Thanks Dave. Much appreciated. You have now proven my suspisions. I thought he had totally done a complete make-over on all parts. Now seeing the pics, I can see they were not what I had suspected.
See; pics say a thousand words, that's why I wanted to see the pics. Thanks alot man. Great effort.

One question though. Do you use a monitor with the sled? Where do you put it? I see weights on both end of the sled and just was wondering where you put the monitor. It doesn't seem to be any place left.

No. I do a lot of things outside on sunny days and a monitor is too washed out even with a sunshade. I bought some decent video glasses and where them with a hat. Works great. Works with my crane too.
What don't you like about the sled? Remember I bought mine used for $1100, so don't get too critical.

<<<-- Originally posted by Dave Stewart : No. I do a lot of things outside on sunny days and a monitor is too washed out even with a sunshade. I bought some decent video glasses and where them with a hat. Works great. Works with my crane too.
What don't you like about the sled? Remember I bought mine used for $1100, so don't get too critical. -->>>

Video glasses? Care to explain?

I did not mean anything about the sled. I jwas just curious to know why there was no monitor or battery on the sled which are the two most important things to have on the sled. I just saw the weights in place of where both items were suppose to be.

I use a pair of video glasses by "eyetop". They plug into the video out on the camera and display a small image in your right or left eye. The display appears about the same size as a viewfinder, in color and about the same resolution. I basically use it to frame the shot as focus isn't possible manually on a steadycam. It takes some getting used to, but it works for me. I can keep my head up and can see other action going on around me and I'm less likely to trip or run into people.

Well Dave if it works for you then fine. As long as you are satisfied.

dave,
great pics. but almost the same as my earlier unit. can you indicate where is the sliding gimbal as mention.

ed

The sliding part is the tripod mount which can be slid front to back and locked down. The left-right adjustments are done with the thumbscrews underneath. You can slide the tripod mount left and right by loosening the thumbscrews on the bottom. There's a piece a felt between the base and the tripod mount which allows for smooth, incremental adjustments. Worm gear type adjustments would be the best, but more $$$. I don't know what "earlier" unit you had, but my old sled had a flat box on it with a bunch of holes in it to attach the camera in various locations. It wasn't very accurate and my camera would come loose. Also there were four thumbscrews to pull apart the box to get to the camera attachement screw - time consuming and a pain to balance. It would be nice, however, to have an easier locking machanism on the extending parts of the sled. Rather than an allen wrench, a bicycle seat clamp of some sort would be easier.

thanks dave. sorry i did not read your post correctly. i was thinking of the new sliding gimbal john offer to replace for me.

ed

The "video glasses" concept isn't a new one, Charles--I'll be you've seen pix of Garrett with his prototype rig from the early 70's with the fiber optic viewfinder attached to his head! Over the years a number of operators have toyed with using the evolving vintages of the heads-up technology instead of a monitor on the sled. It hasn't truly caught on for one reason or another, but I wouldn't discount it for the future.

This technology is commonly used for handheld jibs and other setups like running with a handheld camera cradled in the arms or held by the handle etc. The point-of-view virtual reality scenes in "Strange Days" were shot like this.

Thanks for the explaination C.P. I new what he meant but I wanted to know why he decided to go that route. I do have a pic of pic of The big man with this set up some where in my huge collection of steadicam and non steadicam pics and articles some where...

BTW, C.P. hope all is well with you.

All good man. I'm a bit quieter here than usual as I started shooting a feature this week which is, uh, time-intensive to say the least...