Surinder Singh001

I had a problem with my Hocus Focus wireless FF this weekend. I have had it for about 2 year now and its been faultless up to now. For me it's an essential bit of kit when I'm on Steadicam. However on Sunday it broke down. Luckily the shoot went on with a wider lens, stopping down for more DOF and using more sideways movements rather than going back and forth. The shoot was on Saturday evening and I tried to get in touch with Pete (The owner of Hocus Products) via email and mobile. I left a message as his answer machine was saying he was returning from NAB that same day. About half way through the shoot I got a call back from Pete straight off the plane I guess. He suggested a few things to try, but to now avail. I asked if I could pop over and see him to do a repair or replacement unit for my next shoot which was more important. So earleir today I met up with Pete. He repaired my unit while I waited and gave it a good look over and now its as good as new with a few extra free marking rings thrown in for good measure Absolutely fantastic service from a fab UK based company. While I was there I had a look at the new Axis 1 unit which looks like a major upgrade to the original unit that I have. I believe it should be shipping in a few weeks. I'm seriously considering ordering one and keeping my original unit to do iris pull when needed. Overall I'm very chuffed Surinder.

Thanks for the advise Mark.

Thank you all for your replies. Hopefully I should hear back from the guys at Tiffen today. I'll update this post to let you guys Know how I get on. Surinder.

Thanks for the rapid response Eric. The rig is ex demo from Tiffen uk I have not managed to use it yet because of this issue. Luckily I had my old Steadicam mini at my last job as a backup. I spent 2 hours trying to balance up the Zepher at my last gig and eventually gave up and resorted back to my older rig to get the job done. I was hoping to use your dynamic balance method, but i guess this issue need to be resolved first. Would you recommend getting a Mikey? The Zepher has no side to side adjustment for the monitor as I've seen in the Mikey demo video will that be an issue? I'd also like to upgrade my membership to this forum to become a sustaining member. How would I go about doing that and what would it cost. This forum is by far the best resource for Steadicam. Surinder.

Hi Everyone, I recently picked up a Stedicam Zepher from the guys at Tiffen UK. I am unable to static balance the rig. I get a good balance in one spot then if I turn 180 degrees it leans forward. If I rebalance at this new point then return to the first point then it leans the other way. I've made a short video to demonstrate and I've forwarded to Robin and Danny at Steadcam/ Tiffen UK. I was hoping that It was me just doing something wrong. But I've now tried rebalancing with various different camera of different sizes and weights all exhibit the same problem. Here is a link for you guys to also look at. May be someone more experienced may be able to offer some advise on resolving the issue while I await suggestions from the guys at Tiffen. Here is the link: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6049515/Static%20Balance%20Issue.mp4 Please right click and select 'Save Target As' Or copy and paste the link into your bowser. Any feedback would be much appreciated. Surinder.

I'd like to thank Robin and Danny at Steadicam/ Tiffen UK for all their help and support. I recently purchased a zephr and a top weight to fly my 7d. Danny spent over half a day with me going though setup and ironing out some of my bad self taught habits. Fantastic service and a great rig. Surinder Singh.

Thank you very much for your reply Mark. I will follow your advice and look into a Zephyr. I will sometimes need to mount heavier cameras like the Scarlet, Sony f3 and may be the new Canon C300 when it arrives. I also will be adding a Teradek Cube and a Hocus Focus for remote focusing and occasional iris pulls. Taking all this into consideration along with your advise the Zephyr seems like a logical choice. In the meantime I will continue to use the Mini to practice, get back into shape and earn a few £ to fund my upgrade :) I used the Mini for a job recently with a Sony F3, Arri 16mm ultra prime lens and a Hocus Focus unit. It was a bit of a struggle as the arm was at the limit of it's capacity. I just about got the job done. I took a few minutes out to follow the link in your signature and looked at some of your work. It was very good and inspiring. I hope I can get back into shape and someday achieve results similar to yours.

Hi all. I purchased a Steadicam Mini well over 10 years ago. Unfortunately I had a serious road traffic accident and sustained a spinal injury very shortly after acquiring my rig. I have not used my Steadicam for many years. Only just getting back into using it again now. I think I could do with updating the arm. I may need to look at a new vest too as the mounting on the newer rigs have a different fitting. My current Mini vest also has a broken buckle to be replaced. I'm primarily using DSLR's. Any suggestions and advice would be very much appreciated.

I have just joined the forum. We are asked to use our real names but my name and user names are already taken. I have added 001 to the end of my name is this acceptable?