Hi folks,

Thought I'd contribute here. I strapped a X-10 and EX-1 to a shooter who never used a camera stabilizer before. I gave him a five minute lesson on operating and sent him on his way. Some of the shots are good, some not so good. This is to illustrate some out-of-the-box performance of the system.

Glidecam X-10 Footage (http://www.thirdshiftmedia.com/mainstage.html)

Judging by the shots, it looks very smooth. Again, I'm only looking at the ability of the arm to absorb the shocks and it seems to be doing it's job. But I will let CP take a look and see if I am right, since his experience out weighs mine.

There really isn't an "out of box" performance yardstick with a stabilizer as it is so dependent on the operator. This guy did well for 5 minutes of instruction, but I'll guess that he's a pretty decent handheld shooter as his compositions were pretty instinctive (not too many chopped heads or massive headroom) and his walk may have been fairly "soft" (optimal handheld style). Putting a stabilizer on someone who is not already a good camera operator delivers results that can be virtually unwatchable. It all depends.

Outside of that, a bit more time and learning to not grip the post so hard and this guy will do very well I would say.

I did a demo with a Smooth Shooter recently and while it is by no means my favorite, it does a pretty good job of eliminating footsteps.

There really isn't an "out of box" performance yardstick with a stabilizer as it is so dependent on the operator. This guy did well for 5 minutes of instruction, but I'll guess that he's a pretty decent handheld shooter as his compositions were pretty instinctive (not too many chopped heads or massive headroom) and his walk may have been fairly "soft" (optimal handheld style). Putting a stabilizer on someone who is not already a good camera operator delivers results that can be virtually unwatchable. It all depends.

Charles - yes the operator for this footage was already a skilled handheld operator. Thank you for the comments, and I see where you are going with this. I will take this opportunity to clear things up. When I said "out-of-the-box" results, I was going on the assumption that anyone who is considering buying a stabilizer would already be skilled at operating a camera handheld (or on a tripod, jib, dolly, crane, etc.), and they would understand how to properly frame a shot. If someone who had never shot a frame of video in their life and went out and purchased this system, I seriously doubt the footage would be as good.

Hey i was just checking out this thread and i have a glidecam x-10 with a xh a1

Heres my Demo reel with some steadicam shots.
MySpaceTV Videos: TP Camera Reel by TP Film Page (http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=46714801)

I cant find a way to edit my original post. The video is now removed