William Demeritt

I think adjustable framelines would be critical over canned framelines. Everything else sounds cool.

I have a shot coming up on this feature where I'll be operating in an office building, and the shot will include traveling inside an elevator between floors. I've already watched the McConkey shot for RAISING CAIN and taken to heart his tips on working with the actor to compensate for any bobble. I'm just wondering if anyone else has some tips or things to keep in mind? My plan on the day is to steal a PA to try walking through the scene during down time. This way, I'll learn the path and also take a ride in the elevators a few times to see how dramatic the acceleration may be. Any other ideas or tips would be greatly appreciated!

I gotta be honest, when I upgrade to the Bartech digital receiver, all these negative reviews will push me to buy a digital Heden or other. I have an analog M-One motor right now, but it makes me nervous that new business is neglected, so what chance do I have for service??

Anyone got one they're selling?

Ron? Too drunk? Never. Don't need to know how the thingy works, just gotta know how to cash them fat STEADYCAMMIN CHECKS am I right fellas?

Bring it to set, but only off a job you bid from Craigslist. I say you'll make it to lunch before someone catches on. Probably doesn't have HD signal issues when people are on their walkies nearby.

James: also worth trying out is try other BNC cables, make sure you have a properly shielded signal coming into the decimator?

Does the problem have any relation to the hand units distance from the receiver? You can probably isolate it if it is an rf issue by running camera off block battery, power Decimator off the block or AC, use the Decimator to send the image to another off-sled monitor (powered off AC or whatever). Power the Arri separately somewhere nearby and try using the hand unit. Since the camera's power, grounding etc is completely separate from the Arri system, you'll know any distortion in image must be related to the RF.

Ron, I saw what you were transmitting, and that's disgusting!!

Robert, welcome to the SteadicamForum. I'm sure people working in the DSLR market will find this product interesting. You should probably mention in this thread and the other that you're the manufacturer of this equipment, just so everyone is aware.

Biggest misconception I've found: moving is difficult, standing still is easy. No joke, I've had productions tell me they don't have anything "too crazy" planned, only to find out they're right. Nothing "too crazy", or too moving, or too couldn't be done on tripod. Or, nothing "too crazy" involved a long walk around a house, up some crappy wooden stairs (up two flights), and into a bedroom lock-off. Biggest misconception? Chances are, unless your DP was a Steadicam operator or has used them before, they're going to misconceive how to use you.

Really? You must be old! I don't remember a time before "I'm new to Steadicam" advice threads.

Also keep in mind, at the data rates we're discussing: Blackmagic HyperDeck Shuttle: 15 minutes uncompressed (1.6 Gb/s) = 180GB = 180GB ssd drive = $480. Sure, you can go back and delete bad takes, but you can't trim the pre-roll from those takes, so long takes are going to be long takes. Atomos Samurai: 6 hours ProRes 422 (HQ) (220 Mb/s) = 2.5″ 640GB drive = $50. It's not just a question of replacement, but rather making it through the day with your recorder. They probably recommend newer hard drives with motion detection and technology that protects the needle and platters better in the event of sudden movement. Personally, I've put hard drives through absolute and utter hell... traditional platter drives will work just fine for me.

A shock mount I can understand for on camera applications (jittery handheld, etc), but laptop hard drives have functioned during movement or acceleration for years. If it's on a Steadicam, the smooth movements should be sufficient to dampen any need for shock mounts. I mean, a shock mount solution could be devised if people are that worried, but I don't see it as necessary. They recommend a shock mount probably to be safe, knowing people will try anything mounted to camera or off camera but in danger. The Samurai uses regular HDD's because it records using Apple ProRes instead of uncompressed, so it needs less hard drive speed to record. Without looking it up to verify, uncompressed requires 1.6Gb/s whereas ProRes can record around 220Mb/s I think. Personally, I'd go with the Samurai because the cost of the unit may be more, but then I could buy several 500gb laptop hard drives to swap in. If a hard drive fails, I can replace it for <$75. Whereas currently with SSD prices, that's a lot more money.

It's a great price for the device, but keep in mind that the hard drives you use MUST be fast enough to record uncompressed HD. After looking at specs in another thread, this really only leaves SSD drives as an option, and large enough drives to get you through a day will likely cost an excess of $1,000. Personally, I'm looking at the Atomos Samurai for a recording option: HDMI and HD-SDI inputs, records in Apple ProRes to SDD or standard 2.5" HDD (SATA connections), supports playback, etc. The unit costs $1495, but the HDD drives cost as low as $60.

I saw it at NAB 2011. The unit seemed OK, seemed to do the job. I asked a number of questions, but the people at the booth didn't have many answers. Seems to make sense now, if Varizoom is just selling it under their name.

I learned to stop sending 200-300 emails to GPI when Ashley put me in a head lock and made me promise to stop calling. Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood. :unsure: That's really just incredible. I've worked in customer support before in my past life, and I've never understood how the support provider can get into a place where they think it's helpful, necessary or appropriate to yell at a customer (and I used to change passwords for a living, can you imagine my expression when people asked me how to spell their new password "abc123"?). I hope this situation gets righted for you, Tomas.

24 hour gun range?

Jorge, rumor has it this will have a bracket for the Blackmagic Hyperdeck Shuttle on the back.

My Mag Sr fits in the back of my Honda Element. I had to modify the height of the fore and aft bars as well as the stand to make it fit height-ways, but it fits length ways pretty much perfectly. The mods required a few hours, rotary tool and drill.

Hey James, I've never really thought of, or even wanted to build a portable power source for my entire cart. I lug enough equipment in and out of my car daily. That being said, I do usually carry a 25' bright orange stinger (Home Depot type, so electric doesn't mistake it for one of theirs) and a surge protector so I can tap into house or stage power. That way, I have a way to charge my batteries on my cart should it be problematic for the chargers to sit elsewhere. Likewise, that gives my cart power to plug in an AC adapter for a laptop or iPhone charger. I think Afton Grant sells d-tap to iPhone charging cables, another great way to charge iPhones on set. I personally own a couple lithium ion battery packs that I can use to recharge my iPhone 3-4 times before the pack is dead. I'd be intrigued to see what you come up with, though!

I'll try to drink enough to represent Ron Baldwin and BJ. Someone please notify the ambulance?

James, I haven't heard of such an app, but I would imagine it would require a piece of hardware that performs most of the video acquisition on it's own, and an app running on the iPhone to actually record the video stream. Seems like s lot of effort.

Stabilizer Gear Expo on Sunday June 5 in Filmtools parking lot. De-soberizer Expo at a local pub to follow??

AMIMON advertised the same device a few months ago at CES and last November, it actually powers over that USB mini plug on the side. I think the range of that will be less simply for the lower power, since the AirSync HD ops at 15w. USB is 5v but usually not above 2amps. The FCC is definitely a concern but i need clarification on a few things. I found an article from 2004 indicating the FCC seemed to open up the 5ghz band to additional antennas since forbidding aftermarket wifi rubber ducks limit the capabilities for growth. The article needed more research to understand the context, but I wonder if it's safe in the same way routers are sold with u.fl connectors or mmcx connectors and people can buy 5ghz or 2.4ghz antenna to increase range. However, yea, I'm already thinking my process would require FCC certification, even though I'm not adding to the power output but simply adding antennas.