Joshua Nitschke

Kris, thanks for all the info. I'm not ready to buy now - won't be for a bit, but you have given me ideas for a course of action. When I'm back at school I think I'll take you up on that offer - I'm a bit far from Hollywood right now. Thanks for the advice! Cheers!

:unsure: Kris, I realize this is a professional forum, that's why I'm asking here. I am serious that I think I would love steadicaming. I am not considering this as a "pass through" (that would be stupid as you pointed out, the gear is too expensive and it takes too long to master the equipment), but rather as a co-career through my whole life. I'd be doing it on my own projects as well, so I'd demand perfection from myself. Sorry if you thought I wasn't taking this seriously, I didn't mean to offend. That said, I haven't done it yet, so I really don't know if I'd like it or not, but I really think I would. Sorry for being unclear, I'd like to be a professional cinematographer AND steadicam operator, not a Steadicam operator until I'm a cinematographer. I guess my desire to do cinematography got me into wanting to steadicam operate because I just love the moving camera so much and I'd love to be able to do that.

I had been going off of Tiffen's price sheet...I didn't realize that I could get the original flyer for so much less. Cool! Everytime that I've checked ebay though there haven't been any.

Hi, I would like to become a steadicam operator. The Archer was the model I was initially looking at because I would like to eventually make money doing this although I know that it will take classes and lots of time. Primarily, however, I am an aspiring cinematographer (small productions, I have my own team and I like to do the camera work - it really works out for us), so steadicaming would pay the bills inbetween my stuff, and I could steadicam on my stuff as well which would be great. But if I am gonna drop 4 grand on something, I want to make sure I'll have a good future benefits from it. So I have these questions: 1) If I can operate the Pilot well, will I be able to move up to the Archer or the Ultra 2 easily at some point? 2) Can I expect to be able to make any money with my Pilot? 3) Is the Flyer better enough to warrant the extra 15 or so grand (with accessories I'm ballparking here) or if I were to spend that much would I be better off going with the original Archer? --------- Thanks for your help, I did a lot of searching but haven't found the exact answers to those questions that I am looking for.