Imran Naqvi

Totally agree with Alec, a polite reminder that they don't own the footage, and that all copyright law supports you should end the discussion. I assume you don't ever want to work with them again anyway? Also disabusing them of the notion that they can get away with this should mean the next guy won't get screwed because it's too expensive for them to keep doing this. Remember the PM that said bill for everything was acting on the company's behalf and that a verbal agreement is binding.

Apologies Alec,

Too much work too little sleep. I'm obviously a touch cranky.

Mike and Amando

 

Thanks a lot for your immediate responses, that I strongly appreciate, as always. Well, I can't say I haven't tried all these things you mentioned over and over again. As for the comment that "an experienced operator would make it work great", I wouldn't be so sure about that, Mike. Most operators get an actual grip on their center post, so I only have to guess that fingertip control would be a nightmare to them.

It might be worth checking out Mike's resume before you tell him what "actual operators do"

As a rule fingertips is right, a gorilla grip is the easiest way to mess up your shot. That's not to say there aren't times when it's neccesary, but more often than not, the lighter the touch the better.

As for light rigs, having flown the Pilot, and the Flyer but with no experience of your rig I know you can produce some very very good shots with them. Whilst I don't love super light cameras, I've seen people pull off beautifully smooth shots with just a Merlin. The rig won't make you an operator, practice, hard work and a light touch might.

Ultimately the weight of the rig is all about the camera not the sled and arm and short of adding weight to the camera a big rig won't solve your problems with the inertia of your system.

Like everyone said, take a workshop, the techniques and principals are universal.

Try doing a search for something called Perian, which is a quicktime plugin that lets you see all sorts of weird stuff. It's free, open source and I use it to view all my TV on the computer.

What's wrong with velcro? I'm sure you can get just as firm a fix if you cover one side of it with the super high strength stuff.

I will buy when it hits europe, by then most software bugs should be obvious with updates in place/in the pipeline, and hopefully it'll have a 3G chip in it since we have much better 3g coverage over here.

So effectively you've given your rig a skirt?

Try Bazza's Bazaar Usually the best place in the UK to pick up second hand kit

Say hi to Dave Crute for me!

If you do a search on this forum, you'll find a lot of information on this subject.

The consensus is DON'T.

The standard EFP cannot be dynamically balanced.

In some configurations you might get close, but the only options for DB are to replace or mod the base.

A number of mods exist to do this, including one I did, which you can see here.

PM me if you want to do the mod.

If only!

There is no right lens, it's all down to the DP and what they want. As a newb I've had to shoot as long as 50mm on video and S16 frequently with a lens wide open (speaking of which 35mm lens adaptors e.g. Redrock M2, Mini35 or Movietube can often work wide open).

This is why you have a focus puller.

I'm sure some of the old pros here have used much longer lenses.

Remember, the flip-out LCD will be mostly hidden by the lens if you do this.

Not if you switch to goofy

Unfortunately not. The Master like the later Ultra posts are, from memory 1.58 inches. However check with Baer Bel to see if their gimbal can fit a 1.5 inch post with different spacer or grip.

Well that sucks. I was making plans to raid the piggy bank.

If she's not careful it'll come right off.

Imran "This post won't make sense once the mods delete the one above" Naqvi

Any news on these new secret steadicam friendly products?

Afton, just for the above post.....

LOLOLOLOLOL :P

Hey now,

Don't diss the kebabs!

Take a look!

Does Greg still have these?

How does this work for non-US members?

Hi Guys,

 

Greetings from Koh Samui, Thailand. I just joined the forum. Thanks for letting me participate.

 

I recently built a rig, or shall I say it's at the point where I believe it works well enough to begin using it to learn Steadicam technique. I'm practicing as much as I can. I hope I haven't infringed any Thailand patents!

 

I'd like to post a photo or two and get some feedback to some questions I have, but I'll be doggoned if I can the button for attaching files to a post. Search didn't help.

 

Martin A.

Hi Martin,

Welcome to the forum. This board is geared more towards the discussion of "Pro" rigs.

You could try the Home Built Stablizer Board as a great place to get advice on your rig and ideas to keep improving it.

In terms of learning the technique, it's worth getting yourself to a workshop. I think the nearest place to you is probably Australia, but there are ops in Thailand, our own Rob Van Gelder for example, who might be able to help you with specific details.

We also have a policy of using our full names on the board. This is just to help avoid the situation where people hide behind a username to post spam (we've had a huge increase over the last 3 months).

Hope this helps.

Bryan!

Dude Happy Birthday!

Hope you're well.

For the Zoom try the Zoe

I've had a Tomtom 500 for about 18 months. I wouldn't give it up without a fight. I think the interface is great, simple easy to use and the bluetooth handsfree calliing made it an obvious choice (the UK is about to make the penalties for even picking up a mobile in a moving car extremely severe).

My GF hates the idea that I'm likely to be losing my ability to self navigate, but frankly my sense of direction was always a bit pants.

I will say that I also have a full UK atlas in the Volvo at all times and if I had to go abroad I would also have a map, because not having a backup is just silly.