Magiqcam
 

thinking of buying this set-up or a slightly used Glidecam V-8. anybody have an educated opinion on which way I should go? prices are comparable and neither has a monitor so I would have to buy it. I have to make up my mind soon, shooting starts in 5 weeks! thanks

I'd go with the Magiqcam as being as good or better. But it takes about 4 weeks to get one as they only build 'em after you order. You'd have to contact the company to find out if it would work out with your shooting schedule. Can you postpone shooting? Keep in mind, too, that you'll probably need some time to learn how to operate the rig to get the shots you want.

Very solid advice from Dave, and seconded. Buying the gear is the "easy" part. Plan to set aside a good 20 hours of practice time to get the feel of the system, so that you aren't having to learn on the job, which has resulted in more than a few of these type of units going up for sale not long after purchase.

thanks guys. I will be ordering it tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Just curious Dave and Charles, why you would choose the Magiqcam over the Glidecam V-8?

hi patric,
any comment on how the magiqcam system works? i'm considering buying one too but just need some words of encoragement.
thanks.

ed

In that the Magiqcam is somewhat reverse engineered from a Glidecam, they are similar units; but the Magiqcam is less expensive, and that is a major factor for most of the readers of this forum.

Well, I don't know if these are words of encouragement or not: I just ordered my Magiqcam IIa. I looked at the various options and it just seems the best bang for the buck, under $2k. After reading through all of Charles Papert's posts I also took his opinion of it to heart.

The emails I have sent back and fourth between John Gardner have been very informative. I am waiting until I get the unit before deciding on monitor. I might be able to get a Varizoom 5" LCD from a friend, but I am also looking at some 7" 16:9 TFT LCDs for right at $200. I will probably have to hood them well for shooting outside, but you can't have everything for a Steadicam under $2k.

Charles, I am getting the Magiqcam to use in shooting a film next spring. Are there any good books or videos on technique that you would recommend? I know I will need to work with it all winter to be in the shape I want to be for long shooting days next spring. I figure that the $1650 a Magiqcam is just like buying a high class piece of exercise equipment, that happens to help with video. :)

still waiting...
 

the turnaround time for a Magiqcam is 3 - 4 weeks. They are made to order. So I am still waiting on mine. I did get to play around with a Steadicam last week and one thing is for certain. SIT-UPS!!!! LOTS AND LOTS OF SIT-UPS! If I am going to use this I have got to have a strong back. A strong stomach is needed to support the back. .. So fellas, GIVE ME 25!!!!

Keep at it, E.! Another great exercise if you guys are gym-goers is the Roman chair. It really targets those lower back muscles that are worked hard by Steadicam. The back extension machine is good.

Joe, there aren't any real instructional materials out there...yet. I'm prepping just that thing, hopefully it will be released in time for you to make use of it before your shoot.

If you can find (on eBay or somewhere) the "EFP Instructional Video" that was done by Jerry Holway about 10 years ago, that would give you some good pointers.

Thanks Charles, I'll keep an eye out for it. I think I have been reading some of his stuff recently. Yeah, that was the guy. He has a good primer on dynamic balance:
http://www.holwayfilms.com/manuals.shtml

Those Ultra docs are making me drool, though.

Joe. the name of the guy is Jerry Holway. He's done many instructional videos and is a brilliant steadicam operator, like Charles Papert himself.

Yeah, I didn't restate Jerry Holway's name from the post right above me, from Charles. :)

Balancing Magiqcam
 

I've been trying to use mine for a few months, and have had some setbacks, but I'm curious, since there is not a plethora of information.

How are people balancing their Magiqcam riggs, Batteries, Monitors, the heaviest anyone has been able to balance their rig, and has anybody got a hard mount solution?

S_

I just got mine today. I balanced it, but ended up taking everything off but the MA 100 and a wireless receiver. I fooled with it for a couple of hours and took a few minutes walking up and down stairs and around the house, etc. taking videos of my kids as I followed them. It looked not to shabby for a newbie. I did notice that I needed a slight bit more experience using the Magiqcam (underestimation), but most of all, I'll need to go to the gym to keep my lower back in shape as it got noticeably stressed after just 10 minutes. Good thing I didn't buy some stabilizer stick thing. I used a mike stand where I removed the top half and placed the sled into that where I could make the fine adjustments. I then took a small bubble level and got the Magiqcam fairly well balanced by adding just about all the weight on the back and taping the retainer to that. I put the camera smack dab in the middle of the mount, but I think I'm going to try another spot and try adding the light and maybe the system isolator. To get the 2-3 second drop time, you need to extend sled a bit as well. Once you get the thing balanced, it works fairly nicely, but the problem is when you try to put it away - it won't fit and you end up screwing up your settings. Once I get this thing tweaked, I'll score the paint with a knife to line up the parts where I had them so when I put it back in the box, I can find my settings quickly.

I don't think I would score the paint. This is just one setup, of which you will most likely have many while the Magiqcam lasts. I figure that I would include a small, short (6') tape measure in my kit and a small notepad with settings for various configurations. Setup with just camera, camera with ME66 mic on top, camera with light, etc.

I like the idea of using a mic stand. I've got an old one sitting around and didn't think about using it for that.

I've got a few weeks to wait, but I hope it gets here soon. :)

Yes, I think I'll not mark up the unit. Someone said to use whiteout, which can be wiped off with mild solvent. Sounded like sound advice. At least you can use them as a rough estimate and do final tweaking at the job. I did a little jogging with it as well and someone watching me said the camera stayed level like a bird's head. Very cool.

Anyone know if the Magicqams being built now have an arm with an adjustible pitch? I believe that when Charles Papert met with the Magicqam owner, Charles had made some suggestions for improvement. About a month or so back I had corresponded with the owner who had said that all of Charles' suggestions had been incorporated.
I currently have the Steadicam JR (for the moment, anyway). Does the Magicqam gimbal have the capability to tilt?

Dave:

As far as I've heard, the adjustments are in place in the current production model Magiqcam.

The gimbal does tilt, through a complete range as with the other axes.

Low mode & Vehicle mount
 

Has anyone have any success with Magiqcam? I'm looking at Glidecam V-16 plus low mode and vehicle mount. If magiqcam support low mode and vehicle mount, I'll definitely go with magiqcam.

I had a gig pop up for New Years where a floatation device would come in handy. I tried using a monopod as a stabilizer for flying. It *is* better than
handheld but it doesn't cut the mustard. And in a
short amount of time, with a VX and a wide angle,
your arm begins to shake.
I haven't yet called tech support on the JR. My
gut-level feeling is that the VX weight is pushing the
limits of the JR. And the VX is pushing the
limits of my arm. Suddenly, the Magiqcam
is looking better.
Charles, that guy with the HBS, who shot the
skate board footage, how did he shoot that?
Was he running while shooting? I wanna shoot
like that guy!

Re: Low mode & Vehicle mount
 

<<<-- Originally posted by jonniesiri : Has anyone have any success with Magiqcam? I'm looking at Glidecam V-16 plus low mode and vehicle mount. If magiqcam support low mode and vehicle mount, I'll definitely go with magiqcam. -->>>

Magiqcam does have a low mode setup on their website . Haven't seen a vehicle mount listed, but that is a very simple part & I would recommend basing your decision around the stabilizers themselves.

Regarding low-mode--it's easier and sometimes better to just flip the unit upside down and rebalance, then re-invert the image in post. The mount is usually more stable this way than a suspended cage setup, and definitely quicker to configure.

Dave;

I can't say for sure about Cody's skateboard material, it looks like he was riding one himself. At that speed, I would have expected some jitter in the footage if he was running flat out. I personally don't recommend using a wearable stabilizer in conjunction with skateboard/rollerblades/skis and the like; if your center of gravity shifts suddenly you can lose control of the rig and the crash can be spectacular. Many have done it successfully, however; some have come home with their rigs in a trash bag.

Cody has definitely put in his practice time with his gear, and it shows.

I will be purchasing the Magiqcam rig very soon and will let you know my thoughts as well.

Do let us know, Kevin. Have you used any
stabilizer before?

Yes. I've used a friend's HMS before. In car, on rollerblades, running, walking, backwards and forwards for all of them, and even on a glide cable.

I'm no Charles Papert when it comes to my expertise with body stabalizers, but I know what looks good and what doesn't and from a "down and dirty" aspect, I can give you my opinion on it as a creative user of such rigs.... and test footage.

I'm "this close" to getting the Magiqcam. The handheld
didn't work out for me. I'm not "Arnold", if you know what I mean.

I recieved my camera yesterday and my first initial thoughts are, "wow, how did most people miss this?" -

I recieved it in it's carrying case today, and out of the box I had it assembled in about 5 minutes. Cross balancing was easy, because of the Table top camera mount sliding far left and right or front and back. It has a series of different positioned holes on the table to help even further for cross balancing. The kit comes with 5 or 6 heavy washers, that slide onto a the weight pole on the slanted sled arm. Then there's a retainer ring you put over the washers, that tightens to the metal nub which holds the washers. You can move both sled arms at the bottom around 360 degrees to help balance when you have monitor/batteries/weights on it. The vest is very comfortable, and very easily adjustable.

I havn't had the chance yet to use it in "normal" practice, just in my house and around my neighboorhood for a small amount of time. When I did test it, though it ran extrememly smooth in all functions. I can already in my first hour outdo their demo footage on the magiqcam website.. which means I'm pretty confident in saying who-ever was using the magiqcam for that demo footage didn't know how to use a stabilizer or must have really been jerking it around... hard. I ran to my local BP and back with it, and got back just a big tired. The vest has pretty good weight distribution and wasn't too hard on my lower back. I was using it with an XL-1s that had more accessories than R2-D2 on it.

I'll have a more in depth review when I have the chance to use it in more extreme conditions, and a video short to watch.

I'm very very happy with this purchase, and got much more than what I was expecting from it. I'll have the more in-depth review very soon as I'll be using it on an upcoming local production. I'll even have a review on the low-dog mode, too.

How long did it take to get it between ordering and
arrival?
Also, does the arm have an adjustible pitch angle
from the vest?
Does anyone have an idea which of the two Magiqcams would be better for my situation? My cam (with accessories) is on the upper weight limit of the smaller unit they offer and it's on the lower
weight limit of their larger rig. The lower arm
section of their larger unit has a spring and there
appears to be about a 3" section between where
the upper and lower arm sections meet. The smaller
rig has a lower arm section with no spring and
it appears there is only about a 1" distance between
where the upper section meets the lower.
Any opinions on the smaller versus the larger
rig (i.e. springed lower section versus not,
and 1" versus 3" between the arm sections)
and how this might affect usage/performance
would be, of course, appreciated.

Dave:

The dual arm will give you a much greater boom range than the single arm, and for $200 it would be worth it. You'd just make yourself a steel plate to bring your camera up a few lbs. I'd get it into the middle of the weight range of the 2a, these design of arms work better when they are at their top load than their minimum. The other thing is that this leaves you some flex in load bearing for unseen accessories (onboard light? lightweight telemprompter? Mini35?) or a bigger camera down the road.

More mass on the rig also means more stable shots. Unless you are planning marathon shooting sessions, the added weight shouldn't be a killer once you've gotten used to it. It's nowhere near as insidious as a handheld stabilizer that way. And yes, I have confirmed that the Magiqcam now offers an adjustable pitch connection at the vest, which makes it an exceptional value at this price point.

As far as the apparent gap in the arm: the less gap, the more range generally. John at Animagique should be able to answer this for you. Tell him I sent you!

Dave,

I had it shipped 2 day Fed-Ex, and was shipped within 2 days of my order, but I bought mine second hand but never used.

I'd go with the series II if I were you, Dave. The weight on the low end of the specs means it'll be easier to keep your camera balanced than with the smaller one where the weight's on the higher end of it's capabilities.

The dual arm allows for greater reach, pitch, movment, etc. The 3" section between arms you're talking about is a joint so that it swivels like a snake. So you can create an "L" with the two arms. Unless of course you were talking about the distance of the upper arm bar from the lower arm bar, per arm.

The series II (double arm) is very great and I'd imagine the single arm wouldn't be near as good, especially with the camera on the higher weight line.

Thanks guys. Just to clarify, the smaller rig *is* a
dual arm, but it doesn't have a spring on the lower
arm section. The larger Series IIa does have a
spring on the lower section of the arm.
I do notice that the lower arm section of the
smaller rig seems to be shorter than the
lower arm of the larger rig. I would think that,
for this reason, the larger rig would give more
range/boom distance.
Charles, how would the extra steel plate
be attached to the larger rig in order to
bring up the weight. In my situation, I'd
have to attach about 3 pounds to hit the
mid range (i.e. 9 pounds) of the larger rig.
I do have a battery (for the Pag C6 light) that
normally is slung over the shoulder and
which weighs a few pounds. I wonder if
I could attach this to the arm some how
to bring up the weight?

Yes yes. The single action arm was pioneered by Cinema Products (the original manufacturer of Steadicam before Tiffen) with the SK model. Since then the shorthand is "single arm" or "dual arm" but as you noted all arms have an articulated design to allow for clearance from the body and maximum maneuverability. A more accurate term would be "single action" or "dual action".

A dual arm (sorry, dual action arm!) not only doubles the boom range, but it can also improve the shock absorption capability of the arm. It should be noted that the basic design of this class of stabilizer arms is fairly flawed in comparison to even the original, circa 1975 Steadicam production model which incorporated springs and pulleys in an effort to make the lifting force linear throughout the boom range (the Glidecam Gold arm uses this design). The basic "desk lamp" design of most of the DV stabilizers will tend to bounce and also allow a certain amount of vibration through that would be absent on the more sophisticated arms. As it turns out, a certain amount of "pogo-ing" is acceptable in a stabilizer arm, which is one reason why the handheld rigs are possible. In other words, a slight up-and-down motion will not necessarily read on camera because the image is not being displaced signficantly. As a point of comparison, imagine the difference between booming the camera up and down two inches, and tilting the camera up and down two inches. The tilt is much more noticeable as a move. The exception to all this is if you have foreground close to the lens, in which case a deflection in boom will be more apparent due to the parallax shift.

Heady stuff, don't know why I got on that roll. Must be warming up for my instructional video or something.

Dave:

The ideal weight setup assuming your camera is well balanced is just to have a 3lb steel plate that would mount between the top stage of the rig (tapped with the requisite 1/4"-20 threads and locator hole), and then attaching the camera or the quick release to the top of the steel plate (drilled out from the bottom to allow the camera screw to be sunken into place). You mount the plate to the camera, then the plate to the platform and you are good to go. Very easy and cheap to have a local machinist whip up, or you can make it yourself if you have a workshop.

You wouldn't want to put the battery pack on the arm, that would just be dead weight you are hauling around that isn't going to work for you at increasing the inertia of the rig. You would want to attach it to the camera somehow. Again, a machinist would be the man to help with this. It's very critical with stabilizers to have all of the components buttoned down, so strapping or taping something into place could be an issue for operating.

John Gardner just sent me the tracking number for my MagiqCam. Looks like I'm finally going to have a new toy to play with soon. I know it will have been worth the wait. :)

Charles,
John's wife says "Hi". Their Paypal was down so I had
to call.

I just received my sled upgrade. It is much improved over the original. First, it appears that the bearings have been upgraded to even a more smooth motion with bearings on all x,y,z axis. The camera mount is a standard bogen tripod plate which allows for forward, back and side to side adjustments quite easily. In addition, the black metal has been nicely powder coated and the sled is a bit lighter in weight. The quick tripod release will make it much easier to move from tripod to stabilizer and back again more easily.

My Magiqcam arrived the beginning of this week. I've been stuck at work all week and will finally get a chance to balance it this weekend. I wish the instructions were a little better on that front. How do you guys balance your Magiqcam? Do you start with getting the monitor and battery in balance, then add the camera?

I've been having trouble getting my order through.
Paypal's been having me jump through
hoops regarding a "sending limit".
Does anyone know what the normal PayPal
sending limit is if you are not "verified"?

Joe:

<<Do you start with getting the monitor and battery in balance, then add the camera?>>

Yes, that is a good start. The easiest way to do this is to place the bottom of the post on a fulcrum (could be as simple as a pen) to determine if the sled falls forwards or backwards, then adjust the monitor or battery until it comes close to levelling out.

I placed mine on a mic stand. Make sure one of the legs is towards the sled and camera as it may tip over. Put on all your weight and monitor. Try to guestimate where your camera's center of gravity is (the XL1 is toward the NW looking down on the camera) and place the camera on the sled in that position, where the center of gravity of the camera would be over the center pole of the sled. Next, rotate the two counterbalances to get a level postition and add or remove weight if needed. I use a little bubble level to help me with that. Now, tip the sled horizontally and let it drop. It should take 2-3 seconds to go verticle. If not, shorten or lengthen the bottom half of the sled to adjust the fall time - shorter for slower and longer for faster. It takes some time at first, but after a while you get quicker at it. Unfortunately, to put the sled away you have to collapse everything and mess up all your adjustments.