Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Why do you say you are shooting blind? You have the nice screen on your GH3 that you can look at without even having to extend it out. I know you can't determine if things are in focus 100%, but it does give you a good idea.


Hmmm... considering everything you say, I don't see any reason to buy the much more expensive Olympus 12mm f/2 anymore... the Panasonic 14mm f/2.5 should do the job. Is there any particular reason you chose the blackbird? A friend with much more experience in video recommended I get a Wondlan Ares. But this Blackbird seems to do the job very, very well!

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Yes, I meant flying blind in terms of determining focus, I can clearly see what my frame is but I can't judge critical focus from the distance I"m keeping the steadicam in front of me when I"m flying, especially not with a very fast prime, focus distance would be just a few cm and that you can only maintain if you have your eye on a loupe against the viewfinder. Btw, the gh3 lcd screen is not that great, my 550d has a much higher rez screen, it's ok to focus with a loupe but just ok.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Don't know that one but I do know I can set up my blackbird in a few minutes between taking it out of it's case, assemble it and having it ready to fly and time can be crucial as well during weddings. There was no particular reason I choose the blackbird but I like using it. I might get the tokina 11-16 f2.8 as 11mm should be roughly the same fov on the gh3 as a 14mm on a 1,5 crop camera.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Btw, I wouldn't bother with the ares steadicam, just looking at below photo I"m sure you can't take it seriously.
http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225...R7ykVfkf8w.jpg

Better get a glidecam 1000, 2000, a merlin or a blackbird, more expensive but at least the best steadicams in the lower price range, from what I have read the merlin is not so easy to balance so maybe something to take into consideration.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Haha nice pic, definitely convinced me to buy it. But seriously, it works well!


About the Tokina, I really considered it myself, but it's double the price of the Panny 14mm and it's slightly slower, plus you need an adapter, plus it's heavier, plus it's bigger, plus no AF (I also take pics occasionally, when I get bored). I also use AF with the touch AF feature, which I really like on the GH3.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

If the GH3 had peaking, you could judge focus. Case in point it doesn't matter how great the IQ is if the ergonomics cause you to bring home lots of blurry footage or fail to bring home footage at all from missed shots.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Or watch a bunch of youtubes and see how easy and cheap it is to build one. I am. What really matters is the cost, the total weight and most important, the final look in video. Spend time learning to to tune them for weight balance (all of them, including the ones Noa mentioned) need that and spend time learning to use them. None of them are real easy at first to get "good" results. To build one? Takes hardly nothing but to drill a few holes from parts bought at stores like Home Depot. You can also find DIY steadicams low priced online that someone else built and they look good too. I rather spend one hour and forty bucks instead of $800 for a Merlin 2 and I can get the same results. Watch the training videoss for the Merlin 2 and you can learn a lot and see how it all works. Amazon has the Traxxas U joints used for the gimbal at $6 and I saw it for $10 at a hobby store one block from where I live which I will buy since Amazon shipping/handling gets it up past $10 too. I can buy a jump rope at Walmart for $4 that has a handle grip with a skateboard bearing already installed. Or build your own handle and find a bearing.

If you got $600 or more and feel the need to impress other camera guys, then buy the name brand. You can build a nice looking one for less than $40 and get the same results. True for DIY sliders and jibs. You can make one look just as good. Doesn't have to look like plumbing. LOL Heck, paint a name brand on a DIY and fool everyone. I am not into ever trying to impress anyone with gear or name brands. I have always let my work and the look/sound sell my clients and none have ever complained. I am also talking here about my high end clients. Paint it black and no one even cares. :-)

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Peaking is no holy grail either, it can be of help but depending on the situation it's not always 100% accurate, If it's too dark it won't help either. I have focus peaking on my ea50 but don't us it at weddings, I rather use my own eyes to judge focus.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Dream on, a steadicam is a precission tool that requires precission and high quality hardware and manufacturing. If you can't afford one, then sure get a 40 dollar one or build one yourself, if you are serious about results, get the real deal and pay for it.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

I don't know man, I've seen DIY steadicams work extremely well. I saw a vid of a guy running down a pretty steep hill with his own DIY rig and it was unbelievably smooth :-/ it's just that I'm horrible at manual labor and generally at building things, so I don't know if this is a valid solution for me...

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

[QUOTE ..., from what I have read the merlin is not so easy to balance so maybe something to take into consideration.[/QUOTE]

Noa, I forgot to mention that I heard just the opposite about fine tuning the Merlin and the Gllidecams. There is a guy named Dave on YouTube, very well known for having better reeviews than most, and he has personally owned and used the Glidecam and he said he never did get it tuned good after days of trying. He said that other brands were much easier. I have heard this before. So, who knows unless you try them all and then even people can still have different opinions.

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Let me guess, did he have a fisheye on his camera? :)

When you ever get to build one, put a 50mm lens on the gh3 and show me some moves and I will do the same with the blackbird, you"ll understand why the better ones cost more. :)

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Might be true for the glidecam as well, I can only speak about the blackbird with my own experience and about what I read about the Merlin.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Yeah that's a well documented problem, but you do get a record red dot and a display timer when it disappears to tell you you're rolling - isn't that enough ?.
It's the audio meters disappearing that are annoying. Peaking would definitely make this a better camera as well.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

no, he did not use a fisheye. he has more experience than assuming that. I have heard good things about the blackbird, too. Watch over 50 youtubes and see how some are really good. And I would not use a 50mm. It's OK, but wider is better. It makes things even more steady and it keeps everything in focus since you can't be fiddling with focus while walking and running around.

We are only talking here about a few bars that hold weights in strategic places to counter act the movement of the camera. It's not rocket science. I saw one guy online that had access to some really nice machine tools and he built a Merlin 2 copy that worked and look perfect.

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

I have seen a lot of good things said about the Blackbird.

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

This Steadicam =
Amazon.com: Steadicam SMOOTHEE-GPROHRO Smoothee with GoPro Mount and Belt Clip: Camera & Photo
would be perfect for my Canon EOS-M and it's 22mm f2.0.

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

and move the headphone jack higher to not interfere with the flip out oled. and a higher resolution oled from what people have said about it's low rez. And a user pref for audio limiter off/on.BTW, I just heard yesterday that the GH3 has Dc on the mic jack for phantom. True?

alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Luc, some of these people also build and sell them for low prices online. It wouldn't hurt to write to them or make a comment on their youtube page and ask if they would build you one too. some also end up putting them on Ebay.

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

No. Everything is helpful. As you point out, the audio meters being one of them. The tilt and grid overlays stay on and so should the rest. I've had the overlays turn off even when configuring the camera if I think about something longer than 10 seconds.

And it has undesirable side effects such as the record button having to be pressed twice if the overlays are off, once it they are on.

Panasonic should not be given a pass on these things.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

The precision comes from the person using it and trying to tune it. EVERYONE says you have to spend hours and sometimes days learning how to get real good at using these things whether they are bought or DIY. They are quite easy to make. For example, there is no need for the precision in the Merlin 2 for raising or lowering the lower arm. It is over designed in order to impress people to pay higher money. You're just raising and lowering the distance to the low weights to the head weight. I don't think the Blackbird does that from what I recall.

I highly suggest you watch over 50 YouTubes and see the proof before making broad assumptions.

Peace,
Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

I had a Glidecam for a little while. Finally got it to work on another video camera but was not impressed with the results and the difficulty of operating the camera controls. Eventually I sold it to someone who could use it. In the end I find a good camera shoulder brace and some sort of quality OIS gets me thru my traveling shots. There are some people who get great results with DIY stabilizers and other non Steadicam stabilizers, I am not one of them. Give me a jib (yes I know it's not the same) and I'm having a great time.

Today I covered another dance performance in an outdoor setting where there was no defined stage area. And the improvised performance sort of went on about a half hour longer than I was expecting. Since I knew I was going to an unplanned setting where there was no way to know where the dancers would end up and I didn't want to use the shoulder brace, I brought my monopod. Believe it or not a heavy duty monopod can act as a very low grade stabilizer if you don't extend it. The weight on the bottom acts as a counter weight if your wrist can stand it. It works for me in short stretches but the strain can add up. I eventually extended the monopod so the loupe was at a level that if I had to move the camera I could pick up the monopod and walk gently to a new position without my feet kicking the monopod. Nowhere near any good stabilizer but I had more control over my camera as the sunlight changed or it was time to change the zoom when I settled into a new position. The walking shots were OK not anything to put on my résumé but certainly watchable. And as the performance lasted a full hour instead of thirty minutes, the rest provided by the monopod was appreciated. The focus was provided by the face recognition auto focus. Only a couple of instances where the camera lost focus.

The GH3s disappearing LCD info is a mixed blessing. Viewfinder clutter has been a bane of mine for years. It's very hard to compose and ignore the icons and numbers filling the edges of the screen. Years ago I started with tube cameras that only had a record light in the viewfinder. My first digital video camera had the timecode, the audio meters and the record indicator outside the image. I would really appreciate if we could go back to that. Today's filming was one take for 57 minutes and I was happy to work without the info. By the way, if you adjust the zoom on the Lumix 14-140 lens, the info comes back on. The double record hit is a nuisance especially if one works with video cameras on a regular basis. The same behavior occurs if I try to adjust the exposure dial while filming, the first click on the dial brings the screen info back, the second click actually changes the exposure.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

William,

I have never used a monopod, but I have considered them lately. I never knew they had some now with three small legs down at the ground. Manfrotto has one that actually stands on it's own when you let go. I also never knew they had a rule, like for shooting at football games on the sidelines, that you can only have a footprint of 18" diameter. Thus, no tripods and these monopods with legs fall just into being legal to use.

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

I"m sorry but that's a lot of nonsense, you obviously never used a steadicam before, if you think you can get perfect results by drilling some holes in a few tubes and getting your spareparts in a hardwareshop, then have fun, but you will never get the same results as with a real steadicam.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

I would like to see what the camera is doing all the time as well, or at least be able to choose what would be permanently shown on the display, I was hoping this could just be solved with a setting but apparantly it's not. It would have been better to give the user a choice if the data has to dissapear or not but now it just does. I"m sure a firmwareupdate can solve this.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Apart from disappearing VU meters I agree with you. The GH3 small screen doesn't need constant information while you shoot. I don't need to be told ALL my settings once I start recording, I know what they are. I want to concentrate on the shot.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

I have to wonder how old you are by the way you choose to discuss things on here immaturely at times. It seems like you take things personally and attempt to make false accusations against other people (me) who do not agree with you. Almost everything you say is just a guess since you never tried it or watched others show how they achieved good results. Another person here even agreed with me and said it was good footage even when the person ran down a hill with his DIY steadicam. Why should you care what other people choose to buy and do? Why not have an open mind and maybe learn from other people once in awhile? You made your opinion clear in your first reply here about buying certain brands and that should have been enough. I only suggested some other options that are viable and then you went on the attack about it since it did not agree with what you said. Let it go and move on. Let people do whatever they choose. Respect everyone else for what ever they choose to buy or do. Quit trying to act like you are so correct about everything and that people should only listen to you. Lighten up Noa and just share your information and stop trying to push your opinions and beliefs on other people so much. It's only gear/tools.

I am done with this topic on here and trying to talk logically with you about it. It appears that you do not have an open mind. You can have the last word if you want. I won't read it.

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

After reading Noa's last reply I knew it would come to something like this :) please relax guys, you are both valuable members of this community so let's stop wasting time arguing pointlessly about steadicams! I'm looking more at you here, Noa. You've won me over anyway, I will have to buy a known brand since I don't live in the USA where you can easily find all the required parts to build one yourself, and even then I don't know if I'd actually go that route. I just don't trust myself enough.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Alex, comon, when your take on steadicam is, and I quote:

how can anyone take this seriously, I have all the respect for people that build their own accesories but a steadicam is more then just a few parts from the home depot. I have seen my share of home made stabilisers on youtube before I purchased the blackbird and not one even came close to the results I"l getting with my blackbird. I have also very briefly worked with a pilot with vest and arm and that is even in another league compared to my blackbird with a pricetag to match, but you get what you pay for. The person operating the stabiliser is a very important element but even they won't get good shots out of a homedepot steadicam, here the tool is equally important as the operator and I do speak from experience, not only from watching some youtube videos.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Chris,
I was looking back thru the thread to refresh my thoughts on the GH3 and I now see I overlooked some things in haste. You make a very good point about focusing in daylight and I should think now about your good suggestion of adding a loupe to the system. I also apologize if I have offended you in any way. I say things at times meaning in general terms and not about any certain people, such as yourself. When I said dog and pony shows, I was thinking back in my career when I had to deal with people in the business who always stretched the work day out very long to do a dog and pony show for a client trying to justify why they charged higher rates. I was not talking about you. I appreciate your help and knowledge.

Best regards,
Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

You need to learn the camera better. You can do that already by pressing the DISP button to the mode that removes overlays. When the overlays are up, they should stay up (or at least have control over it). As it is they don't stay up and that's why it smacks of designers that don't know much about shooting video. It should be fixable in a Firmware update.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Here's a short commercial I made last week which I'm showing you in response to your "focusing in daylight" issue. All the shots you see with the sprinklers, the track and the girl were shot under extreme sun (over 36 degrees Celsius), and most of them were shot at f/2 or wider (I wanted really shallow DoF). Still, I think you will agree I had very good control over focus and all I had was the GH3's screen to help me with that.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Very nice, Luc

Alex

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Problem is with the OLED EVF and Panny not wanting burn in issues as has been mentioned a lot. Not sure if 3" screen is LCD, but if it is they should have given the option to have info stay up on it.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Thanks Alex! You see how bad it is when I tried to run alongside her? The GH3 was on a Manfrotto monopod with those 3 little legs that you can extend, in my head I considered them to be weights! Of course, the end result was extremely poor, and all the running footage had to be warp stabilized.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Panny chose the OLED. Maybe it's not fit for purpose. Other things are left on and will burn in so it's arbitrary. I think it's a marketing excuse for a product defect that people are swallowing. Even so, it's my screen and if I want to risk a burn in, I should have the option. It's a non-issue for a lightly used camera anyway.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Surprised you didn't mount the camera to a bicycle. Nice work, what slider did you use?

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

Duane, I thought about it. Well, I thought about getting on a bicycle and getting someone to pull it along the track, but this whole thing had to be done on very short notice. I don't have a bicycle mount, should look into getting one though.

The slider is a Konova K3 60cm.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

It looks smooth. Almost bought one and then found a used Kessler. Love it but not sure it looks any smoother than yours.

Re: gh3... any typical problems?
 

The Konova is not as smooth as you think. I did about 3 takes of each sliding shot to make sure I got a good looking one. A lot of the time I feel little imperfections causing small bumps and slowing down movement as I push it along. I'm not very happy with it, but it does get the job done eventually.