steve wagner

Thanks for correction Alec. I’ve never gotten to play with one. looked for it last Cinegear but didn’t find one to see in use. Works for a lot of folks as I have gathered. We all play together.

The Volt was never supposed to be a custom tailored monthly-updated boutique solution for every individual operator. Although I think the three knobs give it a lot of personality. All it ever sought to do was solve the pendulum compromise Garrett made back when he invented this device in 1898. You get adjustable bottom heavy on independent roll and tilt, And some friction on tilt if you need it. And a great tilt headroom setting feature without actually moving weights around. We will keep making it better. And I love a great challenge. But why it needs to swing wildly from low to high and back again with so much as 1.5 degrees of "drift" while it resettles. Oh the horror. Wave requires you to pin-lock, power off, reset, power on when high to low reset As always will try to learn as I go.

it resets at 270 to 300 deg/sec. based on gyro max rate it can measure. takes seconds not moments to reset. about same time your viewers need to recover from that dizzying move you just made!

Really just want to learn, not trying to sell here. Uff Da

I don't ever want Volt to change the feel of the sled in a 'Oops what just happened!' sort of way. so Volt as it acts/reacts should never surprise you, it may feel different from passive 'pure' sled the first few times as you push it around and learn its feel. But it will ALWAYS react same way given same operator input, My absolute basic philosophy for any and all upcoming improvements. I listen. Garrett Jerry H, Rey Reyes, and many great OPs Steve Wagner

And maybe said this before, but need to repeat: Volt is not A.I. it never tries to anticipate what it thinks you want to do in future nor does it try to react to something you did in past. Very simply put: as you move your sled in all possible motions: Volt instantaneously transforms the physics of the actual rig into something not achievable in a passive rig: fast damped drop time for roll, easy to control long drop time for tilt, and no pendulum reaction to acceleration. with a few simple adjustments for all. Most importantly: once you set the knobs. the feel doesn't change. You and Volt cooperate. It simply becomes a learnable new class of passive Steadicam in your hands.

Bear in mind we are constantly looking to make the feel of the Volt as aesthetic and transparent as possible. I now have a great Volt test rig here at my shop. Built on a beautiful Ultra sled.Working a healthy list of subtle but substantial improvements. Good news is all Volts can be upgraded. I want to make sure anything I release is rock solid and breaks no features you've come to depend on. Thanks. Steve Wagner

the M1 Volt motion tracking algorithm completely covers 360 degrees of roll, tilt, pan with no glitches or dead zones. It always knows camera orientation and pointing direction over the full sphere of motion and does not get lost or confused. Like all inertial navigators it will very slowly lose horizon if you accelerate for minutes at a time. Recovers smoothly when acceleration ceases. Steve Wagner

I believe you can see it this week in NY at Abelcine

To see it in action from this Cine Gear to now, just search #m1volt, best regards, Steve Wagner

Not sure, I guess this specialty item's sales were a bit too intermittant to keep factory interested in making more of them.

The only solution that works is the complete one: measure 360 degrees of motion for any orientation in all three axes of rotation using rate gyros, then convert that to a horizon value using accelerometers for gyro drift correction. It is very hard to do but the WHM-BG, properly calibrated comes beneficially close to a true acceleration/fast pan, tilt, roll rotation immune level. The only way to fool it is to do long sweeping turns at speed on a vehicle mount. Only GPS compensation would help that. Hopefully you can find a used WHM-BG out there. Steve Wagner

Reminds me :many candidate light bulb attempts before Edison; ... of course he didn't invent it but his lab made it practical, As Dean Kamen and his more than humble and capable engineers didn't invent the first self leveling inverted pendulum transporter,They had the gumption to produce it, give it redundancy, make it safe enough, put it out on the market, even in USA the most litigious country on earth. As they cleared the way, almost anyone could follow.

Just a guess. Back-light failure, partial. Newer panels use multiple white LEDs for back-light. if one fails, dark spot.

Hi Greg, The WHM-BG has several types of display. For indoor use we have the tri-color bubble. The display is 53 LED segments across about 2 1/4 inches wide, Segments can be green, amber, or red. The 'bubble' is about 4LED's wide , about 1/4 inch. Display split into 5 regions. Center region the bubble is green, about the center 1/5 of the display. Outside that region bubble turns amber "warning" and final outer regions are red "danger" The bubble moves smoothly just like a real spirit level but ignores almost all acceleration which would give false readings with a true spirit level For outdoor use you can set the display to solid red or solid green. Attachable red or green filters are included in the kit to enhance sunlight viewability. You can also set the display to produce an expanding solid bar in either red or green that expands out from center and shows which direction to push the rig to re-level--so called 'Knight Rider' mode. This mode is a bit more visible in peripheral vision and can be set to solid red or green for use with the filters for better outdoor viewability. Hope this helps, Steve Wagner

Well couldn't you argue that the Movi itself is a cotton ball. At least for the solo operator. It only vaguely expresses or tries to guess your intended camera orientation while it stabilizes itself automatically, unlike steadicam which points exactly where you direct it hands on. Couple to that the mimic and you have a second cotton ball. where an operator removed from the action attempts to compose the shot with no situational/positional awareness of the 'operator' (i.e. Movi Carrier) Really doesn't seem like a fair comparison between this and shots by seasoned steadicam artists /practitioners. Little need to worry about this in my opinion.

Does anybody know who operated on the Weird Al parody aka "I'm Tacky" version of this? was also superb operating Steadicam wise!

Forgive me if this one's already been discussed elsewhere on the Forum, I did search! : Pharrell Williams: Happy Just has a nice flow, very silky smooth, not sure who the OP is. My favorite Steadicam music video of the year. Best Regards, Steve Wagner

Thanks Frederic, I'm glad it served you well and that you found it a great new home Your beautiful photographs of my little baby are a testament to your attention to detail, which is exactly how I approached building it! Steve Wagner

Ten years or so ago I obtained one of the first release of Segway transporters. Being an early adopter and riding about people always asked "why doesn't it fall over" My first sort of smarty pants answer was 'why don't you fall over !? ', quickly followed by explaining the idea that people stay vertical by deftly moving their feet fore aft left right etc to stay right below their own center of gravity and thus not fall over- and the Segway just copies that idea. Then they would of course want a demo ride, and I always obliged, not always so practical with a Steadicam style rig on your back, but it never hurts to teach a little Newtonion basic physics if both of you have the time & patience. S D Wagner

Its hard to describe without trying one. In essence it makes your rig feel extra bottom heavy but only around the roll axis with option of damping, you may set the physical rig for very long drop time so tilts are easier to hold, but roll axis still re-centers like a short drop time rig. Uses same level sensing means as Wagner level, so fairly immune to whip pans, sudden moves, etc. If you set it to max gain and rate feedback the horizon basically takes care of itself while you concentrate on pan and tilt framing. Yes of course you are cheating compared to an all passive rig, but you still have way more operator input and expression compared to Movi type gimbals. Steve W

Interesting, Tiffen had plenty new stuff at NAB, but no Cinegear? in the past they had a remote booth nearby at Factory in Glendale/Burbank with shuttles for Cinegear, but not this year?

Hi all, great points, practice of course always helps, but why do we make sleds bottom heavy at all, why not just make it neutral and let human feedback keep it level. Rhetorical question of course. That little bit of gravity helps when things are static, and its predictable, you learn to work with it. All we've done is create powerful synthetic bottom heavy feel for the roll axis without acceleration caused pendulum sway, The gravity feedback of a passive slightly bottom rig is pretty small in the +/- one to two degree range. The WXB drastically increases this feedback feel over that range. You learn to work and cooperate with it just like any rig. The tilt application is a great idea. using two boxes would certainly work and would make a near neutral sled feel uniformly extra bottom heavy in all directions without pendulum swing. Not as powerful as spinning gyros but it could certainly help in windy conditions and for running shots. Best Regards, Steve Wagner

I've never met Larry, but he seems fearless and forever enthusiastic to add new and useful technology to his rig arsenal, I'm assuming he just wants to continuously upgrade his already well recognized capability and deliver results to the client that drastically exceed expectations. Can't find any fault in that.

it's all okay, its just a few moving parts, masterfully manipulated