Personal intro & vest/arm question

[Maxim van den Nieuwenhuijzen]

Hey everyone, 

New member on the forum, really appreciate that their is such valuable information around.

First would like to introduce myself, I'm a franco-belgian production company owner & new steadicam operator based in Shanghai China. I was lucky to take part in Tiffen's workshop last september in Beijing with Robin. It was an amazing experience and it made me discover a new passion. Since then I have spent a lot of time talking to people in the industry here in China and I have some questions that always are coming back to me which I would love to have everyone here's opinion.

As the first rig i flew were from Tiffen i'm obviously going to invest in a M2 rig with vol (also most common used one)

• While the M2 is the most common I see lots of people using g70x but also lots of people using smart system, flowcine or GPI arms. GPI doesn't not have any reseller here in China so for servicing reason i would not buy one. But then as a beginner i'm kinda wondering why people would choose any of those 3 others. (Price, weight are obvious reasons but are their any other ones)
• Same goes for the vest. So far only tried the tiffen ones, don't like the exo vest but felt good in the ultra vest. Xspine looks to be very popular, any experience of switching from exo to xspine?

Really appreciate anyone who will take the time to read and answer, glad to join the steadicam operator family and hopefully along the way I will end up meeting some of you.

Thanks

 

 

[Severin Schwarz]

Hey Maxim,

First of all, cool that you are getting into the Steadicam scene! Wish you all the best.

I´ll try and give you my best two cents on the things you brought up. 

•  Going with an M2 because it´s the only Rig you ever tried is maybe not the best idea. Not to say that the M2 is a bad Rig, I own one myself but if you want to invest in something that expensive i personally would advise you to try all the quality options avalible to you (GPI, ARRI, Betz etc.). Now keep in mind that i do not know what brands are avalible to you in china for purchase and servicing. But don´t limit yourself to one Brand and maybe later regret it because some feature or detail in another Rig is more to your liking.

 

•   For Arm choice my advice would be the same as above. Try all the Arms avalible to you and see which one you like best. As to the differences i can only say something about the XArm. The Xarm has no Springs like most other arms, instead it has rubber cores (one for each arm sgment) that can be exchanged based on the weight of the setup you want to fly(the same goes for the PRO and Smartsystem arms). The rubber cores give you a noiseless boom from top to bottom. A plus would be that for the price it comes with tools, different sized arm posts and a peli case with custom foam. The G70x I own in comparison comes with a soft bag and arm posts are sold seperately. But its toolless which i like. So it´s very personal to you and your liking.

 

• For switching from Exovest to XSpine i can also say something. I currently own an Exovest and after trying on the Xspine a few times i fell in love with it. As i am a bigger guy it feels better on me than the Exovest. I like that all the small adjustments for size on the Xspine can be done with a ratchet mechanism, so you can quickly go bigger or smaller around your waist, for example after you´ve overdone it at lunch or if you have to put on warm clothing for an exterior in the winter. Also because of the ratchets and srewed in size adjustments it´s just one rigid unit which i personally love for wearing it and also carrying it around. Plus it has a front and backmount so you always have both options. Also you can mount an easyrig to it, which can be nice, if you ike easyrigs. But again, try all options avalible to you and then make your decision. Many people swear by the PRO vests for example or love the Walter Klassen vest.

Long story short, don´t limit yourself. Try everything you can get your hands on, talk to other operators about thier experience with gear, sleep on it and then make your decision.

 

i hope this was helpfull in some way.

 

Cheers 

Sev

 

          

 

[Maxim van den Nieuwenhuijzen]

Thanks Sev for your answer I really appreciate the time. Indeed trying everything would be the best. So far I only tried tiffen with different rigs & vest. Sadly gpi does not have any reseller or service center in China so that would be a no for me investing so much money and not having after sales. Leaves me with Arri & Tiffen for most of it. 
The workshop was done on older rigs and last day we could try the M2 with volt and it’s true joy to fly such equipment. 
Arm wise I indeed contacted all reseller available and they are happy to send it over to me to test it. That’s why I was thinking to first buy the rig and then try to get all vest/arms available to test everything. 
I agree that tool-less arms are attractive that’s why I started to think about g70x and even considered waiting a bit for maybe g70x2 but other people also recommended me checking the xarm with the rubber and a cheaper price as well. 
 

Thanks again and hopefully we meet along the way. 
 Cheers 

Maxim