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Taylor Gentry

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About Taylor Gentry

  • Birthday 08/02/1982

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    http://Www.taylorgentry.com

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  • Location
    New York City
  • Rig
    Steadicam Flyer LE

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  1. Hi! Do you have the drawing your speaking of? Sounds like Tiffen has the part. Would you be able to share the drawing?
  2. I have a Steadicam Flyer LE system that I have had running for several years. Its been re-wired by Terry West, the Gimbal was recently calibrated by Robert Luna. This has been a great mini system for me for several years now. My problem is that one of the buckles at the top / shoulder area is broken. The left side female part of the buckle is cracked. I reached out to repairs at Tiffen and as the Flyer vest is no longer supported they sent me the buckle assembly for a scout, which is not the same spec and does not work. Wondering if anyone has suggestions on repairing this Flyer vest. Are there aftermarket buckles that work with the Flyer vest? Should I invest in a new vest that is currently supported? Which vests will work with the Flyer arm?
  3. Hi Todd, I’m very excited that I can actually provide a useful answer on this forum! I’m pretty new here. So I went down this road. I ordered two new AB gold plates, took off the V mount and realized that there are NOT holes for the AB a standard screw pattern. You do have to drill and tap new holes for the AB plate. I didn’t feel confident doing this so I sent my sled to Terry West. He’s amazing dude which you have probably realized reading other threads. He not only changed the battery plates he also added blocking diodes to prevent crosstalk with the batteries. He also totally gutted the prosumer wiring down the the whole sled. New power wiring going down, new video wiring. The Flyer LE that I had came with a strange combined video and power cable that was proprietary for the monitor that came with the kit from the factory. I wanted to use a newer HD-SDI monitor so he gave me a P-tap and SDI connectors combing out to feed whatever monitor I needed. Good Luck! You could tap and thread new holes for your battery plates if you feel confident doing that.
  4. Hi Janice, Thanks so much for your time and thoughtful advice. As for now the vest is working well enough as is. I just did my first couple shoot days with my rig and its working fine in its cracked state so I'm going to hold off spending any money on repairs for now. In the long term I hate having broken gear so I would like to repair the vest just so its 100%. Not sure what the most cost effective route will be. Do you know if this is something that Tiffen/steadicam will service? I know that the Flyer LE has been discontinued for a while so not sure what the support is from the factory is on the vest. I'd prefer to have it serviced to be working as it was new. If that's not possbible Id be interested in paying someone like you to do a third party repair to get it back into functioning condition. I'm still learning about service and support as a Steadicam Owner/Operator. I've already realized that upgrading the wiring in the sled is best customized by someone like Terry West, we've been in touch about upgrading the really lousy video and power cables that came stock on the FLyer LE.
  5. Hi Janice, I have just received a used Flyer LE system that is in very good condition but there are a few cracks in the plastic that goes around the watts. How difficult is this to fix?
  6. Anyone have experience swapping battery plates? I have a used Flyer LE which is V mount, I want to make it Gold Mount. I know I could get adapters but I'd like the permanent mount to be gold mount, I'll buy V mount adapters as a secondary option for V mount jobs. I spoke to Terry West and he says the one thing that could be tricky is that there may not be holes drilled for the gold mount pattern on my V mount Flyer. Might need to machine new holes. The wiring is pretty simple. Any experience / advice?
  7. I also just purchased a used SteadiCam Flyer that is set up in V mount that I would prefer to be gold mount. Are the plates easy to swap? Does anyone know the exact gold mount plate I should order from B&H? There are several options. Is the wiring simple to connect?
  8. Thanks for these tips, I've heard Terry West come up on other threads regarding custom wiring etc, Ill reach out to him. The only time I tried to wire a P tap connector myself, I botched it pretty bad so I'm going to let the pros handle it I think. I'm also pretty paranoid about accidentally messing up the polarity and flying everything. Anyone use Media Black Out? I think I saw their add on a banner here. https://mediablackout.net/collections/all-products
  9. Just acquired used Flyer LE, wondering where to look for power cables. Specifically a 3 pin Lemo to P tap so I can supply power to my accessories from the stage? Are these custom made to order only? If so who is the current go to for this?
  10. Hi Lisa, Thanks for your very thoughtful advise. I currently own a C300 with a variety of lens's. I have flown my C300 with my Canon 17-120 on a rented flyer before. I had to strip a few things off of the camera to make it balance but it worked pretty well. I'm hoping I can do the same with the Scout. I'm leaning toward the scout at this point but just looking for some head to head ideas on weather the scout is a true upgrade on the Flyer or if there are some downsides to the scout. They both seem to support the same weight class. The C300 works well powered by the small internal batts while it's nice to power the accessories off of the sled. I do hope to be able to use the scout rig with other cameras going forward so power limits is a consideration. It's not clear to me if the batteries on the Flyer are both wired in series or parallel or if one of them is just for weight? Maybe someone els on here can clarify? If the Flyer does only use the one battery for power then that takes the battery issue out of the running. The Merlin eights actually might making fine tuning easier?
  11. I'm getting ready to purchase either a used Flyer LE or a used Scout. I have flown the Flyer as a rental many times and feel comfortable with it. I have never flown a scout. I understand the Scout is a newer / updated version of the Flyer and may have some improvements over the Flyer and is generally newer and more modern. My concern with the Scout it is designed to only mount one Anton Bauer battery to the bottom of the sled, the two battery design of the Flyer seems to add more counterwieght. I understand the Scout is designed to balance with screw on "Merlin" weights. Perhaps the scout is a no-brainer in terms of just going with a newer system but just wanted to get some advice from people with more experience with both. Sometimes newer is not allways better in my experience. Thanks! In a world full of brushless gimbals, I'm excited to become a Steadicam owner. No gimbal will ever replace the Steadicam concept for long tracking shots.
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