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Interesting new rig


Charles Papert

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I built one of these gimbals for my Nex5n. There is no pan stabilization but the horizon stays flatter than I can maintain on my little steadicam. It is jaw dropping amazing. Makes a kenyon rig look like fred flintstone's foot powered car.

 

It will not obsolete the good ol' steadicam arm but it will definitely make its way into the gimbal market. For once, though, my tech is as good as what's out there!

 

Plus, it flies in the air. :)

 

I'll be at NAB as a spectator, but I might bring my rig to get some show footage.

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What impressed me so much is the shear acceleration you can get on this rig. Acceleration from floor to head height. Awesome.

 

The acceleration and speed of some of the tilts would have been difficult on a Steadicam Rig.

 

Thing is. Handheld work on the 24mm lens does look good. Just watch the rooftop scene in Bourne Ultimatum in Marocco. I just spent the afternoon bouncing between the 25mm and 50mm on a prettymuch running shot on paramedics faces backwards through a tunnel. I was thinking if that could have been possible on a Movi. I am not sure.

 

Hugh, how long does it take to put an Epic in there and how long to rebalance the gimble between lenses?

 

I sort of see stunt operators hiring themselves out with these rigs and turning up on set with an Epic already built in the gimble like the Octocopter boys do. Certainly wouldn't be a hard life. How much would you charge for your rollerblades?

 

David.. The Klassen fixture:

Gorelink: http://www.walterklassen.com/home-page/equipment-2/handheld/gore-link/

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Hugh, wondering if you can chime in on this - are you working on any plans to mount this onto a Steadicam arm? I know several people have mentioned it, but I think that'd be a wonderful tool to have in the toolkit for high speed vehicle shots, especially in 2-operator mode.

 

 

It's a cool little invention regardless. Funny thing though, I've seen many people on Facebook and Twitter either proclaiming the end of Steadicam or being petrified of losing clients. My only thought is this - Steadicam didn't kill the dolly. Gyros won't kill the Steadicam.

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Thomas,

Once you are good at balancing a camera in the gimbal, it takes 5 minutes to mount an Epic and usually another 5 on lens changes.

 

Tom,

100% we will have an attachment for mounting on steadicam arms. It is on a long list of things we still need to do.

 

This gimbal is simply another tool to create a variety of amazing shots in addition to what is available not as a replacement to current technologies.

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The main trick is getting time to work and practice with it. Just like with the steadicam but instead of years it will take days to get decent and months to get phenomenal. This video reminds me of garret browns early tests with the steadicam. Not perfect but still quite incredible. I see this making big changes in the way we move the camera. It does have its limitations but so does any system. The main thing I see with it is you could theoretically mount it anyway you want and have a stabilized hot head for car mounts, cranes, cable cams and other sorts of rigs. You don't just have to hold it in your hand. All for $15k.

 

Any hollywood movie currently shooting on an epic cine package could utilize this system for specific shots. Yes they will have to remove all the accessories to get it to the weight limit but thats a small price to pay if you can work around it for that shot.

 

 

This is coming from a guy who invested $90,000 in a steadicam system just over a year ago. I don't see my big rig going anywhere soon, but I definitely want to add the movi to my kit. And I am pretty sure I will.

 

 

Just as a side note. There were some things I didn't love in the video. Very apparent side to side mechanical wobble especially in quick shots. I don't really understand single operator mode and I keep imagining the gimbal messing with my frame to try and keep it stable. Just can't know whether or not this something I want until I get my hands on it.

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Just as a side note. There were some things I didn't love in the video. Very apparent side to side mechanical wobble especially in quick shots. I don't really understand single operator mode and I keep imagining the gimbal messing with my frame to try and keep it stable. Just can't know whether or not this something I want until I get my hands on it.

 

yes, since it is only 2 axis, the parallaxing (i couldn't think of any other term for side to side) effect will be evident. even the video i posted above you can see the same effect. for now, just as with a steadicam, being smooth is just as important and if you really need it rock solid, fix it in post (4 words that make me wince).

 

you can't really just slap it on a steadicam stage like a regular camera rig since the CG is not static, but you can throw it on an arm to take the weight off.

 

so no, it won't replace a steadicam rig, but it will bring decent stabilized video to the masses and new cine techniques to the industry.

 

here is the video i posted earlier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7dyRBDnRZo

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great product indeed!

 

nice stuff Hugh.

 

The main industry which makes devices like this posible is the radio control model / R/C helicopter industry.

The Gyros they use in R/C heli's now are unbelievable and im sure the movi uses this technology just like Octocopter and similar gimbals.

 

.AJ

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Give it a year or 3 and this will be as cheep as chips. That's the beauty of open source.

The gyro boards have been getting so good over the last few years with loads of coders all pooling resources working on improving on the software.

The brushless motors have been the recent breakthrough, they are custom wound for some reason. You take a perfectly good brushless motor cheep from China, unwind it and then wind with your your custom wire to get the smoothness you need. Won't be long before someone in the Multi Rotor community gets the factory in China to pre-wind them to our specification.

All you need after that is to cut your own bits of cheep Chinese carbon and a few fixtures and you will have a your own AR. Only more responsive with another axis of correction.

 

Lyn was just dealing with the tech that he had available, things have progressed so far in such a short time it's incredible.

All those copter guys with their knowledge of this method will be cleaning up with custom rigs that we can put on our sleds.

No one will be able to patent this.

 

I have been looking for the Photos I saw here of Lyn with his revolution all those years (10?) ago but I can't seem to find them. Can anyone dig out a link?

Edited by David Hughes
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Part of the responsiveness of the AR is down to the shear size and power of the motors driving the cameras stability as well as the gear ratio and the shear fact that the rest of the axis are stabilized by inertia a la Steadicam.

 

The visual similarity to Lyn's rig is that he didn't have a roll cage and there was a spar to stabilize roll.

 

I imagine you can't oversling the Movi? I only see it underslung in the videos. So gravity and inertia are there to help stabilization.

 

Didn't Garrett Brown put a Stabilized head on his Steadicam Rig for some chase sequences in Star Wars?

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