Slapdragon
Well-known member
I am looking for an unpowered - weight balanced steadicam for the DVX100a that does not require much maintinence to keep in operation (students make mincemeat out of the garden variety steadicamand it requires constant work on its gyros and gliding attachments to stay in college service). I thought some time back someone had mentioned this unit but could not find the posts, and would like to know some user's experiences with this unit, and its ability to work in a college environment. The factors which I would like to see are:
1) Easy to assemble by a novice user.
2) Durability in the hands of students who tend to throw around equipment.
3) Reliability of the company (they want money up front which is very difficult to arrange for a corporation or college which has a +30 payment policy and I really have to crawl down the company's back before a check will ever be cut).
I am not so much worried that the system is not "as good as a steadicam" since it costs only a third of a real steadicam, as long as it can provide the basic idea to students of how to use a harness based camera system (in a similar way, I use a doorway dolly for almost all dolly instruction, even though a Panther blows it away, a doorway dolly is like 10000 times easier to maintain and more reliable to boot.)
You opinions would be appreciated.
1) Easy to assemble by a novice user.
2) Durability in the hands of students who tend to throw around equipment.
3) Reliability of the company (they want money up front which is very difficult to arrange for a corporation or college which has a +30 payment policy and I really have to crawl down the company's back before a check will ever be cut).
I am not so much worried that the system is not "as good as a steadicam" since it costs only a third of a real steadicam, as long as it can provide the basic idea to students of how to use a harness based camera system (in a similar way, I use a doorway dolly for almost all dolly instruction, even though a Panther blows it away, a doorway dolly is like 10000 times easier to maintain and more reliable to boot.)
You opinions would be appreciated.