Tripod mounted stabiliser?

[Peter Rush]

After yet another marquee reception with a false floor that has so much give that someone only needs to sneeze near one of my locked off cameras (I use Manfrotto heavy duty light stands) and the image wobbles like a ship at sea.

What a good idea it would be for someone to come up with a mountable gimble that keeps a camera level in these circumstances - unless there's already one out there?

Pete

[Chris Harding]

Hi Pete

A gimbal only corrects X, Y and Z axis errors it doesn't absorb movement which is what you really need ..something like a shock absorbing system so vibrations from the floor are isolated. A stedicam dual spring arm would do that to a certain extent unless you have a cool $100K for a helicopter gyro mount!!

If it's a marquee the roof isn't that high so fasten a monopod up in the roof and attach the camera upside down and keep filming ...it won't be affected by the floor jumping around and you just flip the track in post so everyone is the right way up!! I'm assuming you would want something cheap and easy so suggesting you build oil dampening cylinders for each tripod leg would be an overkill.

I saw a post here a while back where the guy was filming a rock band and the bass was bouncing the floor and his tripod all night.

Chris

[Peter Riding]

+1 for using clamps on fixtures and fittings rather than lightstands.

You can join two Manfrotto super clamps together using a special stud which makes the join rock solid and will not unscrew (unlike if you use a friction arm). There are two types of this stud and they vary by how many degrees the two clamps can be offset from each other - if you see what I mean. Here's one:

Cokin Filters | Kata Bags | Bushnell Binoculars | Photographic Accessory Specialists | CameraKing Manfrotto 061 Joining Stud for Super Clamp

and the other:

Cokin Filters | Kata Bags | Bushnell Binoculars | Photographic Accessory Specialists | CameraKing Manfrotto 061RA Right Angle Joining Stud for 2 Super Clamps 035

These heavy duty flexible arms slot straight into a superclamp and so are not prone to unscrewing at the clamp/arm join:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Manfrotto-52.../dp/B000RTU68U

I've only shot once using the cam upside down and it was a PITA framing - it was much worse in post than it appeared to be on the day. So I always now aim to keep the cam the right way up. Also if the cam is upside down you should probably also use a safety lanyard in case it drops off and hits someone.

Pete

[Peter Rush]

Well in this instance it was a very windy day and the struts supporting the marquee were moving around as well - There's an invention waiting here for the right engineer IMO!

I will check out those clamps though - might be handy for other similar situations

Pete