gh3... any typical problems?

[Alex Anderson]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

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.

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

[William Hohauser]

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.

[Alex Anderson]

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

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Alex Anderson

It is over designed in order to impress people to pay higher money.

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.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Duczynski

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 ?

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.

[Chris Duczynski]

Originally Posted by William Hohauser

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.

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.

[Alex Anderson]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

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.

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

[Luc Spencer]

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.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Alex Anderson

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.

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

To build one? Takes hardly nothing but to drill a few holes from parts bought at stores like Home Depot.

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.

[Alex Anderson]

Originally Posted by Chris Duczynski

Well you did ask if there were any problems, the main one being seeing the LCD properly and focussing in daylight - so one accessory is a loupe or EVF such as a DP4. The disappearing display is another problem as you can't monitor audio levels after 10 seconds unless you trigger the display by waving your hand over the sensor or half-pressing the shutter. You may want a juiced link or beachtek "accessory" to assist and rads.
Finally don't patronise by suggesting we do dog and pony shows while you forge a career otherwise. There's plenty of people here that make a good professional living using GH3's, me being one of them. No-one said you need to pimp your rig, but the GH3 is NOT an ENG camera and you need to make allowances.

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

[Les Wilson]

Originally Posted by Chris Duczynski

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.

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.

[Luc Spencer]

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.

Experienta Multisport: Duatlonul Verde - 17 August 2013 - YouTube

[Alex Anderson]

Very nice, Luc

Alex

[Ron Fabienke]

Originally Posted by Les Wilson

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.

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.

[Luc Spencer]

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.