Question on stablizers and audio
 

Hello, I'm new to the fourm and this is a great site!

All we have so far is GL2 and a good PC with Adobe products. Im a person who is intrested in learning more about DV shooting.

I have been researching glidecam2000 (w/smoothshooter) and the flowpod (w/navigator or DV Sportsers). I'm also intrested in audio pak such as an stuido1 or beachtek adapter along with a wireless system and/or shotgun mic (depending on what we are shooting)

- Does the stablizers take in to account you will have adapters on the camera, or at this point, you would want a belt apdaters for your external components (except for the shotgun mic of course).

- Any comments on the glidecam or flowpod set ups?

-I see that Azden is a popular brand for your audio needs. Are there any other companies that I should be looking at? We are looking to get 1 wireless microphone and a wireless lapel system (2 channels so both can be online) (Azden WR22-LH)

Our budget mixed, in the middle as we don't want to go cheap however, we don't want to break the bank as we are just starting video production in our company.

Thanks for you help.

Hi Tom,

Ideally you wouldn't want cables running from your belt to the camera this will just make things more difficult. You should set your camera up with everything on it, if anything can move around just make sure you secure it so it doesn't and that should work fine.

I've never used the flow pod but the smooth shooter is a good starting rig, just remember that the smooth shooter doesn't come with the Glidecam 2000 unless it's being sold as a kit.

I've never used any Azden audio kit so can't comment on that.

Hope that helps.

John.

Thanks, i've looked at members sites that they have posted and see all the gear (on a base of a gc2000, etc..) I understand the smoothshooter and glidecam are two seperate products.

thanks for replaying :)

The Smooth Shooter and Glidecam 2000/4000 are seperate products but work well together.

When putting your rig together, you are going to have to consider a few things:
1. With audio, you will probably have to mount everyting on the sled (glidecam 2000/4000 or Flowpod). Now that brings difficulties in itself since now you are adding to the weight factor for a handheld stabilizer. Exactly the dilemma I found myself in a while back. In the end I went for a system which incorporated a vest.
2. You cam does weigh a bit so consider the impact on your forearm for a handheld system - ouch!
3. On any stabilizing system you don't want cables from your body to the rig - that only serves to upset the balance of the whole thing and more than likely will get in the way at an inopportune moment.
4. By adding audio adaptors etc to the sled, you will have to ensure the balance is correct at all times. This means re-balancing the system each time you add/take away any accessory. Even changing the angle of the viewfinder will upset the balance of the rig. Thats why most operators have a seperate LCD/similar screen for viewing which is mounted on the sled along with the battery and then balanced accordingly.

My end result is that I have everything mounted permanently on the sled and just remove the cam when going from the rig to a tripod etc.

Most will tell you the Glidecam Smooth Shooter is great and I don't disagree - I have the Varizoom system and am now getting decent usable footage. Just remember that good will not come overnight as many users here will tell you.

I was extremely disheartened the first day I put a rig on. However, I brought myself to realise that it was for a purpose and not to look good - with the result that I spend each day practising and practising and I have improved markedly. You tend to also realise you have muscles you didn't have before but its true what they say - you build muscle memory!

Cheers

Jeremy

hmm...i didn't know that....

Thanks for you replay Jeremy. I'm glad I asked questions because I was thinking the learning curve wouldn't be that bad. Now I see I'm gonna have even more difficultly with the rest of the gear.

I'm leaning towards the Glidecam rig only because of the many examples that i've seen (prehaps thats due to Glidecam site having all the examples) where varizoom only has 1 demo.

Question? Do you use the monopod on the flowpod when not attached to the rig? Depending on the shot and lenght, i figured I wouldn't need to suit up all the time. Do you find yourself suiting up regardless of what your shoting?

With the flowpod setup, your have a place to put gear (wireless receiver, etc..) I saw the monitor attachment (im understanding more why its' important now).

Do you have any pics of your set up so I may get more of an idea? That would be great.

Thanks Jeremy :)

Hi Tom

I don't use a flowpod with the system I have. Mine has a traditional "sled" (Aviator) which I don't use handheld - haven't even bothered trying. Its one of the reasons I bought the system so I didn't have to go handheld :)

IMHO, using a flowpod with the monitor attached and then going handheld afterwards would be an issue for me since I would have to re-balance the rig again once I want to re-attach the monitor and goodies - unless you use it without a monitor and only a flowpod with your cam. My system is setup such that once I have finished using it, I detach the cam (I've put on a quick release which matches my tripods although the system does come with one) and pack away in its travel case. When I want to use it again, its a simple matter of re-attaching the cam, doing a quick finetune of the balance (usully no more than 3-4 minutes), and I'm good to go again.

Your advantage with something like the Varizoom Navigator is that you could add a sled at a later stage - or right off from the start. I would give Tom or Nate a call at varizoom and discuss your needs with them - these guys are extremely helpfull

I think you'll find yourself quickly looking to replace the Azden wireless systems. Wireless is one of those areas where you get what you pay for, and if you are looking to do this professionally, you need to get to at least the Sennheiser G2s. Or even better, the Lectrosonic 100 series.