HG10 small inexpensive stabilizer?
 

I have a indicam and pilot with upgraded arm for my larger camera, and I have a glidecam 4000 that I almost never use, but I am having a lot of fun playing with this new little hg10 and fisheye that I want to use it on the stabilizer to play around, only I hate having to switch everything from the larger camera setup to the much much smaller one, so I am looking for a inexpensive sled that I can use on my arm to just play a bit, I don't like the glidecam and think the merlin is more than I want to spend just for this, so what are my options? even if its not the best quality, it has to hold a tiny camera and fisheye and maybe small little light at most, and its really just for playing around, for anything important I will switch to the better sled or bigger camera/sled, so inexpensive is the key. Another indicam pilot is $450 I think so anything less that is reasonable for a little camera like this?

Stephen,

You might look for a Steadicam JR on ebay. We bought one so our company could make and adaptor to fit it to our support system and the JR was a good price. It will fly your hg10 very well.

There are usually some on ebay on a regular basis.

Smooth Shooting

Tery
Indicam

Go to a post office, and use the "self service" scale to weigh both of your setups. Then head to a sporting goods store and buy a small weight plate that is as close the the difference as possible. Then head to home depot/etc... and get a 1/4" 20 machine screw that can replace the one you're currently using on your stabilizer now, except long enough to get through the weight and into the camera without poking the innards of the cam out. If need be, buy a couple of 1/4" fender washers to take up the extra threads on the top. If you want to get really fancy, find some plastic or metal bushings to reduce the size of the weight's hole down to the 1/4" bolt's shaft, so there's less play.

Assemble the HG10 in this order - stabilizer plate, weight, washers, camera, (with the bushings inside the weight), and skewer the whole thing with the machine screw. Add a little gaff tape or better yet - carpet tape - under the camera, so it keeps from slipping , and screw the whole thing down. Now your HG10 is the same weight as the setup you're comfortable with, and will fly on your setup. Total cost <$15

I use a similar system when I fly small cameras on my Steadicam, except I bought a plate of steel and drilled/tapped holes all over it to allow more mounting options. But I like to fly approx. 30lbs on the top of my rig (unless running or doing live TV), so I make up the difference with weight plates. Saves trying to find another rig with like performance.