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Which Steadicam to get ???


Mark MacEwen

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...You can always sell it if either your career takes off and you need/desire something else, or if you no longer can afford the payments. (How many rigs has Mr. Starling gone through - already)...

 

Happy New Year Jerry and to Carla!

 

Officially... I blew through the Flyer in two months, had the Clipper 2 for seven months and went to the C24 after that... three new rigs in less than ten months. God knows Frank did his best to get me into #4 within the first year! Sleds, arms and vests are relatively modest investments; it's the AKS that eat your budget up! My AKS to rig budget ratio is about 3:1 roughly.

 

In all fairness, I already had an established career and stable of clients, plus I was in a position of not having to finance any portion of my equipment. Of the many dumb things I've done in my career, financing equipment has never been one of them. If I can't write the check I don't buy it.

 

In retrospect, should I have bought top of the line to start...it's hard to say. What I can say for sure is that there will certainly be rig #4 in the near future and hopefully I'll live long enough for #5 and #6... hopefully!

 

Take care!

 

Robert

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Hi there,

 

All good advice, I am currently weighing up the option of purchasing a second hand archer, but it is more than I wanted to spend and due to the nature of the majority of my work being wildlife I am a bit hesitant.

On the plus side as you guys have said and from what I have found out, steadicams seem to hold there value on the second hand market, so I can always re-sell if needed.

Got a meeting about a project today which kind of helps me make my mind up, if they go for a number of days with the rig I'll jump in and get one. Another project on lions are hopefully going to get back to me with some days as well.

But I am not really into financing, so it would just be a straight purchase.

Thanks again for all help, I'll let you know how I get on.

All the best

 

Mark

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Again thanks to everyone who gave me advice,

I have jumped in and bought a second hand steadicam Archer, which seems to suit my needs well, it cost me more than I originally budgeted but I realised that my original budget was not that realistic for the work I intended to use it for. It has a G50 arm, copes very well with the weight I am looking to fly with and is light and portable to get to the places I need to use it.

And I managed to pick up the days of work wildlife filming required to make it worth my while making the investment.

So next stop some workshops for training !!!! And lots of practice !!

Looking forward to learning more and more,

thanks again

 

Mark

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Again thanks to everyone who gave me advice,

I have jumped in and bought a second hand steadicam Archer, which seems to suit my needs well, it cost me more than I originally budgeted but I realised that my original budget was not that realistic for the work I intended to use it for. It has a G50 arm, copes very well with the weight I am looking to fly with and is light and portable to get to the places I need to use it.

And I managed to pick up the days of work wildlife filming required to make it worth my while making the investment.

So next stop some workshops for training !!!! And lots of practice !!

Looking forward to learning more and more,

thanks again

 

Mark

Congrats Mark.

The Archer is a great rig for the mid-range cameras.

I'm sure you'll be happy with your investment.

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