Tango - (NAB Steadicam Preview)

[Frank Rush]

TIFFEN STEADICAM OPEN HOUSE - NAB PREVIEW

 

 

 

Tiffen Steadicam is pleased to invite everyone in the Steadicam community to an Open House on Friday, April 9, 2010.

 

The event will be held at the Tiffen Steadicam Manufacturing facility in Glendale, California. The address is 6933 San Fernando Road, Glendale, CA 91201 - Telephone 1.818.843.4600. The hours are 6:30-9:00PM.

 

Tiffen Steadicam Open House

NAB Preview

6933 San Fernando Road

Glendale, CA 91201

1.818.843.4600

2 blocks south of Alameda

Date: Friday, April 9, 2010

Time: 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM

 

PLEASE RSVP TO khowley@tiffen.com or 631 609 3241.

 

 

This will be a good opportunity for everyone to have a preview of the Steadicam equipment that will be displayed at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention the next week, April 12-15, 2010, in Las Vegas. Additonally, many of our Tiffen associates from both the US and our International Division will be available. This is a good time to meet and greet all those people you have seen making comments and suggestions on the forum.

 

Garret Brown and Jerry Holway, C0-inventors Ultra Steadicam will be at the event to answer any questions you may have about any Steadicam equipment or components. Who best than the inventors to give you all the facts and reasons of why a system has been made available. Our Engineering Staff will also be available to answer your questions. For many of you this is a good time to just say hello and talk about old times.

 

A special event is Laurie Hayball and Jerry Holway, co-authors of the Steadicam Operators Handbook will be available to sign your personal copy. If you do not have a copy you may pre-order and pick-up that evening. I am sure if you ask Garrett Brown, Inventor of Steadicam, he will be more than willing to autograph your Handbook.

 

Light refreshment will be served. Please understand that we will start breaking down the gear at 9:00 PM to place into the truck for the the trip to Las Vegas the following morning. So come early and try on all the great rigs we will have available.

 

We look forward to seeing you here.

[Lawrence Karman]

Can anyone who went please comment on what was shown?

[Fabrizio Sciarra SOC ACO]

Can anyone who went please comment on what was shown?

 

Ditto.

Let us know!

Have fun there

[Erik Brul]

They will not tell.. they will receive a BIG discount buying a new rig.. for not telling us... :lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

Just messing with you all,

Best Erik

[Andrew Stone]

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

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

while it was nice of tiffen to have the pre nab event, it was nothing much to speak of, other than a new, fisher boom like mechanical version of the AR idea for small cameras (D-SLR) that sits on the topstage.....

[Sean Seah]

while it was nice of tiffen to have the pre nab event, it was nothing much to speak of, other than a new, fisher boom like mechanical version of the AR idea for small cameras (D-SLR) that sits on the topstage.....

 

Hi Jens, that gets me excited. Is that a steadicam or a jib? The merlin is a tad too sensitive for DSLRs so if this new toy is a steadicam for DSLR I'll grab it. What does AR mean?

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

while it was nice of tiffen to have the pre nab event, it was nothing much to speak of, other than a new, fisher boom like mechanical version of the AR idea for small cameras (D-SLR) that sits on the topstage.....

 

Hi Jens, that gets me excited. Is that a steadicam or a jib? The merlin is a tad too sensitive for DSLRs so if this new toy is a steadicam for DSLR I'll grab it. What does AR mean?

 

 

maybe somebody can post pictures....it's looks a fisher microphone boom arm mounted to the topstage of a steadicam sled, but the arm cannot extent or retract. AR stands for alien revolution. I wonder if it also could work directly mounted to the arm without the sled???

 

http://www.jlfisher.com/booms/index.asp

[Charles Papert]

Just back online after an inundating few days of work. Very surprised to hear see that no-one has posted their post-open house ramblings on the Tango, GB's latest that Jens mentions (almost as an afterthought).

 

I personally think this device is super cool. I was only privy to the final stages of development but it has been exciting to watch. Imagine a Flyer-esque sized sled with no camera aboard; the gimbal handle cextends into a four-foot boom with a miniature sled at the other end with a roughly 4 pound payload. All axis are linked together, some in a conventional sense (boom is achieved with a parallelogram design like a jib), others more exotically (pan translates via a series of pulleys and cable). The result is a sled that responds to normal operator input exactly as it always has, as opposed to the AR which requires a learning curve when one rotates off level. You pan, tilt and roll the rig and the little camera at the other end responds immediately and intuitively. Also unlike the AR, you aren't restricted to a lateral "flipover"--you can position the boom arm in front of you, to the side, back over your shoulder etc and operate the camera in any position.

 

It's a hoot to play with and the possibilities are amazing. Four pounds doesn't seem like a lot, but we are headed that way--the 5D and 7D are proof of that. This won't be a "toy" for DSLR's as Sean puts it, i.e. priced for the DSLR market, but it will allow for shots we've never seen before with these cameras.

 

I'm sure we'll be seeing footage from NAB shortly.

[David Allen Grove]

I thought the Tango was pretty cool. I'm going to have to take that out for a test drive again. Might even buy one if the price is right.

 

Sean, this is what the AR means. http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?showtopic=201

 

Happy reading. mwhahaha. (it's looong)

[Paul Gardner]

The mini-jib/boom contraption WAS the sled (using the Flyer post SD 7" monitor, single slim IDX battery ). Great for DSLRs (as a 7D was flying) but also small camcorders could be accommodated. The official name is "The Tango" rumored as having been a suggestion from Peter Abraham and enthusiastically approved by Garrett. It's a very nice tool for getting shots in tight places and flying uber close to the ground, but at the same time, it is a very task specific unit and not an necessarily alternative to a standard rig.

There are two prototypes at present.

Unanswered Questions:

RETAIL PRICE: I'm guessing more than a Fyler and less than an Archer2: MY guess based on Garrett's comment: "You (me) won't believe how affordable it is", which was good news.

WEIGHT RANGE OF CAMERA: No one could really nail this one down (Although Charles seems to have, before my having finished this post...glad he stepped up!). The Tango prototype at the open house used the G-50 arm, Fyler sled Parts plus the mini jib/boom, They were using a quite a few stackable circular weights(5lbs?), in addition to the Canon 7D mounted in a small cage with a focus motor attached.

DATE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE: Frank Rush couldn't say.

 

All-in-All, a very cool tool.

[Charles Papert]

Camera payload is a nominal 5 lbs (correcting my earlier 4 lb statement).

 

Let's start a new thread on this with Tango in the title. Next poster, please.

[Jens Piotrowski SOC]

what surprised me the most was the limitation of the "tilt" due to the design.... but again, maybe Charles can chime in, would this work without the sled, directly mounted to the arm?

 

Jens

[Sydney Seeber]

5 pounds? That's it? I'm having a hard time getting the weight of these things down with lenses and what have you, and rarely get it into that range. With the Mark IV, I've only got one lens that would put the camera within that limit, (I've weighed easily 20-30 lens/camera combos) it's about 1 1/2 pounds heavier than the 7D.

[Joe Lawry]

Sounds fun, keen for a play in a few days.