Hi
I have a question for anyone who owns/used to own the master series arm.
How were they adjusted for different weights/float points?
http://www.steadicam-ops.com/docs/steadicam_resource_manual.pdf
This manual claims there was a single adjustment knob for the arm
http://www.google.co.uk/patents/US5435515
This is the patent filed for the mechanics of what I believe is the Master series arm, though it's never explicitly stated so feel free to correct me on that.
Anyway in the patent there are a couple of ways described to adjust the lifting power and 'Iso-Elasticity'*. One is to have separate vertical and lateral controls for the cable terminations, the other is to have a single control which moves the termination diagonally downwards instead of straight down.
There's also a third method described which is a simple vertical adjustment of the cable but I'm assuming this wouldn't be used since it's the crudest and simplest of all three.
I'm just curious which of these methods actually made it into the final design
Thanks
Robert