Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

I might still try that Noa as I have that very setup - just haven't got my head around shortening the rods!

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

Luke, We can move the talk about shoulder supports if you want but it does apply here too, they help.....after all my years of shoulder support I could use some help ;-)

Guys, is this the one to start with? I have followed all of the other treads. The one Chris has about shortening it and Noe's vest rig. I could try this and if I like it I have a PortaBrace vest (probably to light for enough support) and a heavy duty Lowell harness/ belt kit I could rig it to, remember I am still an EA50 guy:

Neewer Retractable Waist DSLR Rig Support Rod and Belt with 3 8" Screw Fit SH | eBay

Kind Regards,

Steve

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

"Luke, We can move the talk about shoulder supports if you want but it does apply here too, they help.....after all my years of shoulder support I could use some help ;-)"

Its all good. I don't have enough experience to discount any approach. My shoulder rig is well counterbalanced, so I don't have a lot of weight on my hands & arms. I also have a lightweight rig that has a grip and shoulder brace. I have a support rod going to my belt, or (alternatively) a longer one that goes to the floor and acts like a monopod. It's a little fiddly getting it set up, which is why my preferred rig is currently the shoulder mount, which stands on it own making it easy to add the camera and EVF.

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

Hi Steve

That's very similar to the Camtree one so that should work fine. I did a couple of mods to make the one I had better but ended up not making the tubes shorter. Instead I dropped the mounting point on the waist belt. Pop onto the EA-50 forum here and looked for a post from myself called "Saved by the Rod" It has all the mods I made and was vital for the EA-50 especially when I had something like the Sigma 18-35 F1.8 mounted which added a good 2lbs to the front of the camera.

This is the one Noa and I bought ... DSLR Shoulder Rig Support Rod|Camtree but your link seems like a better product ..I would suspect they copied each other anyway so the cheapest will suffice!

If you need any help just yell.

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

Actually the DVRig Pro and ProHD came out well before the Multi-Rig, and they both had telescopic springs.
I own all three and I helping Danny from DVTek at a few trade shows in the UK back in 2007.
I took along my VX2000 and my shiny new Sony Z1!

Danny also still makes an ENG-Rig designed to simply support the front end of large shoulder mount cameras.

AFAIK he invented all this stuff himself, and it's a shame his designs have all been ripped off.

The MultiRig Pro has a tilt mechanism, so you can simply twist the camera up and down without bending the spring section. It was perfect for the Z1 weight range, and isn't too bad for modern DSLRs. I still have all three rigs and occasional use them for this purpose.

The Multi-Rig is a lovely bit of kit. You can arrange the arms in a number of ways to suit your camera layout and shooting style, and can have a QR plate mounted underneath.

The pictures show my Z1 on the DVRig ProHD, and a DVRig Pro next to it.
My VX200 on the MultiRig.
Also Danny's splendid Moustache (long before November) at the IOV show in 2007.

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

Knockoffs and counterfeits are a problem. This spring I attended the Seattle Boat Show and stopped at a booth that had a display of a new watermaker setup (watermaker converts salt water to drinking water). The watermaker was interesting so I took my cell phone and was about to take a picture when the booth person asked me not to. Reason: He said that previously he had a Chinese (or Asian) person take some pictures of their previous new product and then manufactured a knock-off so now he doesn’t allow anyone to take pictures.

We had a good discussion about the problem with western companies that have to deal with Chinese copies and counterfeits and how it hurts western economies. Adding insult to injury, the US seems to be almost powerless to stop the counterfeits coming in.

Nearly all the major western microphone companies have Chinese conterfeit copies of their products in stores and circulating around on the Internet so trying to find a legit mic, especially a used one, at a good price isn’t easy.

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

Just want to make a shout-out for the Sony balanced optical steadyshot (BOSS). I bought one 3 months ago, the FDR-AX33. It was an impulse buy at the check-out stand and now I wish I'd bought the FDR-AX53 with its longer reach zoom and other features. But, point is, if looking for a way to get stable hand-held footage, this is very effective at eliminating the shakes. I even set that little camera on my dashboard and drove around and it was rather hilarious watching the LCD as that magic eyeball worked frantically to produce a stable image.

I carry my tripod and fluid head just about everywhere because I think shaky footage makes my video look unprofessional. Despite the fact that TV shows and feature movies have lots of shaky footage, it remains a pet peeve of mine. I considered getting a Kenyon Labs gyro but was concerned about the noise of the gyros being too much in some applications. The advantage with that system would be that they make several models and I'd be able to find one for my heaviest to lightest cameras. I only wish Sony would find a way to use the BOSS with their 1-inch type sensor cameras.

Mark

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

Thanks for that photo blast from the past. I think it was the 2008 IOV show where I met Danny after I had bought my MultiRig on recommendation from this forum.

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

The BOSS on the AX33 is very effective. I was able to directly compare it side by side with the 1" sensor AX100 & the stabilisation was clearly better but unfortunately the image quality was obviously inferior. Unsurprising really as it's a smaller sensor & a consumer model that is half the price of the AX100. It's probably a mechanical issue that makes BOSS so effective on the 1/3" sensor.

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

The BOSS system would be "great" for the 1" class sensor, but the camera would likely end up rather large! I think that's why we haven't seen it "yet". The physical size of the sensor/lens block would present significantly more mass to deal with...

I saw in another section of this forum that Sony has made a "micro" BOSS for their action cam, and it looked to work quite well... not sure the exact engineering for upsizing - it's not impossible, just probably a complete redesign based on the existing concept... They also seem to have improved the stabilization in the RX10M3 over the M2, so the engineers are always up to something!

Who knows, maybe one of these days they will have to have a "DE-stabilizing effect" to achieve early 21st century "wobblycam" video!

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

Dave -
Anyone that was around during the days of 35mm (that’s film, not sensor size) will remember the various types of “soft focus” filters available so I’m sure you’re correct.

Hey, since you thought of it first here maybe you could could shoot for a patent on “Daves Retro Wobblycam”!

Re: Best shooting technique for hand held video
 

I confess, I was one of those guys. I had a Kokin plastic filter kit just to degrade my Nikon glass. Of course they were reserved for shoots when girls were taking clothes off so they were justified!

And shaky cam is a professional style already. The show The office is the biggest example of it. I hate it.

Steve