chris fawcett

If there's only one, it's hardly a choice. Thankfully there is a choice. You choose Cinetronic. I choose Transvideo. All the best, Chris

Hi Soren, I'm not sure I know exactly what you mean, but I doubt we'll be adding any more hardware to the vest. It's nice and light as it is, low profile too. Hi James, As for rear mounting, I should state that the Exovest isn't really about rear mounting, it's more about adding a 3rd arm section when you need extra boom range, though what you describe should be possible, for sure. All the best, Chris

Hi Markus, That is unlikely, though not impossible. I'm very sorry to disappoint you, but we're in the thick of some great design rationalisations right now. All very exciting (for us). We're working as fast as we can! All the best, Chris

Hi Mariano, I can't say for sure when it will be ready. We're working our hardest on finalising it soon. All the best, Chris

Hi James, Unfortunately, I won't be attending that workshop. For now, the prototypes are staying with the main engineers (and me) until we finalise the design. Anyone is welcome to try out a prototype, but that means coming to one of us for now. I'm very sorry about this, but we're at a crucial stage of the design, and we all need to keep on top of the changes. One will be at IBC in September. All the best, Chris

Hi Michael, There are currently 3 prototypes, and one should be in Jerry Holway's hands this summer. You could try him, unless you fancy a visit to Amsterdam ;) All the best, Chris

And Transvideo is making inertial compensation horizon too: http://www.transvideo.eu/en/node/1721 I'll upgrade to it soon and let you know how it performs. It augments their standard HD overlay bubble. Interesting events on the horizon, Chris

Hi Rich, The 18kg camera payload maxed my G50, but I guess that's about the max sled limit too, and I mean max. You should not think of regularly flying those weights on an A2 sled. All the best, Chris

Hi Rich, No whiz for me, please. The tilt stage is great if you don't have a superpost. There's so much elevation lost when you have to tilt the whole post. I usually set the tilt to suit the shot. For example, on a recent music video, the star's people wanted me always looking down at her from an exact angle that they were annoyingly adept at identifying, so I set that tilt on the stage and was able to operate with a vertical post most of the time. I guess if you don't have a tilt head, you'll never miss it, but I'd miss it like bejezus. Another thing you get used to is the motorised stage. On a feature last year, the AD was puzzled at first when I would do a lens change at one when we were pressed for time. "Don't you need to balance?" he'd ask. I guess he was expecting to see me twiddling knobs. With the motorised stage, I was able to balance without anyone noticing. The AD loved that I always looked ready to shoot. It made my job easier and quicker, and it made me look good on set (in my mind at least). As for rigidity, of course you can always make a post more rigid. The question is, how rigid do you need it to be? I'm content with the balance between weight and rigidity of the A2 post. I run around with it and shake a lot, and it doesn't vibrate. Running around and shaking it keeps me happy, I find that, generally, I don't need to sit on it. As for the gimbal, I would be academically interested in a side-by-side comparison of different gimbals, but as it is, I can walk around my gimbal, hands off, without the rig panning. Since I have never needed to perform this deranged manoeuvre in a shot, I figure the gimbal is more than good enough for my needs. It's certainly stood up to 50% more weight than Tiffen recommends without any problems (sorry Robin). As for grip size, well, maybe I don't have a big manly hand, so I don't need a big manly gimbal to stick in it. The torque I can exert through the A2 gimbal in pan is amply sufficient. As to Robert's point, I adjust pan inertia all the time because I can. The way the monitor and battery mounts rotate at the end of the A2 rods allows you to add a huge amount of pan inertia to a light rig. Alternatively, I can tuck the monitor right in, and flip the batteries in under the post when I have to push through crowds, shoot amongst dancers, or just require a whippy, reactive rig. Yep, setting pan inertia is a big deal for me, and again, I guess if you don't do it, you won't ever miss it. And while we are on monitors, how on earth could I ever be bothered with a monitor that wasn't mounted on a centre-of-gravity mount? Surely every other rig on earth has this feature now. I do like changing the angle of my monitor now and then without having to rebalance the rig. And now to the concept of 'useless weight.' I'm glad you brought this up, Robert, because I sure as hell wouldn't add it if it were useless. I add it exactly when and where I want it. For example: I need to shorten the post; I need to add inertia (pan, tilt, whatever); I need to augment payload weight to counterbalance an accessory on the lower dovetail. I don't add it so I can have a workout, so I'm delighted that my sled does not have that weight built into it all the time—call me lazy. I'm also happy to have the option of adding 'spot' weight exactly where I want it. Depleted uranium might be better, but I'm content with the density of steel. If I don't actually require another battery on the sled, I'd rather have it sitting on the charger, or preferably in the store I didn't have to buy it from. There may be a perception that somehow we Tiffen owners buy Tiffen Steadicams out of some form of ignorance, misguidedness, perversity, bribery, or insanity. I put it to you that it is nothing but pure personal preference. I made an informed purchase, that was not limited by available funds, for the the rig I liked best. I came to my decision after trying and evaluating every other system that was available, and rejecting it, and out of respect for those manufacturers that do an admirable job of pleasing their customers I find it beneath me to state in a public forum what it is that induces in me various states of bewilderment, hilarity, and loathing regarding their systems. With my A2, I am as happy as a dog with two dicks. My A2 sled doen't vibrate, my G50 arm doesn't bounce—my LX vest has an odour reminiscent of cheez whiz about it, but for that, I have only myself to blame. Whichever of the immaculate contraptions you fly, may you fly safe. Chris

Hi Rich, The heaviest setup I've flown on the A2 was Alexa, Codex, Scorpio + two motors, mattebox + three filters, 6" Transvideo HD monitor, Transvideo Titan HD, Cinetape, one large 12V V-lock battery, and one 24V battery. The camera payload up top was 18kg, and the was about max for the sled I'd guess. However, if those are the weights you're thinking of carrying regularly, you should probably buy a bigger sled, but that's what the A2 will manage in extremis. I'm loving the A2 features: motorised stage, tilt head, the ability to radically alter the pan inertia, and to trim the tilt and roll inertia by means of the accessory balance weights. For me, it's the perfect rig. Some pics of that setup: http://steadivision.com/gallery/source/106.html http://steadivision.com/gallery/source/107.html http://steadivision.com/gallery/source/108.html All the best, Chris

You're welcome!

Hi John, It flies any weight we've tried on it, and is in itself lightweight, so there will be one model for the foreseeable future. We're still at prototype stage, so don't have any details about release date and price. Presently, the parts count is about double that of a regular vest, so we're obviously working on reducing that before going into production. All the best, Chris

Here you go! In kilograms. Sled 4.1 Transvideo Monitor 1.4 Arm 4 Vest 3.25 Or thereabouts. Chris

http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?showtopic=16026&st=0&p=76332entry76332

Larry's G70 maxed out at about 75lb, the Pro lifted 77lb. He needed the extra 2lb for that monster rig.

One step at a time, Mariano!

Probably yes.

Hey James, We're working on it! All the best, Chris

Hi Afton, It's very different. In the Exovest, you don't use those muscles that stabilise your hip joint at the pelvis, nor the stomach muscles that stabilise the pelvis itself. Instead you relax them so that your hip joints move up and down relative to one another as they do when we walk without a Steadicam. The idea is that not only do you exert less muscular effort now in walking with the Steadicam, but also when you lift one foot off the ground, your body is supported by a leg that is hanging on bone on tendon, rather than on tensed muscle. This makes for very precise slow walking, and allows the socket block to remain at the same level above the ground, because as one hip joint rises, the other falls. The vests we use presently stabilise the torque of holding the sled out front by—in the case of the front-mount vest—a chest strap at mid thoracic level, and—with the back-mount vest—a rear spar at about the same level. The exoskeletal nature of the Exovest allows us to double that lever arm and to insert the torque into the high trapezius muscles between the shoulder blades, while avoiding the spine. This longer lever halves the force required to resist the cantilever, and allows you to control the position of the rig from the level of your shoulders instead. It's something you need to try to see if it's for you. I'm fairly confident that people will prefer it, as overall, it requires less muscular effort. All the best, Chris

Hi Everybody, Thanks for the great interest in the Exovest, and especially to all of you at the show who tested the prototypes, and offered helpful suggestions. It was amazingly educational to fit it on so many varying body types. Thanks especially to Eric and Pedro, who really took the time to give us valuable feedback. Although we still have work to do, we're delighted that the principle behind the vest works the way we want it to. There are lots of questions in this thread, but I think the main ones have already been addressed, so I'll try to answer some that have been left hanging. We've already redesigned many of the details of the vest based on our NAB experience, but two parts of most relevance are the upper chest plate and the lower back plate. On some ops, the chest plate seemed just too high for comfort, so we've lowered it and changed its form to get its upper edge well clear of the neck. Pedro's experience of the Exomount (that's what we provisionally call the 3rd arm section), taught us that the lower back plate has to have more rigidity so that the experience of front-mount and rear-mount operating are equalised. As to the question of the rapid release, we went back and forth on this issue for months. In the end the decision came down to us not wanting anybody ever to be injured in this vest. Even if one operator in one hundred uses this feature only once in his or her career, I will consider it well worth having included. There are two hinges on the vest to let you in and out. The release works by ejecting the bails of the hinges from their keepers. It's simple and lightweight, and it you don't like it, you can remove the active parts, and disable the system in a minute. I'll be keeping mine intact! If I've missed any questions, please fire them out, and I'll try to answer everything as fully as possible. All the best, Chris

http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14350&st=0&p=67888&fromsearch=1entry67888

Hi Michael, It might be an operating issue as well. Some walking styles—and I'm categorically not saying better or worse here—exhibit more of a bounce than others. One of my favourite exercises is a the slow walk, and I always grab a rig at workshops and walk a line or two, so I've flown many G50s & 70s, and haven't experienced the bounce problem. I'll put ISO on full, then back it off till the arm flows. I usually back it further off in the inner section than the outer. I'll crank the lift up so each arm section rides a little high, then I'll bear down on the arm somewhat. Maybe this helps break the stiction. I look forward to experimenting more with the new bearings to see if they change my approach. All the best, Chris

Why not wait with all this until they announce the arms? Chris

Cool. Thanks.