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Canon 7D is more challenging to balance on the steadicam pilot, i need tips.


HazyChestNutz

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Hi dear friend. The battery of Canon 7D is on the right so it is not properly balanced. When mounting the 7D don't use the holes in the center of the dovetail plate, but use those in the left column.

Add all the weights on the top (front and back).

Use the wrench key to move slightly the bottom of the sled to the front. Extend battery and monitor to exterior.

Use a drop time of 2 second for exemple.

You can build antlers it will be way more difficult to fly, but so much rolling steady. It helps a lot for the wind with those lightweight rigs.

And release your left hand if you are a regular operator :) Let the stead do his work (when properly balanced) don't try to over control it with your left hand.

 

All the best in your carrier

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  • 3 weeks later...

My typical setup is a Pilot on 7D as well, one of the best things I did was add a battery grip on the rig, it doubled up the batteries (only option I could afford at the time) but also made quite the difference in weight distribution. Since this raises the lens height I also added a cage to top mount the matte box and this gave me enough weight to give a much better feel. I belive (and have been taught) to always look for practical weight additions first, but in the end do what you have to for a heftier weight on there. Adding some behind the camera weight will make a world of differece as well.

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I systematically use a weight plate with DSLRs and even light weight cameras. Janice's weight plate is a great option to mount everything to it with it's cheese plate design. You design your whole camera around the plate, giving you a lot of realeastate to attach the millions of adapters and accessories needed. As Chris says, it is practical in the sense that it will make your sled fly better.

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Hi Thomas,

 

In that steel is cheap and dense, and can be rigidly mounted, I'd count it as being 'practical' weight too :)

 

All the best,

 

Chris

This is very true, when I was taught that rule I always took it to mean that if you had gear that might be needed on the shoot but not all the time then build the rig out with it even if there was only a chance of using it, such as with a mattebox. Of course following that rule on anything bigger than a DSLR or maybe a Black Magic rig would seem rather pointless.

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