Mikko Wilson

Here's a photo gallery I threw together of some of my photos from NAB: http://mikko.n3.net/photos/NAB06Web/ There arn't really any explanations on the pictures more than the title, as they are prety self explanatory. The pictures with Ruben are from the Ultra 2's maiden flight! If you want a high-res version of a pic, just drop me a line. - Mikko

I figured this would be the fastest way to get this out to those who want a copy... Click for bigger version My personal thanks to everyone who was at the show, either visiting or exhibiting. It was great to see familer faces again and meet new ones too. :) I had a blast this past week, and to crown it off, I now own my first rig; an Archer. B) - Mikko

That's a HVX-200 on there actually... :ph34r: "Toy"? - that arm will hold 2lb! :rolleyes: - Mikko

Tiffen/Steadicam (duh) SU2989 - The middle of South Upper hall - Mikko

My info, in my signature as always.. Mikko Wilson +358 44 2745817 (Finnish cell, should work fine in LV ) [011 358 ... from US landline] mikkowilson@hotmail.com - Mikko ... felt funny signing this post.

It turns out I have a bit of spare space at my accommodations. So if anyone is looking for a last minute place to stay, drop me a PM. - Mikko

I'll give this thread a bump as we are getting closer... Apparently Tiffen are hosting an opertors night on the Monday right after the show. I can't remember where though. Bryan, Dan, Carl, Gordon, Terry, Dave, Tom, Charles, and Eric (?), I look forward to meeting you all! Who else will be attending? - Mikko

Wow. Just wow. Eric didn't say that the BM was invented by Klassen, he expressed his deep concern that you may force them out of business with your original design that you stole from them. Your above linked thread highlights where you asked if there was a patent of if you could freely rip off the design. You did the same here too. Thread for your reference: http://www.steadicamforum.com/forums/index...findpost&p=9958 - Mikko ... in disbelief

Freeze, (quick note: we like to use real names here, if not our user name [too late], then at least in our signature) Welcome to the forum and congrats on your purchase of the little wonder, you do have a valid sugestion. I think this place (steadicamforum.com) in general isn't the best place for a Merlin forum/section. With all due respect, we prefer to keep the forum to actually working/aspiring profesionals, as you noted. I'm not sure if there is a general consumer/prosumer stabilizers forum out there. There's http://www.steadiforum.com but that's also mostly pros and wannabe/gonnabe pros. Most of the online video and film-making forums have areas for camera support, including stabilizers. A few to hit up are: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/ and their "support your local camera" section. http://www.DVXuser.com and their "hardware" sections. There's also http://hbsboard.com for homebuilt gear, they also have a comercial rigs section, but I haven't seen Merlin mentioned there. I know Glidecam and other manufacturers have a forums of their own, and this site has generally been the 'offical' forum for Steadicam, as most of their gear is for profesional operators, but the Merlin at this time doesn't really have a forum to call home. Your idea certainly does have some merit. - Mikko

AWSOME Now that is a fantastic site! Great fast access. Clip worked fine for me, took about 30 sec to buffer the Maze shot to start playing on my 1Mb connection. Just a little curious, how did you manage copyright for all this? Thankyou for all the work that you have put into that. - Mikko

My favoriate part about that is the irony that the camera is facing backwards. The sled (by the base) is in Don Juan. :ph34r: - Mikko

Bryan, I was wondering when someone was goign to post this topic. It's all good :) I'll be there for the week. Hope to meet as many of you as possible. - Mikko

A 2nd Academy Award?! WOW. Congratulations Garrett, you truely are an inspiration to us all. Are you going for a 3rd with Molecam? - Mikko

Rod = Rob? Steve, Did you just (unconstructivly/maliciously) diss Rob's reel? :blink: ..And insult a senior (paying I might add) member? :o I'm sorry, but we are profesionals here, please have some repect or take your attitude elsewhere. - Mikko

Not that new actually. It's been around for a while. I'd hardly call it competition either actually. :ph34r: - Mikko

Yup, there will be a Steadi out there, among the million other cams... Source: http://broadcastengineering.com/newsletter...unday-20060127/ There's some really amazing numbers in there... 500 monitors? :blink: - Mikko

The arm will take about 26lb. However the sled can only be balanced to hold a ~15lb camera max. (This is where the 15lb spec for the system comes in) And the system is well matched beacuse when the sled is balanced to carry that max of 15lb it will weigh about the 26lb, which is the limit of the arm. With 15lb of camera and one battery, you can use the rest of that weight for other acceories down below as counterweight. - About 5lb of accesories in fact. No sence in having an arm carry more than the sled can and vice versa. - Mikko

Just out of interest I had a try at seeing how much kit I could stick on a Flyer, while retaining a somewhat realisitc possible set up. - A configuration that might be of some use. I decided to go for a "multicamera live shoot" situation. The kit: Stripped down Hitachi V-21W 2/3"camera with sony DSR-1 DVCAM back and Canon YJ12x6.5B4-KRS-SX12 (basic 12x ENG) lens - Weight: 6.6kg [14.5lb] 2 Pag L75 batteries - Weight: (together) 1.3kg [2.9lb] 2 extra monitors ("program" and "prompter") in adition to the Flyer's own. Weight each: about 0.4kg [.9lb] Plus a couple of other small accesories for counterweight velcroed to the batteries, totalling about .3kg [.7lb] + the aditional monitor brackets + cables. Total of gear on the sled was about 9.7kg [21.4lb] Note: The pictures are before I cabled up the monitors. Total sled weight was around 12kg [~26.5lb] Total system weight (with arm + vest) was just shy of 18kg [~40lb] Flew VERY smootly and right at the limit of the Flyer. There was still enough room on the post to dock comfterbly. And the arm was hanging just below level (adjusted to maximum lift) right in it's sweet spot. The 2 aditional monitors did wobble a little if I did some more "aggressive" moves as the mounts where just hand bent metal. But better, almost as light, mounts could be used to improve rigidety. I still found them to be perfectly acceptable for operating with no wobble transfered to the picture. All that was missing from this set up was Peter's tally light. But it's light enough to be added without consequence. Though this was an ENG camera with a deck, it's about on par with many Triax cameras too. - in fact the Thompson LDK 300 (popular here in finland) is a Kilo [2lb] lighter. I'm not using this set up on a shoot at the moment, but as an experiement I found it interesting to see just how much it will fly. - Mikko

Yup, D-cam is very popular. http://www.gigawave.com and http://www.dcam.tv - rental is a few hundred a day, so not too pricy either. - Mikko

I agree. And yes, Sony does use the ambient light to it's advantage. Somehow they have managed to get that "reflective layer" BEHIND the LCD layer. The result is light hitting the screen actually boosts the brightness of the screen. All their LCDs that are built like this have a button to turn off the backlight entirly. I was a little skeptical when I saw that, but gave it a try, and sure enough, at times outside you really don't need the backlight at all. I belive it's designed primarily as a battery saving feature, but it really improves viewability too. - Mikko

There should be a delete button adjoining all of your own posts. It's down at the bottom right, next to the edit button. - Mikko

I have no corrections to make. :ph34r:

David, Welcome to the forum. The Flyer monitor will take any Composite video signal - (which means only SD) If the camera has a composite video output it will work with the Flyer. At least all the sub $10k HD cams have composite output. That's all the HDV cams; the Sony FX1 and Z1, The JVC HD100, The Canon XL-H1, etc,... Also the Panasonic HVX200 DVCPRO-HD camera. Any of these cameras will fly well on the Flyer. Once you go up to bigger HD cameras you will need to check wich ones do and don't have a composite output (meaning an internal down converter). for anythgin else you'd need an external downconverter from wither Component HD or HD-SDI. A "HD ready" monitor - such as on the Flyer-24 - may not give you full HD resolution on the display, but it will have an suitable converter inside to make sure that it can scale and display any Hd (or SD) signal you throw at it. Normally ANY converter, be it an external box, or in the camera or monitor, will always enduce a slight bit of lag due to the digital processing time. Then is never more than a few frames, but may be a little confusing at first. The easiest way to make sure it works with the Flyer 12v (or almost ANY video monitor [i have yet to hear of one that doesn't]), is to ask for a Composite (NOT Component!) signal and it'll work. - Mikko

We have a 'rule' of real names on the forum. We are all profesionals and friends. We prefer to know who we are talking to as comon curtesy, that's all. A little late now as you are allready signed up, but we'd appriciate a name in your signature. :) - Mikko

Guarnanene, (is that your name? - no offense) Welcome to the world of Steadicam. I think you have the right over all perspective on the situation, there's no rush. :) My sole advice for you is this: Take a workshop. And if you can't do that, then go take a workshop. Seriously, it will get you off to the right start and will answer all the questions you have about rigs. You are used to working with pro gear, Steadicam is not the place to cheap out. Spend the $2k on a workshop (or get some other people together and get an "on campus workshop" organized). A workshop will teach you all you need to know about basic operting and slow you to ask any and all questions you have. (Most) people come out of a workshop in a condition that they can operate the rig, not super well, but enough that it's just down to practice, and they can start some low-key operating. Demanding operating will of course take time to be "good". A workshop will also tell you if this is actually for you. You'll have a prety good idea after teh week wether this is somthign that you want to pour your hart and sole (and life) into, if it's somethign you'll do "on the side" or if it's just not for you. (unlikly) I won't coment on a suitable rig for you, you'll lean that with time before you buy anyway, and the workshop you are attending (right?) will help you with that too. A good list of workshops is at: http://www.steadicam-ops.com Information on Peter's on campus workshops: http://www.thesteadicamworkshops.com - Mikko