Andrew Stone

Hi Tom, What level(s) did you end up getting? I just read through some of the more recent threads on levels and see Eric's suggestion of this one He didn't state if this was his high sensitivity level or his low one. Curious Tom if you are going for a multi-level solution or not. Cheers, Andrew

Hi Jerry, I am getting your products mixed up I meant Tango (when I said Zephyr). Will the Tango unit be backwards compatible with pre-existing rigs with an intermediary widget or otherwise. -Andrew

Is the Zephyr compatible with existing TIFFEN Steadicam rigs? It is not clear to me as they talk about their new rigs as being Zephyr compatible. -Andrew

Hi Joe, Make sure when you get to the point of using a follow focus motor that you use a single piece rail for your motor. As flexible as the Zacuto rail system is, if you use a few rails screwed together, the motor can easily spin when operating. Zacuto does sell some longer rails but the choice is limited. Cinevate has some lengthy single piece carbon fibre 15mm rails that you may wish to consider. -Andrew

I saw an article about this on Engadget today with an NAB show floor video on the unit. It immediately got me thinking about the iPhone based IRIS controller from PLC Electronic Solutions that was recently posted here. Redrock has shown how to make a focus controller that works with an iPhone and hopefully their competitor PLC Electronic Solutions are working on a similar hardware solution like this to use with their product. Does anyone know where PLC is at in the development of their follow focus hardware controller? -Andrew

I would agree with this Simon, if in the 2 day workshops they give the students the opportunity to try on full size rigs weighted up as they would be on a set. Of course they do this in the longer workshops. If it is the original poster's intention to stay with the smaller rigs and use only small prosumer cameras then fine. He did state he wanted to be a Steadicam Operator this would infer using the big rigs eventually so he should find out in a meaningful way what he is getting into in terms of the physical, technical and artistic demand as well as the amount of money he will have to drop in order to be a real player in the biz. I know Peter can cover a lot of ground in 2 days but the few grand invested for the longer course will pay dividends regardless of whether or not he chooses to pursue it. In other words, it could save him 10's of thousands of dollars right at the start, if he knows what he is really getting into. -Andrew

The ability to add additional "powered" accessories like Bartech/M1s without performing a serious mod to the rig is a welcome feature as well. It appears from the marketing material that most of the irritants of the Flyer have been addressed. I am a bit surprised to hear the Flyer is continuing but maybe TIFFEN believes this a good space on their product shelf between the Flyer and the Archer 2. -Andrew

Very intrigued by this. What is the dry weight of the "Tango"?

The operators that were there are either still sleeping or dealing with aftermath of the Lisagav fest.

If you have a baseplate, wireless microphone receiver, mattebox, etc. put it on the camera to add weight. If you are using just the HVX operate it with the battery on the back of it. On the bottom, assuming you have the TrimPac batteries - use just one. When you are bringing the rig into initial balance remember to find the center of gravity (CG) of the camera with ALL the stuff on it. Use a thick pen or screwdriver (I sometimes use the side of my finger) as the fulcrum to locate the "CG". When you do that make sure you place the CG over the back half of the side to side adjustment screw. That is effectively the sweet spot that Jerry and Ted speak about in the DVD, the 3/4" back from the centerpost of the rig. Once you do that adjust the battery so the unit is roughly balanced. Get your droptime to about two seconds or slightly over. Adjust the battery again. Now adjust the fore and aft as well as the side to side for fine balance and you should be very close to being properly balanced. Generally speaking you want the top of the gimbal a couple of inches below the topstage of the sled. If you have it more towards the center of the post the rig will tend towards listing and be very difficult to operate.

Adam, I have a Flyer as well. The statements above pretty much sum up the different approaches you can take. It does sound from your original post that you will fly your own stuff. Those cameras you mention will work on the Flyer LE but if you do use the RedRock Micro 35mm adapter that could put you over when you factor in batts, wireless mic receivers, etc. If you get into having your focus and zoom pulled remotely you will probably be over as well once you add the motors and the attendant wireless stuff. If you do end up buying a Flyer you will get a good portion of your money back if you upgrade. The Archer 2 just begs you to buy the higher end kit with the G50 arm and the motorized tilt stage so you are looking at more money again on the Archer 2. And of course, as stated, NAB is around the corner, so there may be new units or people unloading their lightly used rigs in the next month or so. -Andrew Stone

The load time for me is quicker. Likin' the new look. -Andrew

Hi Tom, I will post up some info more for others reading the thread who are using EX cameras or have this dilemma that many operators (early in their career) have which is what piece of gear to get next... I came to use the Decimator as an SD Monitor conversion box by happenstance and I too have an EX-3 as my primary camera right now. I got the Decimator as a result of getting a nanoFlash in an effort to get +50Mbit / 4:2:2 material for selling to broadcast. I picked up the Decimator as a way to verify the input from the EX-3 to the nanoFlash. It was only when I saw the image coming out of the nanoFlash that I realized the quality was so far and away superior than the image coming out the composite output on the EX-3 that I decided to use it to bring the image to my Steadicam (SD) monitor. I realize there is a component option on the EX to bring your image to your SmallHD monitor which is probably the way to go. For other EX owners the Decimator may be the route to go depending on their monitor and/or need for wireless transmission. It is often at this point once an operator has their first rig that they are often faced with the proposition of getting wireless follow focus and wireless transmission gear, as well as often upgrading the monitor. All are expensive propositions for a starting operator. The Decimator could in some cases serve several functions and delay the need to spend 4 or more grand on a good HD monitor allowing one to consider other parts of the kit that may help securing gigs. Having said that Nebtek's Solar 7SC given the myriad of features and user reports from Charles and a few others seems to be the best value right now of the mid to higher end SC monitors.

Hi Tom, I am going to throw this out as an idea as it is much cheaper than buying a Nebtek and it will get you a significant way towards getting a good translated HD sourced image on your existing monitor and that is using a Decimator. As long as you have an HD-SDI out from your HD camera you can have this unit translate it into a VERY good 16x9 SD signal. There are quite a few ops here that use it and may wish to chime in. I know there is at least one veteran here that uses both a Decimator and has one of the Solar HD monitors. Chances are you will have the HD viewfinder on your camera which you can use for a focus check and have a really decent image on your monitor below for framing. I am interested in hearing as well some of the opinions on your post. Similar to you, I have been debating about whether or not to get one of the Solar monitors or hold out till when I am buying another rig down the road. Presently I am using the Flyer which has as an SD monitor with a 16x9 aspect ratio. I am really happy with the output of the Decimator. You can get them here: http://www.tecads.com/product_info.php?pro...f105ab96c1f6501 -Andrew

See Robin's post a few up. It's a 3-pin LEMO connector.

If you want to get a cable made or make one yourself. the Sony connnector is called a "eiaj-04" connector. Sometimes just called a "EIAJ". If you want to get a cable made from your Flyer plug to the EX3, Terry West who makes cables for Steadicam ops can do it as well. The route I am going to go from the Flyer sled LEMO to an Anton Bauer Multi-Tap. From there I have cables going to the camera and other accessories. This way only one LEMOed cable has to be made. Simpler & less expensive in the end.

Very nice Douglas. Curious about the construction as I have been thinking about redoing the bottom spar myself. I can see you have used a series of Cinevate rails brackets. Is the monitor mount/bracket assembly easily sourced, along with the articulating swivel piece for the upper battery mount. Also have a question about the other metal bits -- the lower battery mount and the various parts in the mount assembly attached to the post. Did you have these machined or are they "off the shelf" items? If you have a photo that would illustrate how the post mount assembly is attached the rails portion that would help. Can't quite figure out how you did that. Again nice piece of work! -Andrew

Hi Douglas, Welcome! Hailing from the West Coast of Canada. Used to live in Winnipeg myself. Excellent job on the lower spar of your Flyer. A few of us are going to be chatting you up. All the best, Andrew

Wow I can't believe how inexpensive it is even with hotel and car thrown in using Alegiant from Bellingham. Seriously reconsidering.

Hi Douglas, What else are you going to have on the camera? Are you going to be using a light on it that requires 12V power? Wireless mics receivers? All this will contribute to your knowing what batteries you will need and if you have enough outboard gear on top of the camera that you may be getting out of the weight capability of the Pilot... You will be able to power your EX1R from the onboard battery obviously. The batteries at the bottom of the sled will serve primarily as weight to keep the sled and the camera upright, that is, unless you have a bunch of 12V gear strapped to the EX1R. If you're a wedding videographer, I would suggest taking one of the 2 day courses that TIFFEN offer that are focused on "flying" the Pilot and the Flyer. You will get a sense of what you are getting into and learning the right way to operate a Steadicam. -Andrew

To the original poster's question... Yes you can power your Sony EX3 with the Flyer. The battery draw concern is real if the ones you have are old, however, new Anton Bauer DIONIC 90's will last stay above 13 watts until they are all but depleted. The camera draws around 10 watts so a set of batteries on your Flyer is going to last a LONG time if that is all you have on them. Vortex Media sells a 4 pin XLR to SONY EX3 plug. It's a bit long for the Flyer so you can chop it up if that is all you will use it for. Your Flyer should have a 2 pin LEMO to 4 pin XLR as part of the kit. So with those two cables and some twist ties you are set. BTW I was doing a 4.5 hour "event" shoot yesterday and had to move to an external battery that was not fully charged. It was at 12.4 volts. The camera was fine. It kept recording. In case you haven't mounted the EX3 on the Flyer yet, you will want to remove the diopter snoot from the viewfinder otherwise your dynamic balance will be way off. -Andrew

Zacuto came out with something a few months ago that effectively allowed you to easily mount an iPhone on a steadicam. TIFFEN might as well join the party.

Hi Steve, I second Mark's comments. There are many, many things about the Steadicam world and culture you will not really understand until you are exposed to Steadicam operators working in the biz. The easiest way to get a jump up on this is to take a longer workshop. It is not only being exposed to the exercises for a week instead of two days but talking to quite a few working operators that will give you a huge amount of knowledge while you are in the workshop. There is one in May up near Philadelphia offered by the Steadicam Operators Association. The details on the course can be found [ here ]. An excellent place to view world class steadicam shots is at Steadishots.org. You will see it referenced here on the forum quite a bit and the webmaster, Afton Grant, is a frequent contributor here. -Andrew

Josip, If you go to the Steadicam website there are pricelists for all the rigs and almost all the pieces of a rig are available separately and listed in the price lists. The G-40 is the arm that is standard with the base Archer 2. You will probably find the price there. If you are going to use the g-40 on the Flyer, there will be some issues with the gimbal being overtaxed. You would also have to deal with matching the arm to the vest and sled. Socket block and so on. I wouldn't do it but that's me. Failing the pricelist you can call up Tiffen and ask. -Andrew

Mike, if you have a look at the video clip on this page you will see a demo where the index finger is operating the focus control on the unit. There isn't mention of sizing for a Flyer but he mentions he will do size mods if you take measurements with a set of calipers. -Andrew