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bouncing provid arm


Jeroen van der Poel

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Hey,



Iam new to this forum and recently bought a Steadicam Provid with the old socketblock.


Of course it took me some time to adjust this pen but eventually i managed. And after training and watch every possible steadicam tutorial its about time to make my first post.



Because the Provid arm is not iso elastic i found some problems with it, first of all my 7 kg camera seemed to be to light weighted i had to relax the arm springs all the way, and then it started to bounce ( i simply couldnt find the right adjustment, either it dropped or rised), so i added 3kg weight to the camera.



The second problem i was running in was how to adjust the arm, when both bones are in horizontal position, and i adjust them for that, and i go all the way up and the down, one segment always locks up, and the other way as well. I think that seems to be normal since the arm dont go back to their middle position because they are not iso elastic. Right now iam training to walk the steadicam without touching, so handsfree, if you look closely you will still see some bounce. Of course i have to accept that i dont have the budget for a iso elastic arm, and the steadicam is still thousands times better then my own capacities and still lots of work to do on my left hand to maintain my horizon.


But maybe theres someone who could advice me how to get things better.


(p.s. i will go to a steadicam class in the future, right now this is self taught)


when i have my hands on the rig its seems that i already manage to keep my horizon, i work with a 3 to 4 second drop time..


Today i installed a long rope between two c stands and tried to keep my lens height the same, are their other trainings i could invest in?


it seems that the camera flies a bit better when i relax the springs a bit more so they drop very slow when i dont touch the rig so i have to have a bit tighter grip with my right hand



Here is the link to a test video handsfree (s35mm with a 24mm prime):


I touched it a couple times to make the pan, but also to get the horizon back to normal



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


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Couple of things:

There are not many arms where you don't see your steps at all. The bad news is that the Provid ain't one of them.
Do the toe test: Let go off the sled - go on your tippy toes. If your sled and camera rises with you

- well - you know what's up.
However that does not mean you can't train with it - it just won't be perfect.
Very few people (without a trust fund) buy a $15-20k Tiffen or Pro arm as their first rig.

Generally arms work best when they are almost maxed out on their capacity. If your camera is very light for your arm and

the springs are quite 'stiff' just add a weight plate. Technically heavy objects have more inertia and should therefore have less 'wiggle and bounce' to them.

Hope this helps and happy flying :-)

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Hey Axel,

 

Thanks for your reply. I did the tip toe test and it doesnt fly away, the problem is more that always one of the arm segments tends to go all the way up or down after a while. Since iam holding the farest arm segment that attach to the gimble, its mostly the vest arm segment that either goes up or down after a while, but i guess thats normal for such a arm. But i just wanted to see that confirmed..

 

After adding lanparte weights.. it seemed that my dynamic balans is a bit off..

The provid sled has a extendable battery plate but in my case a non extendable monitor I work with a archer tft monitor.

If i take the camera off it seems that i get the rig in balance by putting a more heavier battery on my sled..

Ive read a lot about dynamic balance, but i never saw people getting their rig in static balance without a camera on top.

Isnt that the best way to archieve dynamic balance?

Furthermore i extended my lanparte battery pinch plate on my camera to get a longer setu, and today i extended my post and for me including a long drop time of 3.5 seconds that seems to fly the best.

Would love to get some advice on dynamic balance... If my rig isnt static balanced without the camera, and the monitor side is to heavy could put my monitor higher up. What do you recommend to experiment with dynamic balance.

In the beginning i didnt bother about it but since i do a lot of switches en quicker turns, it start to become more important in my training program!

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i think i already managed with the dynamic balance.. i first found my c.g. with the help of a rod underneath my camera.. Then attached it to the sled with the marker above the post. Then started to work around with my monitor and battery of the sled until it was in static balance, then gave it a precise spin and after 20 rounds of spinning it was still in dynamic. With a 3 second drop time, and dynamic balance i couldnt be more heapy. Now resume the training!

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"Ive read a lot about dynamic balance, but i never saw people getting their rig in static balance without a camera on top.

Isnt that the best way to archieve dynamic balance?"

Absolutely not!
Either read the book or the primer, both readily available.
Or see Fawcett's video.
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