Michael Binder

Hi Job, hi Kris, thanks for your answers. This with the 2nd docing stand sounds great. I will try to get 2nd one (have only one c-stand) I only had one live-show how goes about 3 hours. This was from a church. We hat 6 cameras and me. And everythime i took my camera just for resting not on the stand, but up near my shoulder, a few seconds later the director always said "i need a picture from the steadi". not even he had taken one of me... so i was a newbie and just thought "aaaargh". in this case again we have no rehearses. wait and take the picture. They make from the 3 hours 1 hour for tv. rest ist just for vidi-wall. I am afraid its the same director again. i remember when he said "and this tool is so good balanced, that its weightless?" :D I try to diet the camera as good as possible. The only thing i need on the camera is a headlight :( i love the shows, where you have a take-liste and you know your shots! greets and thanks, michael

Hello, i am just wondering how you guys are holding out a longer live-show with much running around. its no problem for me to do longer shots with heavy load. but i contrast to a live-show there is always a little bit recovery-time in between. now i have to do about 3 hours live-show with music, dancing and so on. how do YOU holding out this, staying in the rig and always make a picture? with great admiration, michael ps: the rig with camera and arm is about 70 pounds. its a little more than the half of my weight ;) (138 pounds)

As i know, a "cycle" is a fully charge. So if the battery is only half empty and loaded, its a half cycle. And because of discharging. I asked our technican and he told me, that it is ok (in my case i asked him that) if i use a new 160Wh and an old 110Wh battery at the same time. the weaker battery will be discharged more slowly than the better one. So in my case we dont use 2 good ones and 2 older ones, i mix it because of always the same output and duration of work (not to have a set of batteries i can work with about 20 minutes, and with the other set about 80 minutes). Hope i could help a little bit greetings michael ps: i was talking about li-ion-batteries

yeah... they looked to me like people from beeing very far away from this world :D

it starts with explaining the camera. just the lens is about 10.000 euros he says. the special battery is just for powering the monitor about 5 hours. the monitor is larger than the usual ones. with a special wire, thats just made for this. and so it goes on. just explaining the specials, we others should get as soon as possible i think <_< . hard to translate, but funny to understand :rolleyes: [edit] after i have seen this, im annoying about spending money for upgrading our arm to 52 pounds, instead buing this wire ;)

@eric: did you understand everything he was talking? so for me - because i am from austria, understood everything - it was very hard :blink: best thing for me was calling the spring arm "sledge" :D but after seeing this video i feel a more better operator :ph34r:

And WHAT is he doing? :D

hello andy i have been in st. pölten last friday to do a steadicam-job :) one of the first things i dit was, that i got one day with an operator. he showed me a few things, so that you won't learn yourself things wrong from the beginning. very hard to come away from theese. and the other thing is: practise - watch footage - practice again - watch footage again - cry a little bit about it ;) so maybee if you have icq oder msn or something, maybee we can contact each other if you want :) greets michael

hello andy... you are right, that there in vienna are not really workshops any more (the filmschule did one i think every year). but in my way, i went to munic at sachtler academy for a workshop. i was practising a year before on my own. But what i learned there in 5 days :blink: just because we have an sachtler artemis, you can go there without one too :rolleyes: the link: http://www.sachtler-academy.de/ ... next workshop will be in november. i would advise you to go there! its worth the money! greetings from linz michael

Hello, after we have divided the whole rig and found nothing visible (the wire is very good inside, no chance for movement (i thought about this too)), we sent the rig to sachtler. there they found out, that there was a non visible movement on the side-to-side modul. this only would happen in 1 to 1000 manufactured rigs. so we have the rig where the sled had this error AND the 1 of 1000 where the screw of the gimbal-fixing was broken. how we usualy say a "monday car" maybee we have an "monday-rig" ;) but sachtler was very obliging in handling and very quick (sent the rig on wednesdey, they sent it back on fridiay). hope now i will find my dynamic balance again :D thanx michael btw.: has anyone a good idea of mounting video-cameras. because in the "normal" sony-plate there would be always a little chance for the camera of movement from side-to-side while tilting to the side. we always try to fix it with tape as good as possible.

Hello Alec, you are totaly understanding right (although my bad english and very hard to explain). i have tried it without any wire or anything that could move. just one battery, monitor and a camera. sometimes you think you can hear something (although all is fixed), but its very hard to verify. So because we have a problem with the gimbal-fixation anyway (it is to fix with a screw, but there is a problem with the "gewinde" - thread?), we have to send it to sachtler for repair. so i think the best way will be to send the whole rig, so that they can check it. i now have to go for rehearse for the sunday live-show. but it is only church, just slow. so there should be no problem B) thanks michael

i found this topic i started a long time ago. i just wanted to thank you all for your answers!!! On this sunday i do my 5th "church-live-show" (maybee i will get holy this way :lol: ) first time on 16:9 with an Ikegami HK-399 and wireless. thanks again all for your help! you are very great. greets michael

Hello Mark, thanks for your answer. First at i all i want to say, i have allready been on an workshop :) (Munich, at sachtler with Curt Schaller) So the problem is not, that i would not know how to do it (i hope so :ph34r: ) But this is not only the only problem. There would be for me just one chance: stay always in horizon? so if i make a diagonally picture, the camera wont come back to horzion. as i told, if i tilt the camera about 45 degrees left side, the camera stays about 5 degrees left. so i have to tilt her a little right, that it comes back to horzion. Same if i take camera a little up to shoulder for rest. tilting it up, wont let come her back straight hanging down. that is the real problem. i would have always to "rebalance". lg michael PS: another question btw. how do you guys (in reals world, without calculating) balance the rig, with having a focus-receiver and motor on the rig. i can not ad this things to camera for finding cg. So just by "feeling" and experience?

Hello, my problem is, that i can not get in dynamic balance (not in static balance too) with my rig (an artemis efp), although i can adjust the battery. Maybee you can help me: The trouble starts when i try to hold the rig in static balance. When i tilt the camera looking down (in front) for expample to make the dop-down-time-test, the camera wont get back, so it is strait hanging down. It stays a little looking down. When i do otherwise, the camera tilt looking up, it doesnt stay straight hanging down again, it stays a little bit looking up. Same thing with tilting left or right (for dynamic balance). Now the righ stays hanging litle left or right, depending on which side i make the tilt. My drop down time is usualy for working about 5 seconds or more. but i tried this also with a drop down time of 1 second. I tried it with different cameras AND mounting plates (Sony and Ikegami). My explanation at first would have been that the problem is the camera. But in all 4 directions? I took notice of this just a few weeks ago. Has anyone an idea for me? Thanks a lot Michael

@job is saw your photos and was surprised what kind of jobs you did with your sk2. i had the sk2 too, but was not really able to make good live-jobs because of the weight of our camers (Ikegami HL-57 with wireless).

Hello Nick, we got the Sunbird 4 weeks ago and was very impressed of it. above all i love the build-in tally light :) . one thing lees needed to be stucked on. there is just one bug: you can not see all settings you do in the bottom line (aspect-ratio, voltage, etc...). but it should be fixed with a new firmware. you can only see about 2/3 of the writing. so if you have some special questions greets Michael PS: someone told us, that one of the good features is, that he gets not so warm as any other products, so the life-time should be longer. and for winter you can use a heating-foil (feature). :lol:

Hi Benjamin, this is an 2-hours-tv-show from a church. And you are right: I can not always walk the first row all the time ;). So the picture MUST be first thing, not depending, wether i can do or not ... As i already said, i had an 3-hours-show a feew weeks ago in a church too. So, i think i am not as bad, because i have again the job. But i want to get perfect for me... Now i will try to loosen the spirings a little more! See what will happen!

Hi! Thanks for the answer. Yes, i think you are right. Walking deliberate i try. I know the picture at the beginning, and at the end. When walking (in training), I try to keep the post in a line (while walking i look down the sled and monitor alternating (also looking sometimes WHERE i walk ;) ) What would YOU think would be more easier. Filming people sitting in banks one behind the other. And you have to walk them at one side. Filming with wide-angle at about 5mm and nearby, oder a litte more far away, and for it more focal lengh?

Hi Nacho! But when i loosen the springs more, the camera gets down more to ground. Filming so calld "frog-perspective :D ) And when i lift the arms with my possioning hand... wouldn this eleminate the function of the arms? I have learned, that the greatest enemy of the steadicam is the operator himself (in fact, his hands on it :rolleyes: ). So wouldn the best way of operating be to NOT TOUCH THE STEADICAM? In fact, my rig has about 17 kilograms at the moment, on sonday it will get about 22 kilograms (an old camera from austrian broadcast, with d-link, winde-angle, 2 monitors, etc...) - So lift THIS with my arm ;-) But thanks, i will try this tomorrow and report you. I am so glad for your answers!!! Why couldn the workshop be last week :lol: greets michael PS: of course i am training with a little more extrem situations (objects nearby me, focus-lengh about 12-20 mm, very slow, etc...) Btw. slow walking is really difficult. I noticed, that i always tend to walk faster ;) I have to learn keeping speed to :lol:

Hi! I haven't yet tried this - i will do this tomorrow! But when touching the post, i do this very slightly. just correcting pan/tilt. only temporary touching. today i have tried, to loosen the springs a bit more, so that the arms are about in middle-position (from up to down). footage looks a little bit better :rolleyes: Tomorow i will try to walk without touching the post. Hope i can frame the picture ;-) thx for the hints! By the way another question: i had a 3-hours live-show on tv a time ago. What do you do? Taking a rest when you need? The director told me, that he has no plan what will happen. So when i was just taking the camera near by me, a little up to the shoulder, he always said "... what a picture can steadi give me?.." ... so it was one of my first jobs, so i did how he said, wether there was NOTHING to do... What would you do in your opinion (on sonday its again the same director :blink:

Thank you guys for the answers... ... but as i said, the problem is not really the "bouncing" i think... it looks like, the rig doesnt fly a constand speed! So, not exactly 4,0 km/h all the time for example. One time 4,1 km/h, and when i make a step 3,8 km/h, then 4,1... you know what i mean? So, if i would push the rig. But it also looks like this, when i do not toucht it while walking... :-(

Thanks afton, i have already read this thred. And i keep on going practising. I'm looking forward for my worklshop. So up to this time, i will go on practice, practice, practice. greets michael

Hello friendly people! At first, i want to say, that i have been a still readear at this forum for a long time. But now, i feel to write something (i also want to appologize for my bad english). I have an Sachtler Artemis EFP for a few weeks, and have been trying on my own a few steps. Day for day (practise makes perfekt <_< ) And YES: i will visit an workshop, but this is only possible in spring. So, on sunday i have a job. 2 hours live. So i think, my walking is not as bad as it schould, BUT today i noticed one thing: When walking and filming objects nearby me (filming left side or right side), i noticed (at 2/3 " DigiBeta at about 12mm), that my walk is not realy smooth. My slow walking. It is not that you can see bouncing, but its not always the same speed. You think you can see every step. Its like fast/slow/fast/slow and so on... (just litle, but i can see it). Has anyone a good hint for me, how to walk right? I tried everything from "walking normal" to "walking like i have a hazelnut in the ass" ;-) Only running is easy, but i have to go slow too, because on sunday, its a tv-show from a church :-D thanks for the answers! Michael