Christopher Smith

Thanks again Andy. I'm very thankful for your critique and will keep this stuff in mind. -Chris

Ummm just a point but NONE of the shots in your video require Dynamic balance. In fact for 99.95% of the work that everyone does you don't need to be dynamically balanced Just sayin Thanks Eric. Dynamic balance was not my only problem but I didn't realize that until I read the book. I completely started over with static balancing. When I originally got the rig, I static balanced it but I was always fighting it from penduluming on me. So, at that point I figured it wasn't balanced correctly and that getting it to dynamic balance would help. Once I read the book and started from scratch and aimed for dynamic balance, I got a more solid static balance and now the rig just floats where it is supposed to and I don't have to fight it to keep it from penduluming. Anyway, it's solid now and that's what matters. Now I just have to tighten everything down to get rid of the vibrations Alan is pointing out.

Thanks Alan. Someone else pointed that out to me but I couldn't think of what it could be. That makes sense. It is possible the bottom of my sled wasn't tightened down. I'll check that out. I Appreciate you catching that. -Chris

Thanks Andy. I really appreciate how helpful everyone has been on this forum. I feel more comfortable with the rig and it is behaving so much better now that I completely rebalanced it from the ground up. The book was great help with this is well. I used the rig on a gig I had this week and am very happy with the shots considering my limited experience. Here are some shots. Let me know what you think. - Chris

Update: Thanks for the help everyone. After a lot of trial and error I was finally able to achieve dynamic balance. But to do this I had to move my camera's CG to mid post instead of the back of the post. I tried all sorts of combos of weight and shifting with the CG at the back of the post and it just wasn't working. I was having to move my battery all the way to the post which left me with few options for tweaking. So, are there exceptions to the rule that you have to have the CG 1/4 inch from post center? In my case moving the CG forward worked. Has anyone else done this in certain situations in the field? -Chris

Oh and I tried putting my Sony NX5U on and could not get my arm to set right to handle the lower weight. What do I need to do to be able to add more weight to the top of the sled for smaller cameras?

Thanks Andy. I have followed those steps. With my camera (JVC GY-790)set with center of gravity at the back of the post, the only way I can get static balance is to slide the bottom horizontal rod (the one the batter clips on)all the way forward). I then put 4 weights on the front and none on the back. Once I do this, I can't move my battery. This seems to be the only way I can achieve static balance with the CG at the back of the post. I can't see any other options to tweak in order to give me ability to get into dynamic balance. The cool thing though is that the rig is behaving way better than before. I can actually let go of the sled with my left hand (gimbal hand) and the sled stays perfectly level. Before I had to constantly fight to keep it level and it seems to always move a bit when statically balancing. I guess I'll start trying some other weight combos to see if I can get a good static and dynamic balance. Thanks for your advice. -crhis

Update: I got the book and stripped my rig all the way down and started over. I was not able to achieve dynamic balance but I did get a better static balance and set up my arm and vest better. The rig behaves so much better than before. I feel more comfortable with it and can focus more on technique. Has anyone else successfully achieved dynamic balance with the Scout? There seem to be less options for positioning things than with the higher end rigs.

The book has been ordered. Thanks!

Thanks for all of the advice everyone. I'll spend some more time on it next week and will order the book as well. Thanks.

Hello, I bought a steadicam scout at work for using with my JVC GY-790. I'm pretty decent with it and I have no problem statically balancing it. I feel that my shots could be way better and that the rig would be easier to control if I could dynamically balance it. I've spent hours trying to do so and made some improvement but think it could be way better. Does anyone have any advise for me on how to improve dynamic balance on the Scout? The only info I could find was to keep moving the battery and rebalancing. Not sure that has done much. Also not sure if I have the correct amount of weights on the bottom. I've taken some off and added some and don't see much of a difference. I have about a 3 second drop time for my static balance which is what the manual said was correct. Any tips are appreciated. -Chris