Andrew Stone

What is the noise level like?

Brian brings up a lot of good suggestions. His one about using the Sony battery, the BP-U30 that comes with the camera is your simplest option. It is not heavy and will run your camera for well over an hour probably two.

Hi Salman, From what I recall, the 2 day workshops come around about twice a year in major Canadian centres. Incredible bang for the buck. But I would suggest you order yourself a copy of the Steadicam EFP Training Video directly from TIFFEN in NYC and get a copy of The Steadicam Operators Handbook on Focal Press. Use the search engine. There are plenty of threads on how to achieve dynamic balance here. The kind of rig you get is essentially based on what kind of gear you will be flying. Not knowing the kind of cameras you are going to be throwing at the sled make it impossible to give you an informed answer.

Are these limits for air travel with batteries for North America or does this apply to travel between North America and Europe, as well?

Alex, your thinking is sound. If you are going to be flying cameras that are in the weight range of say a Sony Z1 or a bit heavier then a Pilot makes sense. Just a couple of things to keep in mind though. One, parts of the industry have been moving from prosumer cams to shallow depth of field cameras, if you think you are going to be flying a DSLR or a 2011/2012 equivalent, like a Panasonic AF100, then you could easily start to consider motors and wireless controllers. I am seeing it happening with some smaller rig owners. However, if you see yourself running a 1/3" chip camera in a wide angle view then you don't have to go near a wireless follow focus setup. Second, if you are considering a AR rig, then you should definately look at TIFFEN's Tango rig and this may ultimately force your hand on exactly what kind of Steadicam rig you are going to get as you will want to get a rig that is "Tango compatible." In the end a Tango rig paired up with a Tango compatible Steadicam rig will be far cheaper than an AR setup and, in my view, much more useful for the kind of cameras you will be using. -Andrew

Janice Arthur is a member here. She sells weight cages. She has a couple of recent posts with contact information as well as the different bits and pieces she sells.

Still unclear about the battery portion of the payload. The Zephyr appears to be designed with one battery or 2 to 2.75 pounds at the bottom with the typical supplied batts. Is there weight spec based on this and one must extend the post to get it into line with droptime? If that is the case then you would have to put a Hytron 140 on the bottom the Zephyr, if you wanted a reasonably short post. I heard some rumblings a few weeks ago about a second battery mount but nothing further on it.

Ramon, I assume your DIT is referring to the "Cimera" listed on the Teradek website. http://www.teradek.com/chimera.html The claim is it is down to a 3 frame lag. No cost is available on the website and it isn't linked into the store, from what I can see. Maybe you are supposed to phone in to get it.

Contact Info for Emery: Lentequip Inc. 1365 Morningside Ave., Unit #5 Toronto, Ontario M1B 4Y5 Canada Tel: (416) 406-2442

Informative post Erik. Thanks! I'm going to hazard a guess that Tiffen's 2 battery mount solution for the Zephyr will be an Anton Bauer dual mount "hotswap" adapter as seen [ here ].

Mark's post is excellent. Read it carefully... a lot in their to mull over Tony. Your question of age is a valid one but it shouldn't prevent you from pursuing Steadicam as long as it makes sense financially to you and your family, assuming you have one. You mentioned you're a DP but that really doesn't tell us much. If you will be controlling what goes on the rig and you aren't going to be flying rigs that are RED sized or bigger, you can stay with a rig like a Flyer or the new Zephyr which has a 24 pound payload capacity and has wiring for motors, HD monitor and so on. A lot of of the "middle production" cameras are getting lighter as well. As Mark infers taking the WEEK long course will sort out most of the questions for you including whether or not you even want to go with a big rig or venture into big payload based work. Be careful what you ask for. There is a lot to be said for being limited to a rig (arm, sled and camera) hanging out in front of you that weighs under 30 pounds. I got into it at 46. I am still debating to go to a bigger rig to get more headroom but I am not interested in flying some of these massive rigs that some ops are doing these days. Too old for that s... If you buy used there is a much better chance of you getting a return on investment when you go to sell the rig. Take the course and spend some time around here to get a sense of business (it is quite complicated), the equipment required, etc. Your cautiousness is warranted but the door hasn't slammed on your butt. Good luck. -Andrew

Hi Luc, A few months ago I bought a bunch of Pelicans, inserts and desiccant containers from what used to be called "Cases 4 Less." It was recommended by Mr. Fletcher, who dispenses a lot of good advice here. The company has rebranded itself into The "Nalpak Group"in the past couple of months. Prices are as close to as good as it gets anywhere and the people who answer the phone are very helpful. But before you do that you have a do some homework on your own. First you should lay out your sled along with the arm and take a bunch of measurements. You also have a stand to contend with and other bits, wires, batteries and possibly a charger that you will want to get in the case. I wouldn't put your vest inside the same Pelican as your sled. You want to keep moisture out of the Pelican (or Storm or whatever sealed case you choose). Once you know what will be the length, height and width requirements, you can spend some time combing through either the Nalpak site or another similar site and narrow down your case selection to a few possibilities. A 1650 is one of the biggest cases you can get. I have one for my rig but it is bigger than yours. I'm sensing you can get away with a smaller case. You want one with wheels and possibly a pull out handle if you go for a big bruiser like a 1650. Gotta warn you though a 1650 is heavy when loaded with gear. Don't skimp on the extras and get yourself at least 2 desiccant packs if you get a 1650 sized case. I would recommend 4 so you always have 2 spares ready to go when the others get saturated and need to be conditioned in your oven. There is also the issue of pick and pluck foam versus other options but that is another topic.

No. The end result is you want to have the metal wedge secured down with the two allen bolts in a way that the wedge is pushed over towards the piece of metal it rests against on the underside of the top stage. Again metal against metal. The paper slip is used simply as an aid to help push the wedge in place while you gently tighten the allen bolts until the top stage is snug and secure, without any jimmy or rattle. If this is confusing simply don't use the shim as an aid, use your fingers instead. You also want to make sure you tighten the top stage in a way that it aligns up so the side to side adjust mechanism is easy to adjust. I found if you aren't cognizant of that when you are tightening the allen bolts that even the slightest misalignment of the top stage when tightening would impinge on the movement of the side to side adjustment.

Hi Blair, What I did was to use the a paper shim to help push the topstage plate and the adjustable metal wedge strip together and in a controlled alignment and then remove the paper shim as I was tightening down the bolts. The amount of torque on those pieces of metal is huge and you really want metal on metal without paper or cardboard in there that will compress if even just a small bit. I should have been explicit when I mentioned the use of a shim in the process of tightening things down.

If the top stage is built the way my second gen Flyer is, you have the same problem I had a while ago. Try looking under the rear portion of the top stage without a camera on it. You should see two allen bolts going through a metal wedge. Wiggle the top stage unit and you will probably see some slop and the top stage rattling about about a 1/32nd to a 16th of an inch. With some hand pressure and a paper shim to help I was able to tighten up the metal wedge and fix the problem. You may have make a couple of attempts at it to get the alignment done right. Once done try moving the side to side adjustment knob to make sure the alignment is done correctly and it turns with relative ease. Hope your problem is this simple. -Andrew

Hi Jon, Which ones? There are quite a number of different kinds. -Andrew

Hi Wolf, Just started to pour over all this info here. The Mini Spy unit you mention of course if of interest. The docs you link to are bum links. Interested in seeing all the different elements required. You mention you need a PAL receiver to see color. What is the weight of the Mini Spy with all the attendant stuff that sits on the rig? Cheers, Andrew

Capital idea Alfeo. Just sent a note off to Jay about your thoughts.

Thank you for polishing my post Brian particularly the description of the stance. Also when I mention the rig "floating" what I should have said was the rig suspended so the lateral motion was minimal.

In addition to what has been said, you should try this to see how much your arm adjustment, as Eric indicates, is out of whack... Put the rig on after you have set it up best you can. Assume a stance with the rig nestled in about 8 to 10" away from you. Your stance should be almost at a 45 degree angle to where you want to go. Make sure your posture is good as if you have a force pulling your torso and head straight up. You should almost be in a stance similar to what a Matador would be in. Now let go of the rig and see where it goes. This will tell you how far out your arm adjustments are. With good posture you should, with very little effort, be able to get the rig to float in front of you by making micro movements with your upper body to compensate. Chris Fawcett, a Steadicam instructor (and operator), has put together a theory of posture that drives home the importance of posture. He conceptualizes it around the notion of Tensegrity, a theory of structural design popularized by Buckminster Fuller. You can download a paper Chris has done on Steadicam Posture from his website [ here ]. One more thing, when you go to look at the Monitor on the rig, bend your head down from the neck. Do not use your body to crane down. That could be contributing to the fire in your back. We've all been there. EDIT: spelling & such

You could send him "a message" through his profile page right here:

Ramon, how much does the ARRI QR-HD1 weigh and what is the aprox. cost? Brilliant device.

Two things for certain are lacking from the Marshall. Image flip is the big one. The Transvideo also has scopes which some may want.