leigh...I see my estimation of what sort of response you were likely to get in the Steadicam forum largely came true (certainly the part about "take a workshop")!

Not to pour fuel on the fire, but I could suggest this: even though making it to a workshop seems like an unsurmountable dream, it actually makes good business sense as you are thinking about getting into the manufacturing end of things. Learning as much as you can about your product and application and techniques etc. is a solid investment.

If however your goal is to get good enough at operating to be able to make a decent demo video to sell your rig, and that is all you are waiting on, wouldn't it make sense to hire an experienced operator to take the footage with your rig? I know you are in NZ--too bad this conversation didn't happen a year ago when I trekked through both islands!; regardless, you could even ship them your rig anywhere in the world. Whatever that would cost would be offset against the time you are currently losing, which equals revenue--each day that you aren't selling rigs, you are losing that income stream.

Personally, I think that if you had a solid product that is ready to sell, you should put up your website and get it out there even if you don't have a demo video yet. I would perhaps recommend that you when you do have that demo ready, you post it in either QT, Windows or Real--asking people to download the Divx plug-in may turn some off. And my two cents about stabilization video is that it's much more important to deliver a high frame rate than a large image, if you need to compromise on the size of the file.

[Terry Thompson]

Mikko,

Good job cropping. It does make a difference in the "focus" of the picture. I didn't know what I was supposed to notice most with the original picture. I probably would have pulled the dead flowers out is I was trying to show who beautiful they were.

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

Leigh,

I'm looking at coming to NZ in a couple of years for my and my wife's 30th anniversary. I want to see Tonga, Samoa, and NZ because I have always loved the South Seas. I'm also looking forward to lamb with mint sauce!

What part of New Zeland do you live in?

I agree with Mikko about file size. Yours are really too large for most of us on the web.

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

Charles,

What were you doing in NZ? Any kind of movie and if so...what movie? Just wondering.


Tery

[Leigh Wanstead]

<<<-- Originally posted by Terry Thompson : Leigh,

I'm looking at coming to NZ in a couple of years for my and my wife's 30th anniversary. I want to see Tonga, Samoa, and NZ because I have always loved the South Seas. I'm also looking forward to lamb with mint sauce!

What part of New Zeland do you live in?

-->>>

Hi Terry,

Thanks for asking. I live in North Shore City, Auckland. It is a quite nice place and I can go swimming on the beach everyday in summer. The place I really like is Singapore where I can swim whole year on the beach. 8 ) But the law in Singapore is pretty strict which I don't like.

Regards
Leigh

[Leigh Wanstead]

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles Papert : Leigh...I see my estimation of what sort of response you were likely to get in the Steadicam forum largely came true (certainly the part about "take a workshop")!

Not to pour fuel on the fire, but I could suggest this: even though making it to a workshop seems like an unsurmountable dream, it actually makes good business sense as you are thinking about getting into the manufacturing end of things. Learning as much as you can about your product and application and techniques etc. is a solid investment.

If however your goal is to get good enough at operating to be able to make a decent demo video to sell your rig, and that is all you are waiting on, wouldn't it make sense to hire an experienced operator to take the footage with your rig? I know you are in NZ--too bad this conversation didn't happen a year ago when I trekked through both islands!; regardless, you could even ship them your rig anywhere in the world. Whatever that would cost would be offset against the time you are currently losing, which equals revenue--each day that you aren't selling rigs, you are losing that income stream.

Personally, I think that if you had a solid product that is ready to sell, you should put up your website and get it out there even if you don't have a demo video yet. I would perhaps recommend that you when you do have that demo ready, you post it in either QT, Windows or Real--asking people to download the Divx plug-in may turn some off. And my two cents about stabilization video is that it's much more important to deliver a high frame rate than a large image, if you need to compromise on the size of the file. -->>>

Hi Charles,

Thanks for the suggestion.

It seems that I can't pickup my operating problem on my 17 inch lcd monitor initially. Only after spending hours watching my low mode video on a projector, I can clearly see the problem now.

I spent around 20 years using computer including ten years working as a programmer and I feel that I am competent enough to write some general business software now. Thus I think that I should do the same to my stablizer business. I am not in a hurry to make money as stablizer business is just my part time business and I have my main job as a programmer to support me as I stated in my previous post. I will give a time frame for 8 years for my stablizer business to grow up.

Regards
Leigh

[Charles Papert]

<<It seems that I can't pickup my operating problem on my 17 inch lcd monitor initially. Only after spending hours watching my low mode video on a projector, I can clearly see the problem now. >>

And what would that be?

<<What were you doing in NZ?>>

Strictly sight-seeing. 6 weeks through NZ and Oz, loved all of it.

[Leigh Wanstead]

<<<-- Originally posted by Charles Papert : <<It seems that I can't pickup my operating problem on my 17 inch lcd monitor initially. Only after spending hours watching my low mode video on a projector, I can clearly see the problem now. >>

And what would that be?>>

Obvious one is you said in your previous post start shot around several seconds shaking, end shot without too much thinking about how to end, thus cause hesitation to end the shot and cause it not fluid ending.

Less obvious one is that I use my left hand constantly touching the camera and tilting the post.

Maybe you can tell me other missing one I have not figure out yet.

Regards
Leigh

[Mikko Wilson]

Leigh,
I'm back and hoping for some new excersize stills, but none i see!


- Mikko..

[Leigh Wanstead]

<<<-- Originally posted by Mikko Wilson : Leigh,
I'm back and hoping for some new excersize stills, but none i see!


- Mikko.. -->>>

Hi Mikko,

How was your holiday? Fun? 8 ) Skiing is my dream hobby too. But I never try it.

I got some photo in my PC and I am selecting some photo for our review. I am hoping to upload to my server in next two days.

I have uploaded some photo I shot last month.
Click here My post date is from April 2nd, 2005 03:58

Just check the one mark with small size photo as you have slow internet connection. They are around three times smaller than full size photo.

Tell me what you think of these photo. 8 )

Regards
Leigh