Are you fingertipping or palming?

[Dan Coplan]

This may seem like a silly question, but I really am curious what grip people find most effective. Subjective, but nonetheless...

 

I started with a fingertip grip which worked fine for me but was later encouraged to try the full palm grip which I've been getting used to. I find, however, that at times I unknowingly grip the post a little too tight. Something I simply need to be aware of and improve but considering going back to fingertipping.

 

Not asking which is better - that's not really a legitimate question. Just want to know what different people find works best for them.

 

Dan

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Dan,

 

I go back and forth all the time - often during a shot. Fingers for delicate work and then I might switch to palm for a strong pan, etc. If outside in the wind, I'm more apt to use the palm. When I say palm though, it is still a delicate touch, usually leaving an air-gap between the plam and post. I haven't thought this through, so maybe I'll retract this, but it seems to me that all I'm really doing is continually altering the distance (air-gap) of my palm to the grip depending on whether or not I want to use my finger tips or use a slightly more rigid "finger wrap." As mentioned, in the wind or on a vehicle mount, I use the palm so as conditions worsen, I can squeeze a little harder. Next time I don the rig, maybe I'll remember to pay attention to my grip and see if anything I just said is true!

[Brad Grimmett]

I switched from fingertipping to palming (although I wouldn't call it that) a few years ago. I think I have more control with this approach and can relax my hand a bit more during shots. I basically just wrap my fore finger and thumb around the gimbal (they almost touch) while keeping the rest of my fingers and hand raised off the gimbal. It's a more even grip than fingertipping (for me) and I think I actually have less contact with the gimbal this way.

[Dan Coplan]

I basically just wrap my fore finger and thumb around the gimbal (they almost touch) while keeping the rest of my fingers and hand raised off the gimbal.

 

So what would you call that? Okey-doking like making the 'OK' sign with your hand? I'll have to try that - interesting idea.

 

Dan

[Stephen Press]

Fingertips usually but palm in wind or if cabled. Recently I?ve noticed myself gripping tight and musseling the camera around when I rehearse a shot, maybe I?m thinking of everything else and not how I?m handling the rig. If bothered me at first and I worried I was developing a bad habit but as far as I can tell I go back to doing it right when we go for a take.

[Andrey Yazydzhi]

I am working by the same way like Alec Jarnaqin

[Peter Abraham]

Palm for most stuff, but fingertips for tilting. Using the palm when tilting, especially tilting up, seems to me to be a recipe for an off-axis horizon. I revert to the classic " index/thumb/pinkie" triad in those cases.

 

Yeah, for vehicle or windy days, the palm grip is dialled in stronger.

 

For shots onboard the new Boeing WhisperJet 767, I tend to use the palm pilot.

 

Peter Abraham

 

New York

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

For shots onboard the new Boeing WhisperJet 767, I tend to use the palm pilot.

 

 

What is a 767 "Whisperjet" Boeing has never called it that.

[Kareem La Vaullee]

Out of topic, but...

 

From Wikipedia

 

"In the early 1960s, Eastern Air Lines and other airlines began calling their Boeing 727s "Whisperjets", allegedly because a passenger seated forward in First Class, in theory, could only hear the rear-mounted turbofan jet engines as a whisper in the background. This feature also permitted passengers to whisper to each other. Before Boeing built 727s, hearing someone whispering aboard a jet plane was not possible."

 

The only plane maketed as "Whisperjet" is the BAe 146

 

Kareem "anyway Airbus is better" La Vaullée.

[Peter Abraham]

For shots onboard the new Boeing WhisperJet 767, I tend to use the palm pilot.

 

 

What is a 767 "Whisperjet" Boeing has never called it that.

 

 

Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "sarcasm" and "puns". The point was not that Boeing never made that model, but that in fact because we were discussing the application of multi-angular forces being delivered to our centerposts via the musculature and tendons of the palm and inner hand area opposed to the fingertip pressure that some Steadicam Operators use, I chose to make a small pun.

 

It's a word-play, you see.... :D

 

However, I stand corrected. Boeing only made the 727 WhisperJet.

[Eric Fletcher S.O.C.]

Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "sarcasm" and "puns". The point was not that Boeing never made that model, but that in fact because we were discussing the application of multi-angular forces being delivered to our centerposts via the musculature and tendons of the palm and inner hand area opposed to the fingertip pressure that some Steadicam Operators use, I chose to make a small pun.

 

It's a word-play, you see.... :D

 

However, I stand corrected. Boeing only made the 727 WhisperJet.

 

 

Peter in order for it to be a pun or sarcastic it has to be 1) Funny and 2) something that people would recognize. Your's was neither.

 

As for your claim, that's what Eastern called the 727 sarcastically. The 727 is the loudest commercial jet flying. So loud in fact that even with Hush-kits it's still banned from 45% of the nations commercial airports.

[jay kilroy]

Allow me to introduce you to the concept of "sarcasm" and "puns". The point was not that Boeing never made that model, but that in fact because we were discussing the application of multi-angular forces being delivered to our centerposts via the musculature and tendons of the palm and inner hand area opposed to the fingertip pressure that some Steadicam Operators use, I chose to make a small pun.

 

It's a word-play, you see.... :D

 

However, I stand corrected. Boeing only made the 727 WhisperJet.

 

 

Peter in order for it to be a pun or sarcastic it has to be 1) Funny and 2) something that people would recognize. Your's was neither.

 

As for your claim, that's what Eastern called the 727 sarcastically. The 727 is the loudest commercial jet flying. So loud in fact that even with Hush-kits it's still banned from 45% of the nations commercial airports.

 

Are you kidding me?

[Brad Grimmett]

Palm for most stuff, but fingertips for tilting. Using the palm when tilting, especially tilting up, seems to me to be a recipe for an off-axis horizon. I revert to the classic " index/thumb/pinkie" triad in those cases.

 

Peter Abraham

 

New York

After thinking about it, I think I do the same thing. I think my pinky automatically works it's way in without me even noticing. Damn, sneaky pinky!