MichaelStewart

SOLD

SOLD

Paid $400 to have it made, has several 1/4" 20 holes, top and bottom

Sold

Dropped to $5900. Photo of Robert Luna arm. Cheers Mike

Accepting reasonable offers before going to ebay. weddings at hdbride dot com Thanks Mike

Hello everyone, I have an SK2 with a modified arm by Robert Luna, I had him put the second section on the arm (essentially a Provid arm) anyway, was lucky that he had the parts to do it, works great, as with anything Robert touches: the Mod alone was $1500, but the harder part is finding the parts to do it) I believe he rated it at 21-23 pounds max. This kit comes with the C-Stand, SK2 (Anton Bauer mount), Modified Arm, Original vest in great shape, Practice cage (has quick release tripod plate) with a 50 watt Frezzi with soft box (dimable) installed, it has a gold mount installed on the rear of the cage to accept the anton bauer Batteries to power the light, It comes with a spare stage plate (two total), 2- Hytron 50's, Titan Twin Charger, Large pelican case to house the unit, low mode bracket and the T-handle for adjustments. I will throw in the ORIGINAL EFP training tape (not a copy) and the VHS tape from Jerry Holway, asking $6500, works fantastic. Used it for weddings only, so it was not abused or heavily taxed. email.....weddings (at) hdbride dot com I'll also include a second smaller machined aluminum cage I would use for going in low mode (necessary because I had the light mounted on top of the other cage (which is Steel). I will accept Paypal. $6500 Thanks Mike

Great to hear Dave, I heard the flyer is silky smooth, good luck on your new venture, take care! Mike

Hey Dave, got the Steadicam fever? I know you do excellent work with the Glidecam 2000,4000? the big rigs are a dream compared to the little ones as far as capabilities, good luck to you. AEMIKEA

Like anything in this world, operating/lifting/pulling improperly can cause damage. I personally am amazed, at how much stronger my back is today with a little over a year and a half of operating, I just made sure I paid attention to my posture and put it down whenever I was not operating, I can now stay in it for well over an hour straight. I can really notice the difference in my back when I would carry my 4 yearold long distances aftr he would get tired of walking, It has done wonders for my back, not that I am reallllly old, but i was 37 when i started and not in the best shape, anyway, the key is proper posture and keeping the rig as close to your body as often as possible. Mike

When I put the second section on my SK2 arm, it made a world of difference, it is almost impossible with only one section to keep it smooth. Mike

Thanks Michael, great explanation, and points made about the choice of that shot, the lighting job on that was flawless, and with all that movement going on, amazingly cool shot. Thanks, that one would have caused me to surf the internet for days to find that out. Mike

Thanks Mitch, that seems like a ton of work for a shot that did not have a big impact on the story telling, you would have thought in order to do it that way, lighting it would have been murder, great shot though. Mike

There was a cool shot towards the end of the movie when Tom Hanks got off the elevator to go kill paul newmans son, The shot starts out with the camera very high looking down on tom hanks as he leaves the elevator, it holds that perspective for awhile (I thought it might be "flycam",but then it drops down in front of tom hacks and follows him into the room, I can only think that the camera had a tilt on the stage and as the operator brought the sled down, he tilted it back to get the shot low enough to follow mr hanks, I'm sure I am making this more difficult than it is, but the shot started out really high and drops down to hanks eye level, any clues, pretty cool shot. Thanks Mike

If I can get this down some, I may be shooting some Gonzaga Bulldogs games (Spokane Wa.) Mike

Great advice, thanks for posting. We were suppose to shoot a full court game, but ran out of time, it would have made for some nice shots, I had this grand idea of don juaning them (down the court and then pealing off to the left and circling around the action, but no chance) the best I had was one on one games at half court!, boy was I tired from running in circles! Thanks Mike

Hi everyone, just shot my first sporting event tonight (basketball) I did not really know how to shoot it, any tips on shooting? What good shots do you recommend? I know I was tired pretty quick! Thanks, Mike

Hi Nikk, I have an SKII also, I use a cage and aVX2000 (even lighter than the XL1) The key is not necessarily the weight (although you need that), it is putting the weightabove the camera and on the ends that will help you balance the best, cramming on the weight, you will exceed your arm limit quickly, another key I have found is that because the sled is non telescoping, you really don't want the gimble too far down the post, keeping your horizons level becomes more difficult, the XL1 picture shown on the steadicam site is way too high above the gimble for my taste, logic will tell you that a "roll" at the gimble will be magnified several times over at the lense, the farther away from the gimble it is (I like to use the analogy of firing a rifle, you may only swing the barrel a quarter of an inch, but your shot will be way off target and will be compounded the farther away you are, just some thoughts of someone who has finally got it down to a science using the minidv cameras, the cage is the best way to go, once again it isn't the weight you want as much as distributing it properly, hope this helps, I will post a pic of my rig soon to illustrate my point. Mike

Just to give a newbie point of view, I to took the response given by Michael as meaning that there are no advantages ( the first word to his response of the advantages was "Nothing") then came the rest of the lack of "criteria" one needed to be a member, as a new person looking in I understood/misunderstood it as meaning it was a waste of money and offered "Nothing" to the operator. Seeing Mikes later response, it is clear that it was not his intention to put it down, but I initially saw it that way. Have been getting alot of experience and soon will have a workshop, hopefully I will list my name soon in the future. Great site and helpful fellow operators! Thanks to all who contribute. Mike

Perfect explanation! Thank You! Mike

How exactly does this work? How does the person running the focus unit know it is in focus? Thanks Mike

I would guess that anything can be dynamically balanced with some tape and weights (I have my sk2 dynamically balanced) the provid I believe has more adjustment available for it, thus easier to balance, do not own one , but if I can balance the SK2 you can do a provid. Mike

Not too worried about it, my business cards have my address/phone on them, who knows who's hands they will end up in. But I appreciate the concern. Mike

Just became an operator about 3 months ago, bought a new vehicle the other day and just noticed my plate number was "428 SOA" A sign maybe? Cheers Mike

I was talking to someone today about web board posting, he says he never posts and just looks, I stated that so many experts have taken the time to post answers for me that I feel a resposibilty to answer the simple questions and leave the hard ones for them (circle of life?) So I will do my part here. Once you get the sled balanced and it is on the balancing stand, if you lift up the bottom portion of your sled so that it is horizontal to the ground, when you let go of it, your drop time is from that point to the point when it reaches its upright position (of course it will swing past if you don't catch it), OK how did I do? Mike