I'm getting a little nervous now, waiting for my magiqcam IIa, bought it through eBay, im based in UK, Emailed john twice over the last month with no replies yet, just looked on his ebay history and there are 2 more negative feedbacks concerning comms and delivery time....mmm can anyone give me some hope, has anybody reciveved a stabilzer or spoke to magiqcam recently..??

Mike

Hi Mike, when did you pay for your rig?

I payied my 2P on 25th July, last email I got from John was dated 12th August, which - yeah, in a few days, will be 3 months. In these three months I sent lots of emails, I also made some (unanswered) phone calls in last month, even left message on answering machine. All that was unsuccessful.

I just hope my $3000+ investment is not gone.

One thing still confuses me - Animagique is still active on eBay. If there are some problems with construction or anything I would expect, shouldn't they stop advertising and fix the problem before selling more MagiqCams? Or is Animagique becoming monkey business after few years in business with great reputation?

Well there surely is some problem. Even Animagique's account on eBay made their feedback private recently - for some reason.

!!! ANIMAGIQUE PLEASE LET US KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING !!!
Message counts also for those who know what is happening with Animagique :)

I think normal business practise is once money confirmed, the goods should be delivered immediately.

Regards
Leigh

As I already said in this forum I canceled my order (after 3 months waiting for the magiqcam) and took a Flyer instead. But I'm still waiting for my refund (or even an email/phone clall) from Animagique... after mmmhhh... when did I order my Flyer? one month ago?...

Quoc

don't mean to be mean, but if you are not from the states and have read most of my posting on the magiqcam issues, you guys should be a bit more careful when dealing with john. after the money was send, the usual, no mail no nothing except some pretty hash mail from their "customer service" (i actually kept all our correspondance as prove until three months ago). i waited for 11 weeks. when the item arrived, it was not in working order and it took john almost 1 and half year just to have the whole gimbal issue settle. i was receiving three different type of gimbal unit, all of them have got problem. the last unit i send back was finally "repaired".

another problem you will face after receiving the set is spare parts order. i have requested to buy some bearing parts as i've found out the size of all the bearing are different if you come from country using metric but no answer from john.

as this is not bad enough, i have to read one user review which stated that the rig does not fly a 15lbs camera. 15lbs weight advertised is actually inclusive of the sled, camera, battery, monitor and anything extra you have on the sled. because of this, now i have to sell off my rig as my camcorder a lone weight about 13lbs.

enough of my problem. maybe some of you do not agree with me and feel that i'm being unfair to john as he does not post here, but thats what happen. so much for customer rights.

hello, I paid for the rig on 10th September, I see that some of you have been waiting longer........mmm.... I recieved this email from john yesterday, I was fairly happy with the response until I read another thread on HBS board saying that someone else had recieved the exact same worded email.....

Email read
"Hello Mike,
I'm sorry for the delay in your order, but we have had a few supplier problems that we are working out. We have taken this opportunity to make a few adjustments and tweaks to the Series IIa gimbal. These upgrades will make the Series IIa easier to balance and smoother to use. With any luck, your rig will ship within the next week or so. Again, I'm sorry for the delay, but I know that you will be thrilled with your purchase and your MagiqCam will become a valuable tool in your production kit.
Thank you for your understanding,
John"

Hi Ed,

I think that you should ask for a full refund from John because originally it was manufacturer's fault and misrepresentation.

Regards
Leigh

hi leigh,

i doubt he would even bother. i remember the last problem i have with the gimbal unit, he did not even bother to entertain me until another user from the states brought out the same issue. it took him less then one week to have the gimbal repaired and mine took almost two months. he is still advertising as such and they are still many desperate people who would fall for it because of the price. he knows that it would difficult for me to take any legal stand as i'm not in the states.

anyway, i'm selling off the rig. anyone interested?

Hello everyone.

Just going to tell you my story. I ordered my Magiqcam 2a on April 29th, 2005. I waited as the rest of you and finally received an email around the first week of July (around the same time as they announced the 2p). I had to email them and finally called them to get any kind of information. However, they did answer my phone calls and I mentioned that I wanted to upgrade to the 2p (it had a few more features that I wanted... sure I was possibly throwing money to the wind). I had to make a few more calls to find out possible shipping dates. I did receive the same emails a few others have mentioned (and John then emailed me and appologized about the delay and then said he'd throw in the low mode for free due to the wait). To make this long story short, I received my 2p today (Nov. 16). I had to wait a few extra days from the original delivery date due to the wrong address. Customer service is lacking, but the unit is great. I played around with it for a few hours and I thought the results were very promising. I had never used a steadicam before, and once I got the unit balanced, I was very happy. I do think the unit is a bit heavy (I work out on a regular basis, but my back is not the best condition). On the downside, John forgot to include the low mode (I called him and left a message). The wait was long, but I feel that this unit will be a good addition to my tools. For everyone else who is waiting... I held in there because of the price and the most recent 2a review, and now I'm glad I did. Sure, I was close quite a few times to call for a refund, but I'm a gambler. I hope this helps anyone who has doubts or concerns.

Peace.

Todd Giglio

One of the reasons I canceled my order (still waiting for emails and refunds from them ...) was this one:
If you waited that long (and I'm wondering how longer you would have waited if you didn't call and email them and so on...), how long would you wait if you had any problems with the rig to get it repaired?

To me, having a great customer service is very important, because if you are in the middle of a production and you have a problem with your rig you don't want to wait 3 months for a repair.
IMHO the current customer service from animagiq is just unacceptable, no matter how cheap their rig are. This is really disapointing because from what I read, their rig have a good quality.

Just my 2 cents...

Regards,
Quoc

Hi Todd,

Will you post a video if you walking forward by using your stabilizer like I do in this video http://www.salenz.com/movie/www.sale...ding_600k.wmv?

TIA

Regards
Leigh

LEIGH!
1) Quit hijacking threads! We've all seen your footage.
2) He will post a demo if/when he wants to! - Of what he deems ot be good footage.

Sorry, but it seems every time someone new comes on the scene with a rig, you are all over them looking for their footage to compare to yours and your rig.

- Mikko

I do agree that John and the Magiqcam team need to work on their customer service. I am a bit concerned if I every need repair work, but I'll cross that road if/when I get there. The 2p seems very solid. I will try to post some footage after I practice a bit.

I'll let you all know when I finally get the low dog mode (that was promised... we'll see how long it takes).

Todd

Hi Mikko,

I love stabilizer.

It is the same thing that someone love camera. If someone buy a new camera i.e. Nikon D200, of course someone will be asked to show some photo shot by Nikon D200. The end result of a stabilizer is a footage. That is no difference.

I don't care someone praise the camera is so wonderful, just show the picture.

Obviously we are different. I just love to express myself and shameless self promotions, that’s me.

Regards
Leigh

My opinion is that it is definitely different. It is entirely possible for someone without much photographic experience to take a great picture with the automatic setting of a digital still camera. It is unlikely for anyone without much stabilizer experience to turn out great footage right away (maybe because there is no "automatic" setting on a stabilizer!)

Now, as you have expressed your fascination for stabilized footage, perhaps you can share/discuss your favorite Steadicam scenes in movies you have seen? Or do you feel that you personally get more out of studying footage from someone closer to your level than the masters of your craft?