Glidecam or actioncam?

[Menno]

Hi I am in the market for a steadycam. I want to use my Red One with it.

I got this offer from a Glidecam dealer of the following:

 

GLIDECAM GOLD SERIES VEST

GLIDECAM GOLD SERIES ARM WITH 5 & 10” ARM POSTS

GLIDECAM X-45 SLED WITH ANTON BAUER OR V-MOUNT BASE

GLIDECAM X-45 DOCKING AND BALANCE BRACKET

GLIDECAM L7-PRO 7” LCD

GLIDECAM L-7-PRO

BATTERY PLATE WITH CUSTOM POWER CABLE

1-2 PIN LEMO TO 4 PIN XLR

CAMERA POWER CABLE

1-2 PIN LEMO TO 2.1MM LCD POWER CABLE

1-BNC TO BNC VIDEO CABLE

1-BNC TO RCA VIDEO CABLE

HARDWARE & MANUALS.

 

1RED power cables

1RED Remote On/Off

RED AJA down converter cables

 

with a similar price offer as an actioncam RED-edition

 

What would you guys recomment?

 

thanks

Menno

[Aaron Medick SOC]

Hi Menno,

We don't know. I have never seen either rig. There are other forums for such products. We mainly use film/big camera rigs such as Steadicam, XCS, and PRO.

 

Best,

Aaron

[Sven Joukes]

I want to use my Red One with it.

 

Hi Menno,

 

If you have a Red One, I recommend you concentrate on being a DOP, and hire qualified Steadicam Operators to fly the camera for you. It will help you in at least 2 ways, your lighting will be better and the framing will be better because these 2 very different jobs will be done by specialists in their respective fields. Any combination of 2 (or more) jobs equals a loss in quality of the final product. If you want to be a stabiliser operator, sell your camera and use the money to buy a decent rig... Oh, and take a workshop!

 

Just my opinion...

 

Good luck in your choice!

 

Sven

[Lars Erik]

Menno;

Job Scholtze at the forum started working with a Glidecam. Send him a PM about your questions regarding Glidecam. Sure he won't mind.

 

LE

[Mike Germond SOC]

I'm a big fan of ActionCam, especially the RED Edition package! That would be my vote..

 

But consider this, where is your warranty support located when you need it? Glidecam has domestic support..

[Charles Papert]

I've flown both but I wouldn't call myself an expert on either, however I prefer the build quality of the Actioncam also. Both the arm and gimbal seemed better than the Glidecam.

 

That's interesting that they included a run cable for the RED in the package--that's a function of the lens control system (i.e. Bartech, Preston, Genio etc), did you tell them what system you were using?

 

Sven, I agree with you that the quality of both jobs suffers when one is both DP and Steadicam operator, as I have done that myself off and on for the past 20 years. However the paradigm is changing and many Red owners seem to gravitate towards being "Swiss army knife" filmmakers a la Robert Rodriguez, where they may be DP, operator, director etc. on any given project and also like to personally own much of the gear to make a film. While this does foster a "jack of all trades, master of none" mentality, this appears to be preferable to being a journeyman who focuses on excellence at a single craft.

[Menno]

Thanks for all the replys. very helpful!

 

Although i think the Glidecam is a good deal, me and most other people i've spoken with prefer the actioncam.

 

So I'll give it a try somewhere before buying.

Mike, for what I know, actionproducts have great support (atleast that's my experience so far) and Swiss is'nt too far from where I live

 

thanks all

 

regards,

 

Menno

[Erik Brul]

Hey Menno,

 

If you are not in a hurry and able to go to a convention like NAB in mid april.. you can testdrive the Glidecam there. Maybe Actioncam is also present.

I like both rigs, the X45 Sled is somehow new, a little upgrade from the V25 Sled. The vest is nice but the arm is heavy..

I think the actioncam rig is feeling better but is delivered with a backmount vest which was for me a total other feeling, strange but nice.

 

But once again, try before buy.....

 

Best, Erik

[Mike Germond SOC]

Menno,

 

ActionCam support is very good. I talked with them a lot when I was thinking about buying and they were very helpful. The issue arises when you need to ship internationally and deal with customs, say if your rig were to need repair. Time is money in our business..

 

I still want one though :rolleyes:

[Sydney Seeber]

I owned a Glidecam setup, and still own their Smooth Shooter as well, not as if the latter counts... Anyhoo, my experience with Glidecam was pretty middle of the road, the equipment doesn't hold a candle to that which I currently own, though. At the time, it was difficult to get hold of technical support to get things fixed, but that really only motivated me to buy a mini mill and learn how the whole equipment package worked. I have serious issues with the rivets used on the Gold series vest, they were WAY too small and I ended up replacing all of them with stainless screws.

[JobScholtze]

Yes, many moons ago i owned a Glidecam Gold. Let me tell you this, the support and service you get from Glidecam are A++++

There are other compagnys that could take an example from that, service is very important imho.

 

Anyway, the gold is a good middle quality rig. Sure, the arm is heavy, the gimbal can be a little bit off, but after some time the nailed the gimbal issue and i got a nice dynamic balance. The arm is a bit stiff and heavy. But it works. I know the are coming out with a new arm at NAB, so it would be intressting to see what it is. The vest isnt that great, but there are other ops that have changed the vest, ask pascal jolink, he has done the mods.

 

Overall, its a nice middle quality rig. Sure there are better ones, but in its pricerange it preforms.

I did see the actioncam, but didnt use it, so i cant comment on that.

 

For the rest, i agree with sven

 

Best