Tom Wills

The Flyer design - well, I've only played with a few prototypes of my design on this one, and having seen the G70 in action, but I definetly haven't flown using the V25 arm. The Flyer arm's quite nice though, and just seems more advanced to me than a classic 3A style arm. Also, the whole pullies and cables deal just doesn't make me as at ease as a design like the Flyer which I know I could easily take apart and fix on a shoot. It's all opinion though.

Wow Job, I never even realized his budget was that high, guess I only looked at the first number instead of seeing the other figure too. Yeah, if you can swing it, the V25 will hold more cameras, and although I prefer the Flyer arm, the V25 is pretty darned incredible too!

That sounds like a perfect plan. Just don't underestimate the time you need to spend learning and practicing. That's the important part. Try and get your hands on a Flyer if you can. It'll fly the SDX900 when stripped down, and it's a quite incredible rig for the price ($7000). Also, if you can, try and attend a workshop. If you have the money to fly up to Chicago, Janice Arthur is holding a workshop this summer that I'll be attending. She's quite good, and her workshop is quite inexpensive. I'm looking forward to learning this all from her perspective. Also, the SOA workshop is incredible if you can afford it (somewhere between $2000 and $3000). I sat in on one day of the SOA workshop, as it was only 60 miles from my house, and it changed my whole look on Steadicam operating. Yeah, keep in touch. I'm sure having a few more video and Steadicam contacts can't hurt, you know? :P

Guarnanene, I figure I should give you some advice, as I'm a youngin' myself (10th grader here) operating homebuilt Steadicams. First of all, the Bassons have some issues. They can create some decent stuff, but a Flyer would make you much happier. The Flyer's one incredible piece of equipment. Try and find someone around you who'll let you fly one. (I'm building a rig that is similar to a slightly higher capacity Flyer at the moment). Also, your idea that this can be a hobby, and that it would be something simple that you could pick up and make some money over the summer doing is somewhat misguided. While you could do that, just picking up a rig, getting some half-decent shots, and selling your services to local used car dealers and the like, it's not going to go places where truly learning to operate fully and operating on a professional level will. Something to look into is getting a good job filming events, and sell them on using your "hobby" as part of their productions. I'm doing that with my current boss. We're paid an immense amount of money to film basketball games for the #3 college basketball team in the nation. Impressive, no? Well, turns out they do all their shooting handheld and on a tripod. I'm one of their camera operators, so I decided to negotiate a deal on which I fly their cameras (DSR 390s and DSR 250s) and I get a bonus on top of my standard filming rate. It gives me a great deal of practice, and I get paid a quite livable wage on it (over $20 per hour, sometimes more). If you can work something like this out, you will definetly be in a good place. Steadicams are more of an art form than Jibs or Dollies or any other rigging. Think about how you learned to be a camera op - and apply it to this. Do that same process. You wouldn't dare just pick up a camera and shoot and sell your services without some serious practice and some important training, right? With Steadicams that's even more important. Good to see someone else in my boat looking to get into Steadicams though. Let me know if you need anything. :)

I've got one of the Sony Medical monitors at work. It's decent, good enough picture quality, decent inputs, and looks okay considering that it was pretty cheap. Our Sony Production Monitors blow it out of the water though. The quality on it is good, but it's not perfect. They'd be decent for a director's monitor though.

J&R's is a quite nice place, I've ordered batteries from them, and their store is quite nice indeed. Their prices are pretty good too. It'll probably be one of the lower legitimate prices you'll find.

His name is Amas Leong - note his screenname. And yes, he does have a financial interest - he builds this rig. Just wanted to clarify that. :)

I'm pretty sure that one was the one I read about that used CP batteries. Don't know if that gives any help, but maybe it does. Also, assuming I remember correctly, it said it was put together from pieces.

Very, very cool. If the movietube were priced lower, I'm sure everyone would have them, but then again, it is a competitor to the Mini35, not the inexpensive ones out there. I do like the microcrystaline wax screen idea. Glad to see that it works well. Also, big thumbs up on the Camos. In fact, I'm practically positive that those are the same brand I wear. Almost a little creepy. :P

Well, if you're interested in oping for football, look at some high school and college games to tape. Most of the high schools would love a cameraguy, especially one with a Stabilizer, and the colleges uasually have people taping the game, so adding in a stabilizer might even be a little easier. It's hard operating though, especially during the plays. A lot of tracking the ball, moving quickly, and keeping track of your surroundings. I personally prefer to use the Stabilizer for only certain shots, then pull the camera off and go back to the tripod. It's just not worth it for the style of shooting I'm doing to be down there on the field.

I'm already working on it Charles. (The remote focus device that is.) :D Looks like it'll be more in the range of $50 though, but who knows, by next year, it might be around $14. Oddly enough that $50 gets you something relatively precise.

Happy Birthday Mikko! :)

As to knocking people's teeth out with the arm, well, me being the newbie that I am to this field, the first time I flew the full rig, I ended up putting a dent on a car when I was setting up too quickly, and fogot where my arm was when I span around to put the sled on. Definetly not fun. :P

Yeah, but that one seems to have it's downfalls. It's nowhere near as slick as the real one. I mean, yes, it works, but I wouldn't trust myself on that thing. :blink: I mean, yeah, if you really want to try Thomas, all the better, but just be quite careful. Dropping your rig, or even worse dropping yourself is the last thing you'd want to do. And on the whole idea of hardmounting: the Segway moves based on the load being imbalanced, and the wheels speeding up/slowing down to compensate. So, unless you kept the rig directly over the center of gravity, the segway would tend to lean, and cause quite a lot of problems. Theoretically you could undo this, but is it really worth the time and trouble, when you can just wear the rig?

Well, I mean, I can see and understand somewhat how this works, and it seems like it could be possibly doable, but what you're paying those extra $15,000 for is the fact that if this thing breaks on set, it's not your fault. It works. It's been tested. It won't just fall over and crash for no reason. It'd really be taking a gamble to do this, and if you want to do it, go on ahead, but I wouldn't risk either of my rigs on it. (not even the one that I hate) Just be careful. Oh, and on the parallell to homebuilding a rig, there's a lot more knowledge in that community on how these works than there is in Segway modifying. We may still not have it perfect, but at least we know roughly what we're doing. :P (this isn't meant to be a cheap shot at you Thomas, it's just talking about how very few people actually know how the Segway works on the insides) Hey Jerry, do you think there could be one of these at next year's SOA workshop? If so, that'd be delightful. :D

Well, that Merlin will never, ever hold anything beyond a camcorder. The FX1 is just about what it can handle. I personally think that the JR is definetly a downgrade, because it just isn't the kind of fit and finish of the Merlin. The merlin is just so much better designed. It is more stable, harder to break, and easier to adjust. It should last you a lot longer than the JR will. Oh, and the Merlin is specifically designed for people like you, running small consumer-prosumer cameras. Now, the Flyer might be overkill, but the Merlin definetly is not.

I think that the 2P in theory should be good, with a socket block (finally... I was wondering when one of the less commercial companies would do it...), and a large weight capacity. I've heard nothing but good about their rigs, save for a few problems, but that can be expected with custom built rigs. This rig shouldn't be much different. (I'm not paid by Magiqcam, or anything else, I just like their product, and their customer service is pretty good, at least from my experience.)

Well, just came back. In the half day that I spent, I learned more than I had learned in about a year of building and modifying and flying. I can't even believe it. Jay, you were incredible, and playing dead is more fun than it seems, Jerry, you're incredibly good as a teacher, and you're an incredibly nice guy, and Garrett, you're quite serious, which helps you get the job done exceptionally, yet you still are approachable and very kind. An incredible day it was. Oh, and Alec, great meeting you there. Look forward to sometime working with you. :D Oh, and to Jay, Jerry, and Garrett, you've sold me on coming next year. There's no way I'd miss out the opportunity to do that. :)

For everything I've done, J-B Weld works perfectly for holding just about anything to just about anything else. It might have a little bit of a problem sticking to really smooth plastic, so if either of those parts are shiny plastic, buff them down with a little high grit sandpaper. It's available at basically any home improvement store. Heck, it held one of my old sled bases together, and it at the moment holds my spare gimbal parts together, so I'd say it'd definetly be good for this. Just don't expect to get it off without a hacksaw. :P

Turns out I won't be there Monday or Tueday, but I will be there Wednesday, and possibly thursday and friday. I probably will see people there, I just probably won't be with the group.

Hey everybody, so, who's gonna be at the workshop? I know that I'll be there after school, anyone who I should look forward to meeting up with? Any of you going to be there? Well, I look forward to seeing a few of you there. (I'm the tall football-lineman looking guy, with long hair and a goatee, pretty hard to miss).

You all *do* know this is spam right? I mean, look at the link that has "adclick.com" in it. Also, it's not even very descriptive. 1 post poster too. Oohh... that picture above my post is... well... Wow.

Very interesting way of introducing yourself. I uasually like the good ol' "just start posting" method myself, but to each his own. :P Welcome. (From someone who is still a newbie on this site.) :)

I'd be weary of the V-25, because although it is an incredible system, it doesn't have an adjustable socket block. It's not too fun to operate without one of those. :P

Well I'm using a tiny Mini-DV, always wide, with a wide angle lens, so I don't have to worry. You can try and get (or build) a remote focus system though. It might be worth it if you have the money to spend. You could probably get by with an R-C servo and a wireless controller, and of course a monitor, and a wireless video transmitter/reciever setup. It'd be a little complicated, but it should work.