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Broken gimbal on Zephyr


Mathéo Lemay

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Hi guys!
Did this ever happen to one of you? I was operating in low mode with my Zephyr and I was feeling that there was a slight resistance in my tilt and then all of a sudden boom!, the screw holding the gimbal handle just snapped. Fortunately, the camera only fell from a 1 foot height, so I reported only 2 broken BNC connectors on the Odyssey 7Q that was rigged on top of the camera.
My camera setup wasn't so heavy, definitely not higher than the mandatory 23lbs.
Any ideas as to why that happened ?

And yes I already wrote to Tiffen, still waiting on their reply. 

IMG_7091.jpg

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  • 10 months later...
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Hi Matheo,

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me a couple of months ago - fortunately it was while I was trying to balance the thing and I managed to catch it as it fell.

 

Tiffen told me they think that it was due to repeated overloading.

 

My rig is second hand and I know that the previous owner was flying some pretty big rigs and also that he was having trouble dynamically balancing the thing before he sold it to me - an early sign perhaps that all was not well with the gimbal.

 

Cheers,

 

Henry

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Well, it happened to me on set yesterday with my zephyr. The build was on the heavy side for the zephyr but not over the limit and the arm was coping fine also. The bolt snapped (but in a different place... between the blue collar and that black piece you're holding in your photo.)

I felt the same sensation you described, a slight resistance in tilt - and the drop time went very funny as I stood there wearing it trying to work out what was off... "did someone change a battery, add a filter, change a lens without my knowing?" crash.

I managed to catch the rig and nothing else was damaged. I called a local operator - Louis Puli - who generously rushed to set on his day off and saved the day with his pro rig.

If you own a zephyr and feel any strange sensations in the tilt and strange bottom heaviness, hold onto the sled!

 

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This is the biggest flaw of the Zephyr design, with catastrophic failure being a huge factor! I can't say I'm shocked Tiffen hasn't addressed this...

This happened to me on a shoot one day, and I happened to be on a farm that had extra bolts lying around, and luckily a 3/8" (1/4"?) threaded extended shaft bolt fit the bill perfect. I was blown away! A .50 repair, with something a billion times stronger, that Tiffen would not actually fix.

The part that breaks btw is a narrow pin head allen screw? that theads into the gimbal yoke. Super easy (preventable) fix. Pictures exist somewhere if anyone was really interested. 

 

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On 11/7/2020 at 1:21 AM, Jonathan Pfundstein said:

This is the biggest flaw of the Zephyr design, with catastrophic failure being a huge factor! I can't say I'm shocked Tiffen hasn't addressed this...

This happened to me on a shoot one day, and I happened to be on a farm that had extra bolts lying around, and luckily a 3/8" (1/4"?) threaded extended shaft bolt fit the bill perfect. I was blown away! A .50 repair, with something a billion times stronger, that Tiffen would not actually fix.

The part that breaks btw is a narrow pin head allen screw? that theads into the gimbal yoke. Super easy (preventable) fix. Pictures exist somewhere if anyone was really interested. 

 

Can you share those pictures here? I'd be curious to see.

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  • 6 months later...
On 3/14/2019 at 6:09 PM, Mathéo Lemay said:

Hi guys!
Did this ever happen to one of you? I was operating in low mode with my Zephyr and I was feeling that there was a slight resistance in my tilt and then all of a sudden boom!, the screw holding the gimbal handle just snapped. Fortunately, the camera only fell from a 1 foot height, so I reported only 2 broken BNC connectors on the Odyssey 7Q that was rigged on top of the camera.
My camera setup wasn't so heavy, definitely not higher than the mandatory 23lbs.
Any ideas as to why that happened ?

And yes I already wrote to Tiffen, still waiting on their reply. 

IMG_7091.jpg

Do you know how many kgs didyou carry on when it happened? 

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  • 3 months later...

 

good morning everyone. the same thing happened to me this year, it was already repaired, now I have another problem. I know that the team like this one is overweight. I can't have a correct dynamic balance. I feel like the gimbal has wear and tear. Anyone know if the complete gimbal can be exchanged for a better one. no matter it is from another series?

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