New Steadicam Aero

[Peter Abraham]

I'll dive in here and offer a few thoughts. My relationship with the lighter Steadicam systems goes back to 2002 when I first saw Garrett's prototype of what became the first Flyer. I handled literally hundreds of Flyers, Pilots, Scouts and Zephyrs during my time with Tiffen.

 

I've yet to fly the Aero, and so will limit my reply here to one issue raised above. The placement of the 1/4-20 threaded holes in the bottom corners of the stage. This is a clever placement of the holes/ weights. If you've a camera mass that is much lighter than you wish it was- because it forces your gimbal placement to an area on the centerpost that's less than ideal for the build and/ or shot you are after- you have little choice but to make the camera "weigh" more. Adding the steel weights in these new locations makes the top of the rig heavier without getting in the way of the camera build itself. I see the placement as useful.

 

Now to the issue of expanding the c.g. on top. Fair to say that the placement of additional weights in the corners of the stage does spread the c.g. out a bit from dead center, but doesn't make a huge difference. There's a hidden gift in the plate itself, however. There's the 1/4-20 threaded hole at one end. If I had a lighter camera and wanted to spread things out, I'd start by moving the camera to the very back of the plate and then adding a few of those steel round weights into that 1/4-20 hole provided at one end of the plate. With a bit of experimentation, one could add a few UNDER the plate. I can see being able to find a way to add a few of those weights without sacrificing a lot of fore/ aft movement on the plate itself. Adding weights that many inches from the camera body itself would alter the c.g. a fair bit.

 

Just a thought- can an Aero owner try this out and let us know?

Best to all,

 

Peter Abraham, S.O.C.

[Joel San Juan]

I set this up a few weeks back and have been trying to find the time to do an actual test, but have been unsuccessful...

A few initial observations setting it up:

1. The topstage is much more rigid than the other models in that price range. However there's a slightly hard to reach Allen socket that you can adjust at the clamp to help secure your camera plate better.

2. I really like the longer gimbal handle.

3. I find the removable bottom stage a good initiative to help get the sled into more compact cases.

4. I like the ability to slide the monitor and battery vs the flyer.

5. I do not like that the monitor bracket does not have a guiding pin for the monitor. You'll have to go a little more than finger-tight to ensure the monitor does not accidentally spin when you accidentally bump it.

6. The Gimbal locking handle is a little too stubby (the blue one) and there's not enough clearance to go a full unlocking round without running into the gimbal post itself. A little inconvenient when you are trying to do micro adjustments for your drop time. Perhaps a trip to Mcmaster Carr might solve the problem.

7. I agree with Peter that the new placement of holes for the weights are well thought of.

 

Hope that helps.

J

 

 

[Peter Abraham]

Hi,

To follow up to Joel's excellent observations.

 

#4- I use a Zephyr frequently with a client who owns a rig. The lower tube assembly is similar. I tend to put the battery WAY in and the monitor WAY out, but that's personal preference. Love the use of that tube design here. It's quite easily adjusted.

 

#6- I've used those clamps before. I seem to remember that while upon first turn it may seem that you are hitting the post, you can do a combination of loosening/ snugging up the allen key bolt along with turning the handle and/ or pulling and relocating the handle one "click" until you are able to go from very snug to totally loose without hitting the post. Again, I've not tried this rig yet but on other applications I was able to fine-tune the rotation of that kind of short metal handled clamp so that I could go from 0 to 100 %.

 

Now I'm psyched to TRY IT !!

[Isaac J. E. Garcia]

Hello !

 

I've been really interested in this new Aero Steadicam lately. I had the possibility to try it today at the SATIS (exhibition in Paris France). Of course, I asked a lot of questions about it.

 

The Aero arm, vest and Gimbal are indeed the Zephyr one, with a different name on it. I was told the weight capability is also the same (so about 30lbs). Now I understand the Aero15/30 names.

 

The seller (who is the official Steadicam importer in France) told me that they replaced the Pilot and Zephyr by the Aero 15/30 only for marketing matters and to fight the brushless gimbal market. Which it them pretty hard under 20lbs capacity. That's also why the Aero30 is much cheaper than the Zephyr (5.500 vs 9.000+).

 

That's all I know I guess. If you have questions, feel free to ask. I'm still in contact with the guy, since I think about buying the rig.

 

Fred

 

Hi Fred, did you find out any more information on this subject? Did you buy the system? Thanks for your time.

[Tim Westover]

There doesn't seem to be a mounting point for an additional battery hanger on the Aero, this must not be possible on it? This is pretty important for flying any heavier cameras as they are simply too heavy for the rig if the battery is attached to the camera itself.

[Frederic Borensztein]

Hi guys !

 

@Isaac : Yes, I bought the system about 4 months ago. It is working perfectly, good quality as always for Steadicam. I can't really detail all the pros and cons (but if you have specific question, feel free to ask). The only thing that could be a little problem is that there is only one P-TAP on top of the sled. No lemo pin. So if you want to power multiple accessories, it could be a bit tricky. If you want to power 2 accessories, be sure to have a double P-TAP.

 

@Tim : You're right, there is no additional battery hanger. But the Aero comes with a set of weights (8x0,4lbs each, if I'm right). You have 4 holes on the top (cf first post of the conversation) and 3 and the bottom : 1 on battery side, 1 on monitor side, and 1 on the bottom of the sled. Theoretically, you can put as many weights as you want on any of those holes. You can buy more weights than the 8 you already have. So don't worry about flying heavier cameras as long as your arm can support it.

 

Another solution is to make another additionnal battery hanger yourself ;)

 

Fred

[Sam Law]

Rey at tiffen was nice enough to let me demo one. I had a 5 min jogging oner, through a park over all sorts of terrain. Of course the actress would have been faster then me before adding 70 lbs of camera/steadicam, so I really wasn't sure how the shot was going to be possible. I intentionally have a very heavy sled, even stripped down its not the sort of thing you want to run 1/2 a mile wearing. We looked into a lot of other solutions, (golf cart/razor mount, rickshaw, etc...) in the end nothing else would work for one reason or another without changing too much of what they were looking for in the shot. Rey and Tiffen saved my back that day, and we were able to get the shot the DP and director wanted.
As someone who owns a full size rig already I would definitely consider this setup for those 14 hour days doing 10 performance takes an hour on music videos

for anyone just starting out this is an incredible tool to get yourself out on student sets and lower pressure music videos/ spec commercials. Every other rig in this price range is a joke imo. A $5250 rig and a $3000 workshop will get most people a lot further in their career then an $8,500 sled.

For all the cinamotogrophers out there, especially red/mini owners who want to add camera movement to their shoots on shows they can't afford to hire a professional, this is an incredible piece of kit, and imo blows the movie out of the water at a similar price point

[ryan t jenkins]

here is my aero30 with home made weight plate and additional weights that i just did a live dance / multimedia touring show with in Minneapolis and chicago. There is a quarter20 on the bottom of the sled as well, so there is really a good possibility you could make a slick secondary battery hangar down there.

 

[RobinThwaites]

Hi Ryan

 

We usually set up the battery below the lower spar so it maximises the fore and aft positional possibilities. Not seen it done this way, did you have a specific reason?

 

Robin

[ryan t jenkins]

I wanted my camera as close as possible to the gimbal. With the limited weight addition i had with me i needed to make the bottom post as short as possible. I already was adding all of the included weights and an additional 6 pound weight plate, the camera was just feather light. If i inverted the battery it made the weight much "longer" and then forced me to raise the camera even further away from the gimbal. we really needed rock solid horizon ( or as best as it could be ), so i ended up flipping it like this because i felt more comfortable with the camera lower.

[Isaac J. E. Garcia]

Rey at tiffen was nice enough to let me demo one. I had a 5 min jogging oner, through a park over all sorts of terrain. Of course the actress would have been faster then me before adding 70 lbs of camera/steadicam, so I really wasn't sure how the shot was going to be possible. I intentionally have a very heavy sled, even stripped down its not the sort of thing you want to run 1/2 a mile wearing. We looked into a lot of other solutions, (golf cart/razor mount, rickshaw, etc...) in the end nothing else would work for one reason or another without changing too much of what they were looking for in the shot. Rey and Tiffen saved my back that day, and we were able to get the shot the DP and director wanted.

As someone who owns a full size rig already I would definitely consider this setup for those 14 hour days doing 10 performance takes an hour on music videos

for anyone just starting out this is an incredible tool to get yourself out on student sets and lower pressure music videos/ spec commercials. Every other rig in this price range is a joke imo. A $5250 rig and a $3000 workshop will get most people a lot further in their career then an $8,500 sled.

For all the cinamotogrophers out there, especially red/mini owners who want to add camera movement to their shoots on shows they can't afford to hire a professional, this is an incredible piece of kit, and imo blows the movie out of the water at a similar price point

 

Thank you for all of this information Sam! This is great stuff. Do you think it would easily fly a Sony fs700 with a cinema lens, matte box, ff, and an odyssey 7q? Or would it fly a RED Raven with the same setup minus the 7q? I love the idea of investing in a rig that I can use for a very long time, do you think this will fly most professional cameras in general? Thanks for your time.

[Isaac J. E. Garcia]

Hi guys !

 

@Isaac : Yes, I bought the system about 4 months ago. It is working perfectly, good quality as always for Steadicam. I can't really detail all the pros and cons (but if you have specific question, feel free to ask). The only thing that could be a little problem is that there is only one P-TAP on top of the sled. No lemo pin. So if you want to power multiple accessories, it could be a bit tricky. If you want to power 2 accessories, be sure to have a double P-TAP.

 

@Tim : You're right, there is no additional battery hanger. But the Aero comes with a set of weights (8x0,4lbs each, if I'm right). You have 4 holes on the top (cf first post of the conversation) and 3 and the bottom : 1 on battery side, 1 on monitor side, and 1 on the bottom of the sled. Theoretically, you can put as many weights as you want on any of those holes. You can buy more weights than the 8 you already have. So don't worry about flying heavier cameras as long as your arm can support it.

 

Another solution is to make another additionnal battery hanger yourself ;)

 

Fred

Fred, I asked Sam this same question, but I would like as much feedback as possible. Do you think it would easily fly a Sony fs700 with a cinema lens, matte box, ff, and an odyssey 7q? Or would it fly a RED Raven with the same setup minus the 7q? I love the idea of investing in a rig that I can use for a very long time, do you think this will fly most professional cameras in general? Thanks for your time.

[ryan t jenkins]

Fred, I asked Sam this same question, but I would like as much feedback as possible. Do you think it would easily fly a Sony fs700 with a cinema lens, matte box, ff, and an odyssey 7q? Or would it fly a RED Raven with the same setup minus the 7q? I love the idea of investing in a rig that I can use for a very long time, do you think this will fly most professional cameras in general? Thanks for your time.

i might not be as qualified as others, but i think it can very easily fly all of those things. the weight range is stated at 28 pounds i believe which gives you a ton of room. the only thing that really limits it in my opinion is that its 12v and you only have 1 ptap on the top, and you only have 1 battery mount. The clever thing to do would be to figure out how to mount another battery on the bottom 1/4 20 thread on the bottom bar, and run it in parallel with the other battery. that would solve the issue of not having a lot of options for adding weight to the bottom of the sled as well as providing better battery options.

 

I have flown it with the bmpc 4k camera with a full mattbox/top battery,wireless video and had plenty of room on the springs. that rig i have posted above is with a 7 pound weight plate, batteries, and the teradek and I still had the springs almost as light as possible.

[Samuel Law]

 

Thank you for all of this information Sam! This is great stuff. Do you think it would easily fly a Sony fs700 with a cinema lens, matte box, ff, and an odyssey 7q? Or would it fly a RED Raven with the same setup minus the 7q? I love the idea of investing in a rig that I can use for a very long time, do you think this will fly most professional cameras in general? Thanks for your time.

 

Sorry for the late response, I'm having some trouble logging into my account through Facebook

Anyway the rig is awesome for what it is. It doesn't replace a full size rig for full size cameras on full size productions. It's an excellent tool if you know your going to be flying cameras in its weight capacity it's Phenominal. More importantly the weight capacity is the same, if not higher then then that of the gimbal market, and all of the shots people use a gimbal as a steadicam replacement for due to budgetary constraints, or overall lack of skill, this is the same price, but is a far more precise tool. The cameras you described sound like they will fit well within its weight range. An alexa with a preston, anamorphic lens, cinetape, tomahawk, etc will not. At the same time if your on a job that can afford a decked out alexa, your better off hiring someone with $50-100k in kit and years of experience. If you own a red or a mini, and shoot a lot of music videos and shorts this is an incredible bang for your buck, and for $5000ish you add unrestricted 3 dimensional camera movement to your list of tricks. a steadicam is a huge investment, this little rig works exactly the same as big rigs, and lets you get your feet wet, and practice (while hopefully paying itself off) at a much lower entry fee.

[Frederic Borensztein]

I also had some problem logging on the forum using Facebook, but here I am again.

 

@Isaac : I think you can fly all you detailed before. As Ryan said, you have around 28lbs weight capacity, which is quite nice. I was able to fly a 5Dmark3 with 0 accessories to an FS7 or Ursa mini with cinema lens, teradek, motors etc...

 

I also bought 4 more weights, so I don't have to extend the post too much. I had a bad vibration experience when I had a pretty heavy load and had to extend the post all the way down. I have around 2kg of weights now, and I don't have to use a weight plate, which is nice (and I can put them either on top or bottom of my sled).

 

Here is a picture of a clean setup I had a couple months ago (before I bought my additionnal weights) :

https://www.instagram.com/p/BSCXcU5j520/?hl=fr