Opteka steadyvid pro steadicam review

[Alan Lilly]

Here is my review of the opteka steadyvid pro.
Let me know what you think.

Opteka Steadyvid Steadicam Review - YouTube

[Chris Soucy]

Very impressive, Alan.....................

Succinct, detailed and very well presented. Congratulations.

A bit of the "green eyed monsters" over that workshop, heck, how to fit a factory into your basement - here's how, start with a basement the size of Madison Square Garden, build.................


CS

[Alan Lilly]

Thanks... that's what I like to hear! I'm glad I accomplished what I intended (for at least one viewer anyway). :)

[Chris Soucy]

I wouldn't take the deafening silence too hard, they're a pretty conservative bunch in this Forum.

BTW, how, exactly, do you get about the house if that factory is under it? Motorcycle, go cart or Sedgeway?

Regards,

CS

[Alan Lilly]

Ha Ha... actually the wide angle lens has a tendency to make a space look larger than it is.
I used a 10-22mm lens at 10mm on my 1.7x crop factor 7D camera.
But I did buy the house because I fell in love with the awesome large basement!

[Chris Barcellos]

Alan:

I have the Black Bird, and can tell you the features seem fairly simple. One thing the Black Bird adds us a cross bar at bottom that may help reduce side to side tilt or skew. It does create a potential of a few extra contact points to get hung up on, too, and your rig seems to do well as designed. With that shop, though, certainly would seem you could experiement with adding something like that to this rig if you felt it was necessary.

[Mike Dulay]

Hi Alan,

And here I thought I was alone. I had a Blackbird and now the Steadyvid Pro as well. They are worlds different. Until I watched your video I didn't realize the middle weight was two parts. The documentation said 1x 335g & 2x 90g weights. When I weighed these on a scale they read a bit different from documented so I counted that as a typo. What can you expect from a stabilizer that comes with one double-sides sheet as documentation. :-)

I'm working up some tips on balancing and flying it.
Primitive But Effective: Tips for the Opteka Steavyvid Pro - Part 2

Do you also find that it goes out of balance easily when you do the drop test set it down?

[Alan Lilly]

Yes, it does go out of balance very easily (drop test, setting it down, ... etc).
It is also susceptible to wind, but I guess many steadicams would be.
It only takes me a second to rebalance and I can still get pretty good shots with it, but I'm sure I would be most happy with the merlin2 in every way except price.... but the steadyvid wins on price.

[Mike Dulay]

All stabilizers are susceptible to wind.

What's the heaviest setup you've used on the opteka? I tried a 7D+Tokina+giottos mh621 and it was too top heavy with the standard weights. It wasn't quite to the 5 lb stated rating.

[Alan Lilly]

I use my 7d with canon 10-22mm lens with no problem. I only need the large weight and the rounded smallest weight.

[D.J. Ammons]

Thanks Alan! We use a Glidecam 4000HD with a Flycam arm and vest to fly our Sony V1's but we are looking at getting a Canon XA10 or Canon T4i which are too light for the 4000HD.

While we would love to have the Merlin the price will probably mean we start out with this Opteka. I am very impressed with it for the price.

[Alan Lilly]

For the price, I am happy with the results.... but just realize that you will have to readjust the balance between shots. It's not difficult and takes only a few seconds. I wonder if the merlin needs this constant tweaking?

[Mike Dulay]

@Alan
When I do the side to side test, sometimes I feel something shift on the handle. When you're doing adjustments, how tight do you set your silver thumbscrews? I'm wondering if that's the internal screws or stage slipping. Happens more often after I have the rig horizontal (parallel to ground). Could be the same thing whenever we set it down.

[Alan Lilly]

I have the silver screws just tight enough so I can still adjust the balancing black screws.
I don't get any noticeable shifting when I move quickly side to side.
But, I can't do the "drop" test without causing the center of balance to shift.. but that's ok.. I don't need to do a drop test.

Since I have to adjust my camera settings (focus, iso, aperture, shutter) for each shot... I also check and adjust the center of balance. It only takes a few seconds, so it's not a big deal, but it would be nice if I didn't have to adjust balance or camera settings. But, I will have to wait for successor to the 7d and a merlin to have hopes of eliminating that.

[Alan Lilly]

Here another result with my opteka steadyvid while I was in Japan...

A Walk in Japan 2 - YouTube