William Demeritt

Would you consider selling the XCS ergo handle separately?

We also hope to offer everyone the best support possible, and invite you to come by any time, and see how we make the monitors.

And bring the man a Diet Coke or Diet Pepsi!

Guess I better buy a unicycle, gotta stay competitive...

AJ: Yea, AMIMON introduced the sticks back in October, but they did it as a "see what you can do?" type of thing. I think LG Innotek showed off the first "stick" at CES, but nobody's really brought it to market yet. I'm interested in seeing the range on them!

Operators are standing by...

 

:D

 

Robert

I see what you did there...

I bought my 6.5" Cinetronic 4:3 monitor because I wanted the daylight view capability, but also wanted a smaller image size to scan with my eyes. I know, not great bragging rights for monitor size (motion of the ocean, right? RIGHT??), but I find it's better for my operating.

hey william..

 

while balancing high mode..i usually keep a drop time of 2 seconds...

 

but for low mode ,ofcourse the bottom is heavy but shud i open the post n keep the same drop time???? :huh:

 

kapz

With the rig upright, you need to move the gimbal down so the camera side moves further from the gimbal, therefore making it camera stage heavy. Then the rig wants to sit with the camera low and the batteries high. Adjust gimbal position to adjust drop time as normal. If you want to get more post space between the gimbal and the upper junction box, as well as get the camera a little bit lower, extend the post and then move the gimbal position to set drop time for low mode.

What aren't you getting right?

I think adjustable framelines would be critical over canned framelines. Everything else sounds cool.

I have a shot coming up on this feature where I'll be operating in an office building, and the shot will include traveling inside an elevator between floors.

I've already watched the McConkey shot for RAISING CAIN and taken to heart his tips on working with the actor to compensate for any bobble. I'm just wondering if anyone else has some tips or things to keep in mind?

My plan on the day is to steal a PA to try walking through the scene during down time. This way, I'll learn the path and also take a ride in the elevators a few times to see how dramatic the acceleration may be. Any other ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated!

I gotta be honest, when I upgrade to the Bartech digital receiver, all these negative reviews will push me to buy a digital Heden or other. I have an analog M-One motor right now, but it makes me nervous that new business is neglected, so what chance do I have for service??

Anyone got one they're selling?

Ron? Too drunk? Never.

Don't need to know how the thingy works, just gotta know how to cash them fat STEADYCAMMIN CHECKS am I right fellas?

Bring it to set, but only off a job you bid from Craigslist. I say you'll make it to lunch before someone catches on.

Probably doesn't have HD signal issues when people are on their walkies nearby.

James: also worth trying out is try other BNC cables, make sure you have a properly shielded signal coming into the decimator?

Does the problem have any relation to the hand units distance from the receiver?

You can probably isolate it if it is an rf issue by running camera off block battery, power Decimator off the block or AC, use the Decimator to send the image to another off-sled monitor (powered off AC or whatever). Power the Arri separately somewhere nearby and try using the hand unit. Since the camera's power, grounding etc is completely separate from the Arri system, you'll know any distortion in image must be related to the RF.

Ron, I saw what you were transmitting, and that's disgusting!!

Robert, welcome to the SteadicamForum. I'm sure people working in the DSLR market will find this product interesting. You should probably mention in this thread and the other that you're the manufacturer of this equipment, just so everyone is aware.

Biggest misconception I've found: moving is difficult, standing still is easy. No joke, I've had productions tell me they don't have anything "too crazy" planned, only to find out they're right. Nothing "too crazy", or too moving, or too couldn't be done on tripod.

Or, nothing "too crazy" involved a long walk around a house, up some crappy wooden stairs (up two flights), and into a bedroom lock-off.

Biggest misconception? Chances are, unless your DP was a Steadicam operator or has used them before, they're going to misconceive how to use you.

I remember when we used to talk about steadicams

Really? You must be old! I don't remember a time before "I'm new to Steadicam" advice threads.

Also keep in mind, at the data rates we're discussing:

Blackmagic HyperDeck Shuttle:

15 minutes uncompressed (1.6 Gb/s) = 180GB = 180GB ssd drive = $480. Sure, you can go back and delete bad takes, but you can't trim the pre-roll from those takes, so long takes are going to be long takes.

Atomos Samurai:

6 hours ProRes 422 (HQ) (220 Mb/s) = 2.5″ 640GB drive = $50.

It's not just a question of replacement, but rather making it through the day with your recorder.

They probably recommend newer hard drives with motion detection and technology that protects the needle and platters better in the event of sudden movement. Personally, I've put hard drives through absolute and utter hell... traditional platter drives will work just fine for me.

A shock mount I can understand for on camera applications (jittery handheld, etc), but laptop hard drives have functioned during movement or acceleration for years. If it's on a Steadicam, the smooth movements should be sufficient to dampen any need for shock mounts.

I mean, a shock mount solution could be devised if people are that worried, but I don't see it as necessary. They recommend a shock mount probably to be safe, knowing people will try anything mounted to camera or off camera but in danger.

The Samurai uses regular HDD's because it records using Apple ProRes instead of uncompressed, so it needs less hard drive speed to record. Without looking it up to verify, uncompressed requires 1.6Gb/s whereas ProRes can record around 220Mb/s I think.

Personally, I'd go with the Samurai because the cost of the unit may be more, but then I could buy several 500gb laptop hard drives to swap in. If a hard drive fails, I can replace it for <$75. Whereas currently with SSD prices, that's a lot more money.

Check out the specs here mate:

 

http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/bmd_hyperdeck-shuttle

 

Looks like switchable HD/SD, and what a bargain for under £300, instant on-set HD playback without messing around with the camera, pretty nice.

If I could bolt some kind of v-lock plate into the back of it I could even slot it straight onto the back of my monitor, definitely going to check one of these out in person.

Maybe if I screwed or glued something like this to the back it would work nicely:

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/699163-REG/Element_Technica_EL_VLP_AJA_AJA_V_Lock_Plate.html

It's a great price for the device, but keep in mind that the hard drives you use MUST be fast enough to record uncompressed HD. After looking at specs in another thread, this really only leaves SSD drives as an option, and large enough drives to get you through a day will likely cost an excess of $1,000.

Personally, I'm looking at the Atomos Samurai for a recording option: HDMI and HD-SDI inputs, records in Apple ProRes to SDD or standard 2.5" HDD (SATA connections), supports playback, etc. The unit costs $1495, but the HDD drives cost as low as $60.

I saw it at NAB 2011. The unit seemed OK, seemed to do the job. I asked a number of questions, but the people at the booth didn't have many answers. Seems to make sense now, if Varizoom is just selling it under their name.

I learned to stop sending 200-300 emails to GPI when Ashley put me in a head lock and made me promise to stop calling. Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood. :unsure:

That's really just incredible. I've worked in customer support before in my past life, and I've never understood how the support provider can get into a place where they think it's helpful, necessary or appropriate to yell at a customer (and I used to change passwords for a living, can you imagine my expression when people asked me how to spell their new password "abc123"?).

I hope this situation gets righted for you, Tomas.