NuendoSan

Thanks Job Guess I will have to try it out my self... never tried the G - guess you like it? Have you tried the Silver Springs from Rig Enginering? The thing is I am looking for a bigger rig and was thinking about the Sachtler EFP-HD Like the post a lot. The old Sachtler Arm was also a bit stiff and heavy, but smooth enough. By the way - very cool website you have.

Have you seen the new Sachter ACT 2 arm? Anyone of you out there tried it? Talked to Curt Schaller from Sachtler and the arm looks quite convincing, a bit like a mix of Silver Springs from Rig Enginering and the old EFP from Steadicam.. It is supposingly 1.4 kg lighter than the old Sachtler Arm... that is a lot less... keep it level nuendosan

Sachtler has a new improved springset out for the Artemis DV pro arm. The arm is a very fine piece of enginering, but the springset that came with the original arm - was not all to good. So they promised to make new springsets and they delivered. You now have both a light, medium and heavy springst for the rig. The light springs lift from 5-8 kg. and the medium from 8-11 kg. The heavy is not yet been produced, but I talked to Curt Schaller who designed the rig, and he mentioned a 14 kg possibility wich is quite much for a light rig as the Artemis DV Pro. I have the new light and medium springs, and they are much much nicer than the old ones. Especialy on slow fine movements where the old ones stoped working all together - the new ones deliver. Well done Sachtler.

Dear Wing To things I think. If you are new to the backmounted style of vesting, your body and your operating style probably needs ajusting. Second - what kind of coustome made backmounted vest do you have? See the tricky thing is this: many vests - sad to say also backmounted vests are not anatomicaly correct in there design. Not made to distribute the weight to the strongest point of your back. They tend to put presure on your belly and your back reacts by tightening your upper back muscles - do that for to long, and fatigue sets in. Keep an eye up for my new titanium backmounted vest, wich will releve you of a lot of back pain. Good luck

Well thank you Rob I think you will find some new idears in my design, that will make your life easier as an operator

Do we really need, once more, another design? Do we really need any more movies? Havent all storys been told already - you could ask... well that is a good question, but it kind of takes the progress out of things and leaves us unemployed... Daniel Sauve came up with the idea and together with Walter Klassen and hundreds of operator inputs, development and arrived at the vest that you see today. Are they all wrong? Absolutly not! But does it stop here...? I tried the Actioncam vest, front and back, and it was a very painful experience. I tried the new DSD by Daniel at cinegear 2004, I felt like on my first fitting years back and it did not work for me. The vest is a very personal piece of equipment, not everybody will like everything, so a design that works/fits you might only work for you... You are rigth on here. I can only hope others like my design as well as I do - but luckely that is to be tested in the real world - and hopefully for you to test as well. And let's say you develop and start building your vest. Will you be able to handle the demand. Be able to provide the needed costumer service. Will you stop operating and start making vest's 100%? The thing is. I am also a director of a small production house in Denmark, and the business side of it - is one that I dont worry about - I have 15 years experince in production managment. Everybody I know that started manufacturing had to make a decision at what point they had to say goodbye to operating and become a manufacturer, or they decided after a while that they wanted to get back into operating. Either way the 2nd carrier started to suffer. I am not worried about that yet - who says my vest will be a commercial succes? And if it is... I will make sure you get the kind of service professionals deserve. What will happen with your customers once you decide you don't want to make vests anymore? Well I guess you need to know me a bit better... :-)

Hey Alec' Fair enough. 1. I would like to say, that I have no intention of putting other great vest down out there... I have tried a Klassen Universal a couple of years ago, and Sachtlers backmounted. Frontmounted; Steadicam EFP, Master, Pro, Sachtler, ProGear. I have been flying for 5 years and earned my wings in Munchen under Curt Schaller this spring. The Klassen vest I tried did not have a air bladder - dont get me wrong - it is a supervest no doubt the greatest out there. Dont worry. I have a nice group of steadicam guys here in Denmark helping me out on the test part of the job, and I am not about to release a crappy half build vest to a pro market - am not that stupid. But I still think, that it is possible to improve some aspects of the backmounted vests, and since I am not about to tell others how to build there vests - I just go ahead and do something on my own. I will keep you up to speed - on how things evolve. Thanks for the great interess.

Hey Roland I own one, and have been using it for about any shot for the past 4 months. It is the best small rig in my book, but to bee hornest with you, the springs that you get from Sachtler with the rig... how shall I put this... is not such a great quality as the rest of the rig. What we did after talking to Curt Schaller (the designer of the Artemis system) a very nice and competent operator by the way - was deside to make a better springset on our own. So this very minute an engineer is working on a springset that lifts 9-15 kg. and fits into the Artemis DV Pro arm. The arm is a very nice piece of engineering as is the rest of the rig. We upgraded our rig with an HD-SDI Marshall monitor, new monitorbracket and some other stuff - but it will fly your camera quite well. You need to be quite a good operator to fly it steadily - and movments are a bit more tricky than the bigger rigs. I primarely fly a JVC HD 100 with pro X batterypack - wich with the heavier HD-monitor and large batteries gives a more stabil rig. I know for a fact that Sachtler will be making a heavy springset for the arm - but it will not be available until IBC in Holland in september. They are also making all new springs for light and medium - because the ones on the market now are not good. They make funny noises, an put beyond 80% lift or push they have a tendency to lock... I have tried the new prototype prings at Sachtlers shop in Munchen about one month ago - and they were MUCH better - no noise and much smoother If you want to fly the XDCam on the Artemis DV Pro remember to buy the do donut rings (counterweights) as well - because you will need them for perfect ballance. Hope it helps.

What do you mean by "slow on fast movements"? When wearing a traditional backmounted vest you have a slope - a small space where the vest does not touch your lower back - only your puts pressure on your stomach. Especially when you need fast movements this however tiny space makes your move back or forth creating a slowdown of your movements. Especialy if you are running or starting to run the traditional vests at some point dosent touch your lower back at all - and this is where you need to lift the weight. I admit it is not much - but it is enough to make you loose touch for a few frames. You should tjeck fotos or video of operators wearing traditional backmounted vests and notice how the lower part of the vest sticks out from the lower back instead of following the curv of the back. This is unwanted because your body is strongest right there. Nature put a slight curve at our lower back for a reason - otherwise our backs would have been straight - but it is not. Designing a new vest shape that takes this curve into consideration - I think - is the smart thing to do - if you are looking for less stress, longer operations time and faster response to your movements. Remember the vest is the point of witch the energy travels from the rig to your body and if there are unwanted spaces you loose precision of movement and the vest slows your movements down. Thats what I mean with slow or fast movements. Hope that makes it all clear.

For some time I have been playing with the idear of making a new vest design. My basic idear is this. The backmounted vests out there are very nice, but not a lot of improvements in there design, so I sat down with my brother in law and discussed the possiblities of making a new improved design of the backmounted vest. The design of the supporting backpiece will be shaped ergonomically to fit the human backcurve. The existing vests have this issue, that they do not support the full length of your spine/back, but only lower or upper parts, witch makes the vest slow on fast movements. But if you make the backplate fit to the shape of your back all the way - you get somthing quite different. I have been mountainclimbing for many years, and not until I bought a backpack from Bergans in Norway did I get a backpack I could wear all day with 30 kilos and NOT get tired! So I analysed the shape of the backpack, and came up with the design for my new titaniumplated backmounted vest. The arm will be titanium as well, and shaped quite differently from what you have seen so far. Also a different way of ajusting tilt of the connection socket. The vest padding will be a special treated leather, with multiple ajustment options for perfect ergonomic fitting. Hand crafted here in Denmark of course. If all goes well - I will have a prototype ready for IBC in Holland later this fall. So please, pop me a line, if you are interested in a vest like that. Will be uploading some nice 3D pictures of the design, when they are done. :)

Well here in Denmark where ProGear has its World Wide Headquater (a room next to Jans mothers bedroom - I am not joking)... well he is just not popular... Him beeing a not so trustworthy supplyer, only has one major disadvantage above from the obvious. He is not a steadicam operator himself, so... he might have good idears, but knows jack shit about operating. To the answer about the arm. Actualy the arm is a very nice piece of engenering. It is smooth, a bit to the heavy side, and operates quite well. And if you Dont send him any money up front... and waite patiently for about 3-5 years - you will quite shure be happy about the ProGear arm.