Hi my names alex, im a part C Mechanical Engineer at loughborough university and my individual project for the year is to design and manufacture a hand held steadicam.
from what i have seen so far, the cameras im looking to support range from around 300g to nearly 3kg in weight, so i think a hand held device is probably going to be the best choice to pursue, though i have tried holding a 5Kg dumbbell at around arms length and it is quite tiring so maybe an option for some kind of body mounted support might be necessary.
what i wanna ask really is
1) what do guys like yourselves, who are seasoned in the use of such devices, look for in a hand held steadicam device? what type of features are a must? what features do want but are so far missing from currently available devices?
2) what are the current short comings with such devices in your experience? ( i can kinda see that weight might be an issue for heavier pro-sumer cameras like those canon make)
3) am i correct in heading down the hand held road for these relatively light cameras? should i be thinking about having some way of supporting the device when the users arms get tired?
those are the main questions i think, im pretty sure i'll have more but cant really put my finger on them just yet
thanks for reading
alex