heli shots from hpx170 last monday.

hdimages.ca

hdimages.ca

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here are some hpx170 shots in a 4 min piece that i just had put up on my web site .it was shoot at 80mph hanging out the side of a astar. was 2 gb and took a week to get my editer to compress and post it. shot at 60 fps/30p720 timeline , has not been smoothcamed yet. cool music is from a dvxuser ,justin ewart. it is vancouver island. canada. go to www.jetaddiction.com go to movie page,click on the seaplane. will be up in 10 min.
 
What does that feel like? How exactly do these Ken Labs KS-8 Gyro's work? Does it balance out with the camera? I'm just learning about gyros myself.
 
That was great footage.

Hanging out the side at 80 mph sounds like fun, who needs a stinkin' roller coaster!
 
you seriously just bumped this? I think it's a hot topic as it is.

Can you explain how these Gyro's work? How did you setup your rig? Any pictures?
 
the pics of the rig ( not very good ones ) on the front of the web page. shot from the back. the yellow box is the power inverter and it is waterproof. runs on any 12v battery, takes about 5 min to spin up. i had it on the horisontal axis for this shoot, . looking to get another to mount under the box at the back . but this hpx170 is so light one ks8 worked great. i ran off 12v plug of the heli for this set up.
 
you can ,but i mount both the gyro and the camera to the shoulder mount. i have 3x4 inch 12v battery that can be mounted under the yellow box , the work as acounter balance as well.
 
Again, great footy Jet!!

It looks like one ks-8 gyro is perfect for the 170, though I would love to see it on a 60fps timeline just to get a feel for just how smooth it is for real time playback. I would really appreciate it when you got a chance and if you feel like going though the trouble.

Again, it is spectacular stuff... I will be shooting similar landscape stuff, though it will be MUCH lower hills, and it will all be covered in a heavy blanket of snow. Also we are going to shoot with an adapter so I am wondering what to do.

I called up the guys at Tyler who now have a new toy called the "Mini Gyro". It rents for $480 a day with two batteries that give you about 1 1/2 hs of operation each, though they want you to run the gyros for "20 minutes before operation" to get them up to speed. I didn't expect that. It is tough looking enclosure with two big gyros that they rate for cameras up to 40lbs. It comes with a shock absorber which clicks in at the bottom or can be removed if you prefer. This shock (much like a shock from the suspension of a car) allows you to just go and place it wherever you want, or go hand-held if you think your guns are big enough to carry that thing. It rents for about 1/2 of what their side mount rents for, and you need no set-up time.

So... I was wondering if maybe the price of those KS-8s is low enough and we could try to purchase one. We coudl also use it on the steadycam, but only for specialty shots since we wouldn't be getting a ton of batteries. And for the helicopter stuff we could rent a second KS-8... that would make it a combined rating of 16-24lbs... Not the 40lbs that Tyler rates their Mini Gyro for, but it is something to consider! I wonder how much the KS-12 is..? The 12 is rated to be "4 times stronger than the KS-8" which comes out to 32-44lbs! Which makes their rating of the 12 the same as Tyler's rating of their Mini Gyro... But I am guessing that if you are going to buy Gyros you might want to go with KS-8's like Jet did which gives you a ton more options and flexibility than having such a heavy beast that you are stuck with. For a steady cam I'd go with a KS-8 regardless of weight... yes, more is great, but do you want to get murdered by the op when his knees explode? lol...
 
find out what power it runs on . hook into the heli power if you can . the lighter the better for the small gas heli. to go to the hassle of the steady cam arm ,the problem is how to mount it and get the arm up high enough to ,so when loaded it is still shoulder high. hanging a bungy cord works way easyer. if you have some something directly above. we had a little dome light that we took out ,was about a 1 in hole with 4 small screw holes . we popped it out and made a great mounting spot. do a test . see what you can do witha shoulder mount/bungy/ without the gyro. just atake off and land. gyros are heavy. being able to sit comfortably make a big difference .
 
About the steady cam I meant for normal steady cam use, for other scenes and shots.

I already asked the pilot and he told me the bungies will have tons of places to hook into so that is high up on my list.

HOLY CRAP!!! I just found the darn prices! What the hell...
http://www.ken-lab.com/html/pricing.html

Forget what I said about buying these... geeeez... lol

Did you rent yours Jet or did you made the investment?
I'd love to find out where you rented it thats what you did.

EDIT: Here is their own rental rates page
http://www.ken-lab.com/html/rentals.html
 
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So... Tyler's "Mini" Gyro is $480 for a weekend, or we could rent one KS-8 for a month for $270 more... and use that for all out steady cam shots! Then I could ask for a second one for a week or make some sort of deal where I can get one for a month and two for 2 weeks at a slightly discounted rate...

...also hear me out on this crazy idea for the heli:

If I had two KS-8's, I could hook the bungees on the rails of the rig (safely of course) and hang it upside down! We won't be using a flip on the adapter so all I have to do is un-select the flip option on the camera and Carrion monitor.... lol... what would I use to mount the second gyro though? I would need some sort of mount from Zacuto I guess.

Has anyone mounted two gyros on their 15mm rail setups?
 
steadicam shots with gyro don,t ussually work for reg steadicam shots ,walking , turning ,stopping starting .all these moves the steadicam will fight against it. . but put that set up in the back of a pickup truck ,using the steadicam as shock absorber and a gyro to keep pointed at one point in space. have tryed it all and figured it out the differences. gyro fight pans and tilts , but once it is panning it will fight to stay panning.a balanced steady cams don,t have the forces great for bobbing and weaving ,stopping and starting, can be pointed easilly .
 
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