Steadicam Flyer Questions
 

A few questions about the steadicam Flyer. From the pictures, it looks like you have to "float" the sled on your left side, while the arm is on the right. To me, this seems to favor left handed people, please tell me im wrong. On the mini, the LCD panel is worthless. The color balance is way off, and the resolution is poor. Does the Flyer have a decent LCD panel? or is it a 16:9 version of the minis panel. The NP-1 battery mount is cheap looking plastic on the mini. Does the Flyer have the same battery mounts? Whats up with the two tone grey on black? To me, this is prosumerish looking. The minis black on black is more pro in my opinion. Thanks for any feedback.

John

THe vest bracket plate can be switched to fit the other side if you are a left handed person. It works both ways. So for left handed persons you would work on the right instead of the left.

The LCD is almost perfect. I havn't tried the one that the mini uses but if you said it was bad than you would be very happy with this one. I did a test and a 5-10min video of it in action which I planned to put up on HBS later with lots of pics and a review.

The one I had came with two Anton Bauer Dionic batteries. The setup is amazing.

I agree, I do prefer the black on black but the performance of this system makes up for it - trust me, it's amazing.

Thanks for the input charles, greatly appreciated. I couldnt find any specs on the monitor other than "Color LCD Monitor" in the marketing. The steadicam forum seems to rave about it too, so ill have to give it a test drive at B&H.

John

Well, you are in for a really good time. The smoothness of that arm is astonishing. Just one thing though, I found the side-to-side balancing a too hard to adjust under load and this was with 2,5 kgs camera. Maybe the one I tested only had this problem but it was a little annoying. Again, all these small nit nats just disappear when flying the arm.

The Flyer's original LCD was very impressive, and I have just learned that new units will be shipped with an even brighter version. Also an HD version of the rig is now available.

Wait.... Charles, did you say that there is a HD Flyer? - Where is this information from? is this confirmed?


Ths side to side ajustment on the flyer is a little tight in flight becuase the rig is putitng pressure on the threads.. you shoudl reall do this adjustment without the rig in flight.. but this is also the case for the big rigs, and only ever really needs ot be done once and the same setting will fit most people as we are just about all stright side to side (regardless of our belly size..)

- Mikko

Mikko, I heard this while at the Tiffen factory. It involves an HD LCD monitor (not as fancy, big or expensive as the one used on their bigger HD rigs), an SDI feed down the post and 24v battery capability via two batteries. (why? uh--because they could, not because anyone needed 24v for HD cameras).

I believe it costs about $9-10K.

As far as side-to-side adjustment, with the big rigs this is done by shifting the rig so that it flies on the same side as the attachment point of the arm, which frees up the torque on this axis so you can make the adjustment. I'm not sure if this will work with the tool-free adjustment on the Flyer, but give it a try.

Aahh.. makes sence about the HD..
If only they had a analog component option for these little HDV cameras.. but the cables wouldn't fit down the post!
Thanks for your calification on this :)

- Mikko