Leaderboard

For sale is my Steadicam Zephyr with 7" HD Monitor, Standard Vest & Gold Mount battery plates. A couple extras are included. Asking $6650 Shipped and Paypal'd, or best offer. USA shipping only, or local pickup in Denver. PHOTOS HERE: https://imgur.com/a/jkwrzkM Purchased November 2018 from B&H, only used in my home & studio for practice, has never been used on set or in a production. I am the original owner and only operator. Probably used less than 15 hours. My documentary work has taken off, and Steadicam operating just didn't work out in my grand career plan! Everything is in great condition, the sled has normal marks but overall looks great and all the ports are functional and clean. No weird gotchas or surprises. I'm also including a Skymagic CG monitor yoke for a 7" SmallHD monitor. This allows you to tilt the monitor without throwing the rig off balance. There is a second plate included with included 15mm rail attachment option. A Steadicam brand Mini Low-Mode F Bracket is also included. Manuals also included. Everything comes in the pictured flight case. Here's a balance test video: https://imgur.com/a/AQpB2AJ Again, photos are here: https://imgur.com/a/jkwrzkM Please feel free to ask questions or for more detailed pictures. I'm also available by phone to talk through any details.

Andrea helped me out immensely by providing me with a new set of blue and black springs and also walking me through how to rearrange the components of my arm to increase my boom range. Comparatively to the old gold and silver springs, the new ones work like a dream and I have had no issues since. I am always pleasantly surprised by the amount of tuning capabilities and payload threshold that this arm provides!

Hello Patrick, You will have to send in your control box to have the update done. You'll be able to hold onto everything else. We are looking into options on the east coast to have a place people can send their boxes to be updated. So that should help save a little bit of time for folks on the east coast.

I have used Cinema Product’s arms and now Tiffen’s arms for many, many years but I have tested PRO arms very carefully as well from time to time. I have a G70 and have not tried the new X design, but I would like to soon. Filming “Hugo” required me to carry two full size Alexas on a newly designed PACE 3D rig. I hope no one else will have to carry such a heavy package – it was considerably heavier than the IMAX packages I have flown over the years. <BTW: I began eager discussions of a two part ‘M’ version with Neil Fanthom, the lead Arri technician on “Hugo”, even as he coordinated the last modifications to these first factory release full size cameras. I finally used one of the ‘M’ prototypes during the last few weeks of “World War Z” and it was extraordinary: the same quality image with a fraction of the weight and size on my sled, most of the weight being carried by my hardworking grip on a backpack and connected only by a thin, very flexible fiber optic cable. The latest PACE 3D rigs now use the ‘M’.> The Tiffen G70 lifted this incredibly heavy load quite easily after adjusting the allen bolts at the end of the arm links to increase its top end lifting capacity. This weight was clearly more than the arm had been designed to handle, however, and it caused enough lateral twisting of the arm that the gimble handle had a strong tendency to “run downhill”, that is, the arm post was no longer vertical and the handle did not like to stay in the position I wanted it in. I had modified my arm to increase the friction when necessary to offset this precession, which occurs to a much lesser degree with more normal loads (the same thing happens with PRO arms especially with the lower friction design they use but to a slightly lesser extent) but the amount of twist was alarming and the boom response of the arm was not as linear as it normally is – it felt quite “springy”, more like the first CP arms than this much higher tech Tiffen version. I got in touch with Chris Edwards at Optical Support, the Steadicam dealer in London and arranged to test one of their PRO arms with the heaviest set of springs they could find in their inventory. I cranked them both to the top setting and it just handled the load. The overall reach of the arm was less, however, and did not work as well as my longer G70 with my Klassen back mounted harness. I have used a solid socket block that I designed, which does not include the spring loaded hinge design that all stock arms have, as I have found this hinge causes a loss of precision in controlling the sled when using a back mounted harness. Chris and I came up with a design for a long, rigid socket block design which he then fabricated and the Production rented this arm for the run of the show. I never adjusted the springs for the movie, even when changing lenses, as I never had too much lift with the lighter lenses, only slightly less than I would have preferred with the heavier lenses, but the linearity of the arm made it a very small issue. I found the PRO arm to be beautifully smooth and linear in response and I really liked using it. I still had some twist in this arm which I had to counter with a custom friction lock on the post mount, but it was a lot less alarming. After “Hugo” I went back to the G70 and really liked coming home to it as well. At more normal operating weights, they perform quite similarly. I have the bearing upgrade and that has helped the smoothness noticeably. I am anxious to try the new X model. The main differences I see are between the weights of the arms (the PRO is quite a bit heavier) and the ease of adjustment (the Tiffen arm is a joy to adjust) and of course the difference in cost. Overall the PRO probably requires less maintenance with the enclosed spring cartridges and massive structure but more effort adjusting which can sometimes result in operating a shot with a less than ideal setting, which does bother me some. The PRO is much easier to adjust than my previous CP arms, but I really, really like the easy tweaking of the G70 and have even changed the setting during a shot several times to improve the response. Particularly with the back mounted harness, which uses these arms in an orientation they were not designed for, fine tuning of either arm is more critical (I could never go back to a front mount, however, I would have to find a new career instead, the physical strain on my lower back is dramatically greater with a front mount vest - but I know other operators who can't imagine working with the back mounted harness...) That the significance of “ease of adjusting” is more than a convenience for the operator was made apparent to me on my first shot on “Snake Eyes”. I had worked with Brian DePalma on 5 or 6 films previously and so he was well used to my procedures. I called out “Ready” before the first rehearsal and Brian yelled out “Whoa, whoa, whoa!!” in response. It was rare to hear him talk much at all on set, even more so in a loud voice. “Why aren’t you fiddling?” he demanded. It took me a moment to realize what he was asking about. I was using both the new wireless motorized stage controller and the tool-free arm for the first time on one of his movies. He had learned to incorporate the amount of time required to get my Steadicam “tweaked” perfectly before each take into his calculations for doing a Steadicam shot. I now could make those tweaks as I strolled up to the start line and that had startled him. I never realized before that moment that this might impact more than my own sense of preparation and comfort level. Lesson learned… I am now operating my first TV show, “Nurse Jackie”, as an A/Steadicam Operator, and the pace is higher than on most of the features I have worked on, and the ease of adjustments of the sled and arm are a real advantage here as well. There is little patience on the part of the whole cast and crew for “tweaking” when we have many pages to get through before heading home. I would love to have both arms so I could choose the best tool for each setup, but that is not financially feasible. I think they are both extraordinary instruments, much improved over Garrett’s original design, which was an extraordinary achievement in itself, resulting not from improvements, but from a whole new concept never before imagined. The relatively subtle improvements in that design which these two companies have produced are welcome, especially as the requirements and expectations of increasingly sophisticated operators have increased over the years. I love the diversity of choices now, each new design pushes the development from every manufacturer and we are the beneficiaries.

Here are some shots of my new cases custom built and fit into my existing Backstage Magliner Jr. Steadicam cart. As you can see, it is based mostly on variations of Erwin's and Ramon's cases and also Steve Fracol's cases. A thousand thanks to those guys for the inspiration / infection. Here are few custom things I had done to my Magliner and cases that ultimately made this work for me: 1. Even before the cases I had Backstage raise my top shelf to 38" because I prefer to work at that height. 2. So as not to loose space under the cases, I had Backstage build a custom bottom shelf with a 3/8" lip on just the front side so the bottom drawers clear. The other three sides are the normal height. 3. I didn't want to lose an entire side to just my vest standing up so I lay it down in a drawer with the arm nestled inside. My backpack / briefcase goes there when the vest comes out. 4. Weight was a concern so I divided it into four cases that were logical to me in weight and workflow. * I'm still using small plastic organizers in the carpeted drawers until I work with the system a few more times and am ready to commit to cutting the foam inserts. The design and build was by Art Arras at A&S Case: Art Arras A & S Case 5260 Vineland Ave North Hollywood, CA 91601 Wk: (818) 509-5920 They did a great job and were very easy to work with before, during and after the build with one little unforeseen design flaw we had to correct which they did as a warranty item same day. I literally brought my whole kit and cart to them so they could see my existing load-in / load-out process with Peli / Storm cases and then left the cart there during the build. They now have shop drawings based on the Backstage cart and shelving. It's a 100% tight fit, not a millimeter to spare so if you have another brand cart don't make assumptions. So far this system is saving me 35-45 minutes each on load-in / out from using individual cases and my build time is about ten minutes now. The cost was around $2500 and worth every penny. Enough talk. Here is a basic photo of the overall cart, plus a link to the diagram and detailed photos located on my web server: Detailed Starling Case Photos Link

Talking about getting carried away... I also designed costume cases that would compliment the cart and maximise the amount of gear I would be able to have at my finger tips at any given time on set. And ship easily... The Big Case on the left carries: Vest (accessable on Set), Arm (accessable on set), Arm Canisters, 2 Gorelocks, a bunch of Eyebrows and the Hardmount. Case #2: 2 top drawers hold: 2 Prestons, cables and all AKS I could fit. Case #3: 1 drawer and hidden space: 22 Anton bauer batteries, 3 AB chargers, Preston baetteries and charger and 50 AA Batteries and charger. All cases are in shipable weight limit. When it's broken down, you have 4 red cases, plus sled case (Pelican 1650), Back ups (Pelican 1650), Cart Hardware (Pelican 1650). These where the first Prototypes, the new generation is ATA approved. Fly safe, Erwin It turns into a case: Here in action. It was like: "we are just around the corner" turning into 3 blocks in Downtown LA. I was okay. Imagine I had to push my Stand... Sofar 5 carts where made (Including mine...) Fly Safe, Erwin

So... with my 9th Generation I got a little carried away, as I started from scratch. I also wanted it to be easier to ship... ergo go with a Yeager style cart that folds into a case for shipping. I started with the Aluminum Camera cart from Backstage. A year of agony and here we go: And yes it's RED. (The Prototype) Fly Safe, Erwin