Craig Anderson

Hey guys, if you don't mind me briefly reviving this thread, I've since been looking at some basic Tiffen rigs, and was wondering on what your thoughts are on the Pilot as a means of basically building up my skills (and potential client base), before moving up to a more expensive rig. If I were to practise a lot on a pilot with a smaller camera like a DSLR and build some good skills, would they translate to a bigger rig if I upgrade down the line, or would I be back to square one? cheers! EDIT - may have found an answer to my own question in a review at dvinfo: "I got to play around with the Pilot a few times at trade shows and at a friend's house, where I discovered that the device acted uncannily like my full-size rig, yet I could wear it seemingly endlessly. All of the fun, none of the pain! After a few glasses of wine and an hour of joyous galloping around in the back yard, they had to pry the rig off me. Later I borrowed a unit from Tiffen for a marathon shot on a feature, where I had reasoned that by using the Pilot for rehearsals I could save my energy for the actual takes (to be captured on the beefy Panavision Genesis with my full-size rig, weighing in at a cool 84 lbs) while still delivering a respectable image back to the monitors. Even with the size and weight differential between the two systems, the operating choices I had learned during rehearsals translated perfectly."

Very helpful replies guys, thanks a lot, really appreciate it. Lots or research to be done!

Thanks Rob, so what camera/s do you use which allow you to pull while operating? And how do you do it?

Hi everyone, I wanting to start shooting a series of docos and am looking to increase the cinematic production value of the productions. I am used to shooting handheld/easyrig on a variety of prosumer to pro cameras, but know little about steadicam. However, as a camera man who is often shooting unassisted. I was wanting to know if any one-man solutions are possible? Are there any solutions which allow the operator to pull focus and operate steadicam at the same time? Or is it a lost cause? Another question I'd like to throw in the mix is how well do these rigs hold their value? I see cameras basically becoming obsolete every year, making them a very financially difficult decision.. but I wonder about rigs? I really would want to put in a lot of practise and can't imagine how without actually owning one. Thanks for all the help, cheers