silverspring arm

[william west]

Has anyone use the steadyrig silver spring arm with heavy camera packages?

I am looking at getting one but it says the max load is 28.5 kgs, I weighed a genesis with tape deck on the other day and whole sled came to 29kgs!

 

Just wondering if 28kgs is the absolute maximum or if you can get away with any more?

 

Henry West

[James Puli]

Hey Henry.

 

Idealy you wouldnt want to fly a Genesis with the deck attached, but sometimes you have to.

 

Ive got a Steadyrig arm with silver springs. Was flying an F23 with the deck attached the other week. (Prime lenses, clamp on mattebox, Modulas 3000 and BFD/m1). Didnt have a problem. It was close to the max on the arm, but may have been able to squeeze a bit more about it (maybe a couple more accessories). They are well built, so im sure it would hold up fine.

 

Send Hugo an email. I know they have been selling a few on ebay latley and mite have a couple going cheap.

 

JP

Sydney Australia

[Erwin Landau]

Hi Henry,

 

The main reason people buy the Steadyrig arm, Luna Arm, Tiffen G50, Artemis, Glidecam, etc. is not the weight range, it's the price.

You get something decent for half the price. If you are really concerned about the weight range, buy the PRO arm and you will never worry again. You get every pennies worth from your $22K. But then again... do you really want to shlep that amount of weight around with you?

 

I owned two arms so far in my carrier... as a comparison, I owned eight rigs. I bought a DeRose/3A arm because it was in the price range that I could afford... then somebody broke into my car and decided he wanted to take it for a permanent ride and my Insurance company got me a PRO arm as CP was gone and Tiffen had yet to buy the company... so the sole manufacturer of arms was GPI... Lucky me.

 

There is a reason for manufacturer giving you a limit. Will it fly more, sure! But it might just sage or might just as well blow up... there is always a margin of safety/error so that people that don't read the manual don't get hurt. Look for Larry McConkey's post flying an IMAX camera and his rubber band conversion to squeeze out a couple of more pounds on the top end of his Ultra Arm... he got lucky.

 

It's finally up to you as the operator of that piece of equipment to determine what's safe or not. The equipment will always show you instantly if it can handle it. Remember cause and effect any force on the arm will willed an effect...

Success or a hair fracture... or both.

 

I can only guaranty that it will fly up to whatever it's rated for... beyond that, It's up to you.

 

Sincerely,

 

Erwin

[RonBaldwin]

I'm betting there are numbers on Hugo's website -- it's most likely about the same as a gold spring 3A arm at max 63 lbs (meaning, if you load it all the way up and let the arm go, it will slowly droop to -- or near to -- the bottom so you may have to hold it up). Most "big" sleds with batts/mdr's are what...20 to 23 lbs? That leaves 40 to 43 lbs for the camera...ouch.

 

rb

[william west]

I'm betting there are numbers on Hugo's website -- it's most likely about the same as a gold spring 3A arm at max 63 lbs (meaning, if you load it all the way up and let the arm go, it will slowly droop to -- or near to -- the bottom so you may have to hold it up). Most "big" sleds with batts/mdr's are what...20 to 23 lbs? That leaves 40 to 43 lbs for the camera...ouch.

 

rb

thanks for all your feedback, have done a bit more time on the scales, my pro rig weighs in at around 21 lbs and genesis with tape deck and lens around 40 lbs so should just handle it... hopefully the tape deck on the genesis will soon be a thing of the past - so much for cameras getting lighter with technology!

[James Puli]

The tapedecks almost are a thing of the past. Ask Panavision for the Hard Drive Decks. (SSR's i think). I couldnt get them here in Australia recently because they were all working in NZ.

 

JP

Sydney Australia

[RonBaldwin]

I thought the only reason to fly with the tape deck was to go high speed (I am speaking with very limited hd experience)? Cables really blow, but you'll have one anyway so maybe a second won't be so bad and will shave off the extra 13 lbs of the tape deck so you won't bust a giblet or blow an o-ring.

[Charles Papert]

In my mind the only "valid" reason to fly the deck is to go high speed, although somehow I've done high speed in the past and we've still done it two piece (I've never flown the Genesis or F35 one piece out of principle).

 

Recently I've been hearing of various of our colleagues who are being pressed to fly one-piece because they are being "made to" by others on set (in one case, the lead actor)! This is a disturbing trend. A good ten or fifteen years since we banded together to "say no" to the arbitrarily heavy cameras such as the Panavision conversions and BL4's, here's that same b.s. again. Something about the confluence of heavy rigs, lower rates, more of a tendency to use Steadicam for speed and thus more setups coupled with the new style of working in HD (keep it rolling, back to one) is whipping up a perfect storm that is taking its toll; I'm hearing increasing whispers of injuries and chronic conditions developing in our ranks in recent years.

 

As a DP, it's easy to see why there is a temptation to keep the Steadicam one-piece and thus more "film-style" and dispense with cabling. As a Steadicam operator, there's a compelling argument why it's more important to be bearing an appropriate load for the long haul. As long as the cable routine is handled efficiently, there shouldn't be a notable time factor and ultimately the shots themselves will be better as the operator doesn't have to deal with the fatigue factor of a bruiser of a camera.

 

Fortunately, unlike the rate issue, we should see some improvement soon as lighter and more compact flash drives gain in popularity and availability, and the camera bodies themselves downscale (see: new Arris rolling out next year). Oh, but then there's 3D...

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

In my mind the only "valid" reason to fly the deck is to go high speed, although somehow I've done high speed in the past and we've still done it two piece (I've never flown the Genesis or F35 one piece out of principle).

 

 

That's not even a valid reason anymore with fiber...

 

People. Just say to to one piece

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

"That's not even a valid reason anymore with fiber..."

 

I have to say that I've really come to enjoy fiber jobs. The DIT & DP have all the controls they need and you have a much lighter set-up. Until flash mags and HD transmitters are common place (and improved) I think Fiber is great.

[RonBaldwin]

btw...I have one of Hugo's silverspring arms and will keep it for a while for anyone to demo. I'll start a new thread as well

 

rb