Louis Hanoteau

Alright I've been louking around... I guess I don't have enough right now to buy what I want. But I found something, and I need some advice. This : http://www.bassonsteady.com.ar/shop/categorias.asp?id=1 I looked for feedbacks, there aren't so many. Most of them are bad, but apparently, this 2007 the new products are much better. But there's not enough feedbacks to trust them. What do you think of this ? It's pretty cheap to me... Does this seems good on paper ? I might be able to see one, I found someone not too far from where I live who bought one. But I won't be able to see it before a little while. And you guys might just tell me that it's a piece of crap or something, and save me the trip. Have you ever seen one of those in real ? Are they good ? Do they look ok ? Thanks. Louis.

Sorry I said rig, i meant gear I guess... I'm not familiar with the english vocabulary yet. Well I'm working right now as an assistant operator (2nd mostly), but you don't make that much money actually. And I think I "learned the set" a lot already. I did 4 years of.... damn I don't know this word either. is it best boy ? I plan to do the tsf workshop first, and maybe rent for a time... But five year is a long time, and productions I work with mostly look for owner/operators... That's why I start looking for used gears. Thank you for your answers and support :)

Hi everyone. My name is Louis, I'm from France (so sorry if I make some mistakes). I've looked around in this forum for a couple of days, and it looks great. I hope I'll stay here for a long time. I graduated a year ago from my school where I learned how to be a camera operator and I recently decided I wanted to be a steadycam operator. But I need help. I've met with some operators, but they're not really interrested in helping you a lot I figured. They always have some slave-intern helping them carry there stuff, and no need for more... I guess they're asked for help a lot. I have absolulety no experience in operating a big rig (is that how you call it ? In france we say steadicam no matter what brand it is). I tried to carry one on a couple of time, but that's it. Well actually I tried a small one, for dvs camera but that's not what I want to do. Most of my jobs are music video production, and they do things in 35mm. So I'd need a big (and expensive :/ ) one. What I need is how to get started. I've some money on the side and my father is willing to lend me some. I've been looking for workshops (still not sure if thats the right word) in france and found only one that looks serious. (It's french so you can't really help me with that I guess. It's pretty expensive and short (like 1900 euro for 42 hours /6 days). They use Steadicam? Ultra Cine et Clipper, a "cart with hard mount, Gyro-Scooter?" (translated boldly) I don't know if it's any good but I'll try to find out by myself. Where I reallyneed help, is on what should I buy ? I think I could lay at most 15 000 euro. I've been looking for used steadicam online, but it's pretty hard to find in france. I don't mind getting it from anywhere else if it's a good deal. Plane tickets and shipping aren't a big part of the budget for this. But I don't know where to look, nor what to look for exactly. I'd really appreciate if you guys could give me some advice. Louis.