thanks for all the thoughtful advice. sorry it took so long to respond, but my winter has fortunately been busy, until now.
i particularly can relate to staying in a comfort zone of the smaller rigs and smaller cameras. i shoot a lot of small productions, often with smaller cameras (hvx200s, ex3s) so that is a world i'm in already. but i have very very few producers right now who have steadicam even on their radar. so i feel if i make the move to steadicam, i'll need to venture into indies, student films, and other productions that have a demand for it.
in addition, i shoot a lot of sports ENG, some docs and some local lower-budge commercials. mostly sports though. i've found the steadicam so much more comfortable than handheld but the sports producers aren't yet willing to pay for a steadicam for the types of things i shoot. there is the occasional feature pieces following players around a park/stadium but it's still mainly talking heads. i know there are many uses of steadicam in sports tv, i'm just not in that world yet. for these productions, we're usually shooting on an F900, so i feel if i want to expand in sports broadcasting, i need to step up to a larger rig.
i took a 2-day class with peter and loved flying the rig. a week-long class seems like a great idea.
i am leaning toward getting the zephyr. it's not too expensive and can carry most of the cameras i use for now. even an f900 with no focus motors, etc should fly well. i am also looking at used rigs that presumably would be beefier and include more accessories.
thanks again for the advice. it really is a great community you have here. all the newbies asking silly questions and vets like you taking us seriously and giving extremely helpful answers. it makes me feel better about making the plunge.
thanks for the time and insight.
