Isaac J. E. Garcia

On 6/18/2021 at 12:04 AM, Kevin Kisling said:

Messaged!

Thanks Kevin!

On 7/8/2021 at 4:41 PM, Charles Unice said:

Isaac, almost all of my equipment is in various sized pelican air cases. They work well! Not as tough as the storm series but the weight savings is worth it.  

Thanks for letting me know it is safe to go. Thank you Charles!

Has anyone used a Pelican Air case to fly with? Looking for a safe and light way to travel with a zephyr kit. Thanks in advance!

Hello fellow operators. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to give some insight on what fair rates are to charge? I have had this discussion a couple of times but it seems to vary greatly. I am curious to know if people charge by the hour, give a day rate, and what all is included. I see many experienced ops say not to take low rates because it undercuts them and I completely understand that concern, but I am not trying to have that conversation. I just want to see how people go about negotiating. I am not sure if this will help but I started operating a glidecam with a vest in 2015, went to the aero in 2017, and now using a zephyr. My experience all comes from set and reading the steadicam operator's manual. I was saving for a workshop pre pandemic and I will do one once this starts to clear up a bit. I have worked on plenty of shorts, one feature, and a lot of other miscellaneous shoots but I have a ton to learn and I appreciate any guidance anyone is willing to offer. Thanks for your time.

On 8/21/2020 at 2:03 PM, Jerry Holway said:

Isaac-

Because you have the base and monitor one one plane with the Aero 30 (a necessary thing) and if the camera/mic holder & accessories balance the rig statically, then you are most of the way there for dynamic balance. You don't need to worry about the mic holder. The challenge comes with trying to move the camera and batteries forward or backwards, opposite each other, and getting in static balance again, and then spinning it fairly slowly (like a real panning shot) and seeing if it is in dynamic balance.  I'm not sure what choices you have for moving the battery in and out on the Areo 30. If both the battery and monitor positions are fixed (in and out-wise, if that's a word) then you are kind of stuck. If the battery moves (or even the monitor) in and out, you should be able to find dynamic balance pretty quickly. From the setup in the pix, I'd suspect the camera c.g. should be just a little behind the axis of the central post, maybe .25 inches.

Jerry

Jerry, thank you so much for your quick response and advice! That really helped me out a ton on set. I was able to scoot the battery closer to the post and march the monitor out. It wasn't perfect but it definitely helped a lot. I am not sure if links work on here but here is the final video if you are curious to see what it looked like. Happy to hear feedback if you have any as well! 

Hello Steadifam,

I am having a hard time achieving dynamic balance on an aero 30 flying a c300 mk3. I think the obvious problem is that the monitor and the microphone holder swing out very far to either side. I was curios if anyone had any solutions to this interesting issue? I was thinking of a way to rig the monitor directly on top of the camera with a noga arm or something similar in fashion.  I primarily fly this setup with the zephyr as well with canon EF or cinema primes. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! 

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SOLD, I highly recommend Pavel. Very communicative and professional. I hope the stand treats you well!

Hey Pavel, I have one in LA. That I no longer use with my zephyr. Looking for $125. It has a carrying case with a small hole in it.

Here is the B&H link as well: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/422581-REG/Steadicam_601_7910_601_7910_SteadiSTAND_for_Merlin.html?fbclid=IwAR019IygKOQr82nIcDtOUZvvD0EVSZ3PPpyB6vaJLSQn-1n4eqIyhS-Fg8o

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Justin, thanks for all that you do as a firefighter, I have a lot of family and friends in that line of work. I actually started on a glidecam 4000 myself. I eventually upgraded and got an arm and vest which significantly improved my payload. I was able to fly a sony fs700, odyssey monitor, and v mount battery no problem. Similarly I flew a RED Raven package with a smallHD monitor easily. The vest and arm are called x-10 I believe and I bought the whole rig for about $1,100. It was a great starter for me. If you are able to save you can also go with the Tiffen Aero 15 or 30. It's around 5k. I know that Steadicam was giving 1k back on a recent promotion. It may be worth looking into. I hope this helps!

Hey Robert, this has been discussed at length a few times on the forum. Check out this link and see if it can give you some valuable information. Happy flying!

Wow. That is quite the tale. Glad you are doing better, keep the faith!

20 hours ago, Lisa Sene said:

Glad it's a simple fix! 

Lisa it was! Tiffen in Burbank knocked it out right away. Thanks for your insight, time to fly again!

On 7/23/2019 at 5:36 PM, Lisa Sene said:

Hi Isaac,

Have you contacted Tiffen? They should be able to best advise how to fix it, and check for other potential issues (let them know how it cracked, a drop or too much weight). I would fix it before flying with it personally - it's going to be a weak point, and the weight of the rig could make it crack further and possibly hurt you. 

Safe flying!

Hi Lisa, I just got in touch with Tiffen. They have the piece for a decent price so I am just going to replace it. I appreciate your knowledge!

1 hour ago, chris fawcett said:

You can make and add your own cross-back straps very easily. Here’s a link to a video: http://steadivision.com/tips.html

All the best,

Chris 

Thank you Chris! I was at Tiffen yesterday and we watched one of your videos for dynamic balance!

On 7/7/2019 at 4:18 PM, Louis Puli SOC said:

Hi Isaac 

No you should not be an issue for you right now but I would get onto it asap as you would not like it to get any worse .Which vest are you using ?It would be good to have a photo of the vest .I have had an issue with a flyer vest which I repaired .I used 4' long and 3' wide piece of 1 mm Aluminium plate and I placed the plate on the inside of the vest and bolted that to the vest and it solved the problem .

Good luck with it .

Louis Puli . 

Hello Louis, thanks for telling me how you repaired it. I have a Zephyr vest, I have a photo of it here too. Any thoughts?

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5 hours ago, Aaron King said:

I'm about to my second show with a Venice, and a third coming up in the fall.  Besides what Brett has told you about the weight, be aware that it is power hungry, and I believe only draws 3 amps (what I've heard from utility & AC chatter) which doesn't help when powering other accessories from the camera.  Most of my experience is with the added recorder deck on the back for 4K which pulls even more juice.  I feel that if you are just using the built in recorder, you will be in a better position for power draw.  If you can request some extra batteries for the shoot, I would do it.  Knowing I have a large cache of batteries on heavy steadi days gives me extra piece of mind.  Test it out at a prep so you know your limits before you start shooting.

Hey Aaron, thank you for your input. I will definitely factor all of this in!

1 minute ago, brett.mayfield said:

usually the camera has arri plates, some kind of cage, top handle, etc. but perhaps you can get it all down to nothing. but you'll need to attach your follow focus and wireless to something...

You are definitely right about that! Thanks. I knew there was something slipping my mind. I need to figure out the plate weight and cage, I will try and lose the top handle as well. Seems like it will be pushing 20lbs.

16 hours ago, brett.mayfield said:

hey dude dunno if youve already done this job or not. nonetheless, ive been shooting on the venice for 18 months now. payload of the zephyr is twenty pounds rite? im sure its possible but unlikely to get that camera under weight, then consider batteries.

to trim weight, try flying it with an anton bauer to 4pin xlr plate that you can power off your sled. if youve got an arm that will handle it then go for it. i do think that its will likely pickup vibrations pretty easily, so you may need to be especially considerate of your gait and speed.

its not a tricky camera. japanese manufacturer so the menu is such, a little deep. get a clean feed to your monitor, i believe it can be set to sdi 2. you dont want to deal with the camera info clutter. this will kill your surround view, but i think that its worth it.

i like the inertia of a good build on this body. have fun!

 

brett.

Hey Brett,

Zephyr has a payload of 23. I have been adding up the weight and it seems like it should all be okay? Venice is rated at 8 lbs, 10 oz. Cooke s4 is 3.5 lbs, IDX V Mount is 2.2lbs and I believe it's a light mattebox (Tangerine or similar 7.2oz.) FF should be minimal, Teradek is under a pound, the build overall is stripped down. I can't think of anything else that would really send it over. Does that seem good to you, am I missing something that will make it too heavy? Thanks for your input!

3 hours ago, Kevin Jacobsen said:

Where are you located? 

Los Angeles.

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone sought a mentorship when they began doing Steadicam? I've been considering finding one, but I don't want to bother seasoned ops or be an inconvenience. 

I noticed I have a slight crack in my vest. Not sure how concerned I should be. Do I need to have it serviced before flying? 

On 9/27/2018 at 11:26 AM, Chris Van Campen said:

Ya know, for not a lot of money, you can add cross back straps to a Zephyr vest. I did it to mine, and it helps a lot with its side to side stability.

 

Probably would help even more with bigger payloads...

Hey Chris, I am looking for those back straps but I can't seem to find them on their site. Do you have a link by chance?

Hello folks, I am going to be flying a Sony Venice for a project coming up and I was wondering if anyone has ever flown that camera and if there is anything I should be aware of? As far as I know it will be with cinema glass, mb, ff, and that's about it. I will be using a Zephyr, any concerns about the payload? Thanks in advance.

On 5/25/2019 at 7:52 PM, brett.mayfield said:

WP dolle all the way   tonya has always handled any concerns and questions immediately and i dont sweat anything when my rig doesnt show up after shipping from paris. really, didnt sweat at all, toooootally cool that i was shooting in 12 hours.

 

but read your policy! understand all of it.

 

brett.

That is great to know. Thank you very much, I am looking into everything now!

On 5/25/2019 at 2:07 PM, Eric Paczkowski said:

It's easy to join SOA. Just fill out the form and pay the onetime fee. I went with W.P. Dolle, they DO check your membership but are a great price. And if something does go wrong they have a great reputation for taking care of you. They also offer Personal Liability through The Hartford who is also a very reputable company. That too is reasonable.

That is very helpful. Thank you for letting me know this!