You people are definitely enthusiastic. Please - no one needs to feel like they should go buy my book. If you want to, great, and I appreciate every sale, and I appreciate the suggestion Greg. I have other work that supports my son and I, so the sale of my plans is a little added bonus that shows up each month. If you don't need the plans, don't buy them. Use the money to get some DV tapes or something. Armando, if you are providing a service and also doing machine work, by all means you are entitled to be paid. It's worth it to everyone involved. If I were back in the position I was in 4 years ago - wanting a stabilizer with no clue how to build one - I would be pitching in to this idea.

Charles started a similar deal over on HBS where he got a group of us to go in on some socket blocks from Baer-Bel (a German professional stabilizer manufacturer). It's difficult to get people to commit but definitely worth a try. It's so much cheaper.

David - um...I already feel like I'm hogging this topic. You can email me if you have questions about comparisons. I'm not biased - I'll tell you exactly what's better on their rigs. If others are curious I can post here as well, I'm just not sure if it is the proper place to do so. It is only my 2nd post on this great website, I feel like the new kid in school.

To conclude here, I'm going to be manipulative and say if anyone needs to email me, you can get the address on my personal website, which you can find a link to in my profile. (This way I force people into browsing my unknown webspace - a showcase for my work....tee hee...)


Cody

Glad to finally see you over on this end Cody. It was about time ;) glad you could straigten things out here. Well i won't go into any more details has my Friend Cody as already done that and has given his blessings.

BTW Cody, the correct ter or word is 'Sverige' :)

Now, that was what I meant Armando. I hope you understood what I was getting at? Good luck in your venture. I'll keep checking this forum to see how things are going.

Cody, feel free to post here relating difference between the rigs. That's what this site is for - to get as accurate information as possible on all these different goodies we can buy!

BTW: Have your book, great stuff - although I wish there were a metric version :)

Aaron

Sverige? I wasn't even close.

So Aaron is the one everyone has been praying to all these millenia. I think New Zealand is the place most Americans dream of visiting - myself included. I had a metric version of my plans at one time, but I couldn't confirm it's accuracy because I was theorizing on alot of it. Primary unit of measurement here in the States is Imperial. I didn't want to put out a product that I hoped might be right, so I pulled it. Metric is a great system and I wish it was more widespread here.

Okay, let's look at the rigs David mentioned - the Glidecam and the DVRig Pro. First realize that the DVRig Pro is a shoulder support - not a true stabilizer. Shoulder supports provide more stability than handheld, but not near as much as a stabilizer rig. The DVRig is a really cool shoulder support because it allows booming and has a belly post for extra support. I would say this is a good choice for tight and crowded places. You will notice a vast improvement in your ability to get smoother footage. The camera is still relying on you the operator as its means of support so there will inherently be motion in your shots, but it will most likely be tolerable motion.

A stabilizer rig puts the camera out on its own support. It has its own shock absorber arm to help keep your body's movements away from the camera. Stabilizers are a bit bulky and I don't recommend them for tight or crowded places unless it is a choreographed scene for a movie.

Let's compare Glidecam to my original rig outlined in my book CAMERA STABILIZER PLANS:

Know that I never had any intention of competing with any stabilizer manufacturer. My plans are for a homebuilt stabilizer rig. I wanted to make a movie and I wanted a stabilizer but could not afford one. So I looked for plans on building one - there weren't any. So I decided to try and build. My goal was to do it as cheap and with as many easy-to-find parts as possible, but still have the necessary key features to make it work well.

That should tell you one major difference: Glidecam rigs are not homebuilt. They are well made from specially created parts.

Glidecam has a product line ranging from amateur to professional. So let's rule out their Gold series (very high quality stuff that my homebuilt could never compare with). Instead we can look at their V-series. The V-8, 2000, and 4000 sleds to me are undesireable because the gimbal can not be adjusted up and down the center post. Instead you have to apply weights to the bottom until you get it balanced just right. This is not a good idea. It's okay for a novice, but life becomes so much easier once your gimbal can move up and down, which can be achieved on the V-16 and V-20 sleds.

Yes, the gimbal on my rig moves up and down. This makes my sled better, right? Well, let's not forget it's still homebuilt. Every pro operator knows that the key to a fantastic stabilizer is a fantastic well MACHINED gimbal. Mine will get you some decent shots, but know that a good pro gimbal will cost you $4000 or more. Right now I have some plans I made for a gimbal I want to have built, and the current quote is about $600. So back to my original book, I kept it simple and cheap. How does it compare to Glidecam's gimbal? Theirs is made better. But they both use the same principles of 3-axis rotation.

I am a huge advocate of the back-mounted vest. I've been in my rig for over 3 hours straight with my back-mount vest with little fatigue. I went for a half-hour in my front-mount and had to take it off. Glidecam uses a front-mount vest.

I was never too impressed with Glidecam's arm, but they just came out with the smooth shooter - and it looks awesome. I'd take one if I had the chance.

Okay, there's my brief overview - hope it helps.



Cody

I've read a few threads about home-built stabilizers constructed with Cody's plans... and from what I can tell... it 'aint for the faint of heart. A lot of people take 6 months or more to get one done. I'd be really surprised if this one-time deal hurt Cody's sales much... if at all. I've known about Cody's book for a while... and I've wanted to buy it... but the challenging process of actually building this thing has kept it on the back burner for me. If everybody got in on Armando's deal AND bought the book as a royalty... that would be more then fair.

Armando... I'll be in LA in 3 weeks. If you think it would behoove me to stop by... and you're somewhere in the LAX-Hollywood area... I'll drop in.

If you can put together a decent steadicam for under $1K I will DEFINITELY be onboard.

As a guy who is constantly trying to do nice DIY stuff I think it's incredibly generous to extend the favor of your business and connections to the DVinfo members. I'm always torn on whether or not to give away details of my work and R&D money...

I will say one thing though... you don't have hardly any posts and you've come on talking about a group buy of $1K from each member that signs up... LOL... I'll fly back out when they're done and pick mine up in person...

Not equipped to assemble
 

I am not equipped nor skilled enough to take on a hardware assembly project of this scope and expense. While others might feel confident and tooled enough to build this on their own, it would be a near set up for failure for me to invest a lot of money in parts and tools only to put it together poorly and come out with a second-rate product.

Half the success of this product, I would contend, is the accurate assembly of this product. I hope there is an option to buy this unit assembled. The whole is indeed worth more than the sum of its parts.

I agree with David, I'm not skilled enough to put this thing together (unless it's very easy to do).

I would be interested in a assembled solution.

And I'm very interested, please keep us updated on what the situation is with this idea.

can i make a suggestion? why not have cody name on the rig. if you guys don't like the idea, just pretend nothing was mention here. sorry...

ed

what about...
 

"Cody Cam", or
"Codylizer"

;p

FTR, I'm more than happy to buy one of Cody's books if this deal goes through.

<<<-- Originally posted by Cody Deegan :
To conclude here, I'm going to be manipulative and say if anyone needs to email me, you can get the address on my personal website, which you can find a link to in my profile. (This way I force people into browsing my unknown webspace - a showcase for my work....tee hee...)

Cody -->>>

Well Cody, it's not completely unknown. I have been there and looked at all of the videos. Heck, I 'almost' feel like I know the whole Deegan family. :-)

My favorite clip is the one at the log cabin with the green grass with the pass by the weedeater(love the audio). I really felt like I had been carried away to a serene place while watching that clip. Good stablizer work and good sound bites.

Thanks for finally coming over here. There are a lot of good people on this site and we're more than happy to have you become one of them.

regards,

-gb-

Thanks Greg, that was a nice reponse from you. I have to point out though that the homepage in my profile is not my Stabilizer Plans website - it is my personal website that shows off my artistic and filmmaking work. But thanks for the comments on my clips and welcoming me aboard.

Oh, and really folks - there's no need to put my name on anything. I'm not a glory-seeker. But thanks.



Cody

I'd definitely be interested in a set of machined parts, but as I have the book I'd love to put it together myself. Obviously as inexpensive yet decent quality is important.

Group Buy
 

Let me know, I could be interested if you'd be interested in shipping to Australia and the price was right. I also have purchased the Cody's book/plans last year.

By crikey, it's Hackett!

Long time, mate! Since August, anyway.

Are you coming up here for NAB and/or WEVA again?