Any suggestions on stabilizers?

[811productions]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what the best stabilizer would be for this cam? Glidecam 2000hd...etc.? I don't have much experience with these, but would love to have one in my kit. Wouldn't changing lenses throw the balance off and then you would be stuck re calibrating all the time? Trying to build up some equipment before the cam arrives.

[Homunculus]

hmm good point i was considering buying a glidecam 4000. anyone know if this would be good for it? barry says with cine prime lens and such af100 is 9lbs or so, or is that with mattebox, rails etc he said i cna't quite remember now doh

[PaPa]

I have used up to 13 pounds on my glidecam 4000 pro with smooth shooter, and that was really the maximum for the spring arm.

That was with the XH A1, letus elite adapter, lens, mattebox and rails. So yeah, you'll be fine. But you'll want the vest and arm too.

[Homunculus]

ah..that's no good. vest and arm way too expensive I was looking at just the glidecam itself

[dop16mm]

I'm not sure where the specs went but I thought the acutal body was in the under 3 lbs range. With the 14mm pancake you could shoot with the steadicam merlin or old JR. You even have the option of taking off top handle and side grip to strip weight even more. Unless you have an assistant with remote controlled follow focus you wont be using cine-primes for stabilizer shots. My experience with the old Steadicam JR is that you want to be as wide as you can all the time, I'm sure this is true of all the hand held ones. The big arm/vest rigs may be stable enough to go to medium or longer lenses but you won't be changing from wide on a hand-held rig.

[Justyn]

I've scoured and searched and searched and I'm going with the HD4000 cause it gives more options and if you have a lighter cam, you can still add dead weight to it. I do think though that without a vest, you'll be limited to maybe 15 minutes of shooting at the most. It kils the arms for really really long takes.


I too am thinking of getting the merlin vest. I want something good and quick to set up. T he indian knockoffs are nice for the price but they seem to have problems and need modification.

[Julienmassie]

A 15 min steadycam take is .... way too long !
As an steadycam assist i can tell you that i never saw a shot that was during more than ... 50 second ?

But i dont know whitout a vest and a arm what you are going to do ... as and assist I had to carry the rig myself between shot to change the batteries and i cant imagine how i could make a shot whitout the arm and vest ... I was just walking strait to the point and praying to dont drop the 20lbs cam set up.

Btw i worked whit the glidecam series ... and i love it.
http://www.glidecam.com/product-v-25-system.php