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Hi everyone, I am selling my trusty Archer 2 sled and G-50x arm. Located in Brooklyn -- 11218. Can ship at buyer's expense. Asking: $27,000 - Sled & Arm $20,000 - SLED ONLY * Would prefer to sell together. Archer 2 Tilt-Head Gold-Mount Sled Volt Gimbal & Control Box Volt Archer Padded Dock Original Archer 2 Gimbal & (x2) Docks 7" LCD Monitor - Steadicam brand Custom 3rd Battery Plate w/ built-in mount for Recorder (x2) Medium Tiffen Dovetail Plates Zalex Longplate-M Cinematic Precision Alexa Mini LF Archer2 Plate Custom SOS Plate Thermodyne Steadicam Case - sled & arm fit in with vest on top G-50x Arm ( ** this version separates in the middle ** ) Tiffen Arm Bag Short & Long Post J-Bracket Return Monitor Kit Various Camera Power Cables: Alexa Mini LF (24V), Alexa Mini (12V), Alexa Classic (12/24V), Red Epic, Red One, Sony Venice (4pin XLR) MDR-2 & MDR-3 Power Teradek Power Monitor Power Cable Hirose P-tap Power 3pin Lemo Breakout Box Contact me @ masur.megan@gmail.com IMG_1564.HEIC IMG_1556.HEIC IMG_1557.HEIC IMG_1558.HEIC IMG_1559.HEIC IMG_1560.HEIC IMG_1561.HEIC IMG_1563.HEIC IMG_1565.HEIC IMG_1566.HEIC IMG_1567.HEIC IMG_1568.HEIC IMG_1570.HEIC IMG_1571.HEIC IMG_1572.HEIC IMG_1573.HEIC IMG_1575.HEIC IMG_1577.HEIC IMG_1578.HEIC IMG_1579.HEIC IMG_1581.HEIC IMG_1582.HEIC

Selling my spare NB stabilizer vest. It's probably the lightest vest out there. Selling for about a third of the original cost, 1300$ plus shipping.

HD 6". That's just me, but I haven't felt a major need to use an 8", unless it's brighter. AND if it definitely doesn't have an internal horizon, then I'd stick with the 6". It's nicer because it's smaller and more nimble, and doesn't become so much of a sail in the wind.

Definitely hit up the SOA Workshop in LA. The community you join when you go to that workshop is awesome. I just did the one in PA and I loved it. It's pricey but absolutely worth it.

Action Products Back Mount Vest. $2500 Currently set up on the left. Currently in the Atlanta area, if anyone local would like to take a look. I'd prefer to sell in the US, but feel free to contact me about international. Thanks for looking.

Hi All, I am a newbie who had exposure to the Zephyr at Film School and recently had the chance to purchase a very good condition Scout for $3k AUD which spec-wise suits my RED Raven setup perfectly (mechanically). However, I didn't full appreciate the cable in the post was analog and not SDI, so now am trying to understand whether I can swap out this cable for an hd-sdi, or whether the best work around is just using an sdi to analog converter from black magic as part of my rig? I'd prefer the swap out as, as I get better, I'd like to throw my Shogun 7 on there in place of the stock monitor, or upgrade to a better hd-sdi monitor etc. Thanking you in advance for your help.

Exactly what Tom said! I typically do as light as possible with just the pads of my finger tips, but not letting go of the gimbal. On the opposite side of that, I was doing a shot last week outside when unexpectedly the wind picked up during a lock-off and I had to apply much more pressure to fight the wind. I didn't have to "death-grip" the gimbal, but it was getting close to that. With regards to horizon, it just takes practice. And when you notice you are off or starting to go off, looking for opportunities to adjust. If you end up in a lock off and you see your horizon is off, you can weigh the pros and cons of 1. fixing it in a lock off, which can sometimes bring more attention to it 2. live with it until you are moving to your next frame and you can fix it. When you are blocking shots, keep an eye out for horizon indicators that will appear in frame. If you feel it might be too big of an issue, see if you can adjust blocking to help you. Many times the environment's horizon indicators will not actually be level, so having that discussion with the DP/director to say if you want to be level or if you want to be level with something in the world. My sled has been level but the roof of a building on set wasn't level, and the DP asked me to level to the roof, which I did. Hope this helps!

I appreciate you for taking the time to write out all that information!

Hi Donald, You’re right to assume that the answer is quite variable, but there are some rough guidelines that may help. One of the things that I particularly like to do at a workshop is to have a student take their post hand off of the gimbal completely. (Obviously leaving the other hand on the gimbal grip - no need to go totally hands free!) Many new operators get frustrated by what they see as “the rig wobbling”, and yet the moment I ask them to take their hand off, the rig floats magically through space without a wobble. However, as they then see, the camera is now aimlessly drifting, and the frame usually sucks. But hey, it’s stable! What this immediately shows, however, is that every “wobble” is coming from your hand. So the trick is to apply the input you need to frame the shot, but only that much input. There are times where you will need to apply more input - like stops and starts of a move, and there will be times where you need to apply less input, like a very slow consistent speed move. But the challenge of Steadicam is always applying just enough input to the sled. So, as to how that relates to pressure on the gimbal. The general rule of thumb I’ve found is that it’s almost always on the light side. Times when you need to apply more pressure would be when doing a tilt with a heavier drop time, or when counteracting violent stops and starts with a bottom heavy rig, or when changing directions mid-move. Apart from that, applying as little pressure as possible is the name of the game, as the tighter you are holding onto the gimbal, the more likely you are to make the rig wobble, or throw off the horizon, or cause pan wiggles. As for keeping the horizon level, that comes with practice, but there are a few additional tricks there. First of all, if you can, there are many new tools that can provide assistance for horizon as you’re operating (such as the Wave and Volt). While I think it’s important to learn how to operate without those tools, they have given a lot of operators the freedom to remove chasing the horizon from their attention loop while operating, and that’s incredibly freeing. It also takes away what was always one of the curses of Steadicam - it’s the only tool we regularly use on set which goes off level easily - so it makes it much easier for Steadicam work to blend in and be less obvious, something I know I appreciate. As for tricks without those fancy horizon aids, think about the blocking of your shots to avoid having to change direction unexpectedly. Every time you change direction or speed in the side to side axis, you introduce a tendency for the rig to go off level, and you will have to fight that. By blocking shots that limit these speed and direction changes, you limit the amount of times that you’ll need to be absolutely perfect. In addition, I run with a set of grid lines on my monitor, and regularly check them to the vertical and horizontal lines of the set. I also run a “CineLevel”, which is an acceleration compensated digital level that mounts on my rig, and seems rather effective at giving me a horizon readout, and it is relatively inexpensive, which is a pleasant surprise! Finally, and I’m sure others will echo this - if you haven’t, please find time to take a workshop or some private training from a reputable operator (and of those two options, I really recommend the workshop if you’re starting out, for a variety of reasons). While there is much you can learn on your own, and from videos and books, having experienced operators around you, critiquing you, and building your form is invaluable. In addition, there is a ton of nuance to how each individual operator crafts their shots, and handles their rig, and being around a group of extremely talented people gives you tons of people to “borrow” ideas and techniques from, and will vastly broaden your skill set in a very short period of time. If you can logistically and financially make it make sense, the SOA provides some of the best workshop experiences I’ve ever seen, and I’ve been lucky to be able to instruct there a few times.

Paddocks Radical Options or "The GPI Story..." George Paddock was an engineer in the Navy, later became a Steadicam operator/owner when buying his EFP in 1990. Imidiately he started to modify it and that became his first brush with Steadicam modification/manufacturing. He was the person behind the modification that made Dynamic balance with the EFP possible/easier possible. The construction of a for and aft to the bottom of the sled. It was so successful that his upgrade was even sold trough CP directly. Paddocks Radical Options (PRO) came about as an upgrade for the stagnated Steadicam Model 3/3A that was not majorly upgraded in 12 years (Most of the parts and technology, like the Arm, electronics, etc. was basically the same since 1976). The PRO basically incorporated design aspects from Bob DeRose, using his "tele-post" later the GPI Center Post, as well as his DA-1 (the upper Junction box), the lower for and aft and all the little and big brackets and widgets that he had made for the 3A for years. Chris Haarhoff added his Donkey Box to it and George Paddock came up with the Monitor, Housing, the Power Supply, Batteries. (They were sold in parts as the Steadicam patents were still very much power. Many Steadicam hardliner believed that that was in direct violation and competition with Steadicam... It was a well deserved Option.) The interesting part about that was that for years many Workshops were conducted by CP and PRO with CP/DCE/PRO hybrids until that day when the war/break came about... And No I don't know exactly what happend... You will notice that many parts from the 3A will fit the PRO and vice versa... as the PRO design was initially meant as an upgrade and not as a replacement for the 3/3A. The Master Series was the answer to the PRO or at least got pushed quicker in production, which came with different diameter Post, Gimbal and Arm Post which were not interchangable with the PRO. A try from CP to dry out the supply of Arms and Gimbals for the PRO system. Which eventually turned out to be a shot in there own foot. (As we know CP went down... GPI is still here.) All customers of the first PRO were disappointed or fed up 3A owners that needed something more reliable. (Remember? Everytime you flipped the switch for the Monitor with anticipation... will it glow or blow up...) You still needed the 3A Vest, Arm and Gimbal to compleat the set up as Cinema Products did not sell single parts, actually they decidet what they sold you at the time. Later the PRO Gimbal got introduced as well as much later the Arm and the Vest which compleated the PRO set up and marked the departuer from all parts Steadicam. And the second compleat System (Sled, Arm and Vest) as an alternative to the original Steadicam. GPI was the first to introduce an interchangable Super Post as a standard item as well as the Gyro Module, Stand-alone Monitor, quickly disconnectable center post, drop in Camera plateform, true 24 Volt system (okay second as the Panaglide was first) and many more things not available to the Steadicam Community until the Master Series Steadicam. Besides George Paddock, Chris Haarhoff and Bob DeRose, Mark O'Kane, David Emmerichs and Ted Churchill were named additional Designers. (As Ted is not named on any patents, he was closely involved with the development of the monitor, and some technical aspects.) "Guineapigs", Testers and first Costumers were Chris Haarhoff, Mark O'Kane, David Emmerichs, Ted Churchill, Jimmy Muro, Andrew Rowlands, Colin Anderson, Steve St.John, Randy Nolan, Bob Ulland, Greg Lundsgaard, Scott Sakamoto, Mark Van Loon, Rusty Geller, Ian Jones, Jim McConkey, Mark Emery Moore, Rick Raphael, Bob Gorelick, Dave Knox, Guy Bee, Dan Kneece, Dave Luckenbach and a couple of others that I can't remember off hand... And again please feel free to correct me or add anything that I missed or compleatly screwed up... please... Here a 1993 picture (from an old GPI add), showing Mark O'Kane's PRO. With: 3A Gimbal, Donkey Box 1, Scissor Monitor Arm, 3 cable Center Post, Preston UHF and the original Leightweight Panaflex. I believe the rig is Serial #002. (Chris Haarhoff used to own #001, which went to Kurt Jones and now is owned by Brian Hart.)