Hey Dave (and the rest of you Pilot operators)

Here is a quick Steadicam Demo we put together using footage from this wedding Season.

The footage is probably 70/30 split between the FlyerLe vs. Pilot. This was the first season @ which we picked up the Pilot + the first time I've used a body mounted rig.

Enjoy!

Steadicam + Tiffen Dfx Demo on Vimeo

Beautiful Work Michael! One question, I noticed in the beginning scene where Patrick was going down slope, the sled was balanced such that the gimbal is almost at the middle of the sled. May I know the advantage of doing so? Recently I followed Dave's recommendations to have the stage closer to the gimbal and it works pretty well. I get less swaying. I like to understand what kinda situations would use the gimbal in this position. Thanks!

Hi Sean

The reason why the Flyer is balance so high up was because Patrick was using Casey Warren's (Mindcastle Studios) Flyer (non-Le) @ the time which was orignally balanced for a lighter camera then the EX1 and had a single Anton Bauer battery. Patrick's standard Flyer Le setup usually has 2 Vlock batteries for more weight and the camera is not usually that high.

Hope this helps!

thanks a lot Michael! I was so curious that I tried the setting out a couple of hours ago. Kinda difficult to keep it as steady as I would like. I think I will be sticking to the usual setting.

Sean! You cant go changing another man's steadicam setup... its just not cricket!

The math is a little off here, folks--the heavier the bottom weight, the lower the gimbal (aka higher the camera) will have to ride to offset it. It's apparent in the behind-the-scenes shot that a full-size AB battery is in use (looks like a Hytron 140) which is a lot of battery for an EX1. I would say that it would have been nearly impossible to balance this setup with a much lighter camera, certainly impractical as the camera is sitting already too high above the gimbal as it is. Generally it is true that two batteries would weigh more than one, however two light v-mount batts could possibly weigh the same or maybe a little less than the beefy 140. So in that instance, the EX1 would fly a little higher.

With a light stabilizer, if one intends to add weight to give the rig more heft, it's good to add it to both top and bottom of the rig in the right proportions to place the gimbal the desired inch or two below the top stage.

just to set the record straight-the AB Hytron120/140 weigh in at 5.5 lbs---the AB Dionic 90 is a lightweight at 1.7 lbs and the IDX 7 is a baby at 1.2 lbs.

That all sounds right, and it would make sense that the dual 7's balance the EX1 better than a 140. I was hedging my bets since I couldn't positively ID the battery in use.

I fly Dionic 90's on my rig by the way--3 of them.