Balancing the GlideCam 4000 for DVX and Smooth Shooter

craigbowman

craigbowman

Veteran
Well after a very long wait, my GlideCam 4000 Pro and Smooth Shooter finally arrived.

1. Balancing
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Some of the accessories that shipped with the smooth shooter, actually were a big help in getting the 4000 balanced. There were a bunch of extra camera plates to bring up the weight of the camera and sled for the smooth shooter. I found that adding one of these plates under the camera alone with the mounting plate brings the weight of the camera more in line with the minimum weight requirements for the 4000. I had a 5400mAh battery on the dvx, a tape in and the LCD door open. Even with the extra plate I only needed four of the washer weights, two each side to get the 90 degree swing test to take about three seconds.

Doing the rough horizontal balance was aided by placing the hand holder tube over top of a C-stand. However, what helped to fine tune the most was putting on smooth shooter and connecting up 4000. You can see almost immediately where to fine tune. I was actually able to finish fine tuning while wearing smooth shooter and adjusted both horizontal balance and length of bottom down tube for vertical balance.

I would have hated to try and balance the 4000 totally by itself. As it was it took over two hours to figure out how to get it balanced the first time. The video they sent along was for the 2000 and it just says things like add the right number of washers for proper vertical balance. I could have sworn after the fifth time looking at the balancing section that it was mocking me. Yes mocking me, mocking me..

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I think they really need to have some useful setup tipls. They certainly have enough room left on the DVD.

The smooth shooter springs squeak like a newly wed couple on an old brass bed. I'm going to get some WD40 and see if I can get rid of the sqeak in the springs and try getting faster balance set up times over the weekend.
 
I have been waiting for a review on the Smooth Shooter before purchasing.

I am interested in how the WD40 worked on the squeak.

Also I would be interested in your general opinion of the product.
Is the price $1500 as earlier mentioned?
 
Yes the WD-40 worked like a charm. Couple of good splooshes down each spring assembly did the trick. I did it over some newspaper and then let it soak in, they a few hours later wiped any excess runoff.

I have practiced a number of balancing setups, now that I understand the principle and have noted how sensitive the balance is. Even whether the lens cap is on or off or the lcd display is out has a sutble but noticable effect on the balance. My last balancing setup only took 15 minutes. I found I can fine tune the washer positions for perfect balance easier when I have the unit in the smooth shooter.

Remember the smooth shooter is sold separately from the glidecam unit itself. When everything is in balance I can whip the camera from side to side or out and back in and it stays pointed straight out in front and on balance. However, the gimbles are so sensitive that the whole vertical column has a tendancy toward rotational dirft, rotating so the camera may slowly start to point a little to one side instead of straight out in front. I think I'll call it "Panning Drift", or "Weathervaning", as it behaves like it wants to do a very slow pan.
 
That "panning drift" is unfortunatly not a attribute of gimble "sensitivy" (which come to think of, i'm not sure is a term...) but rather a sign of imprecision.

If the camera pans slowly when you turn the rig, then that's a small amount of friction in the gimble that is turning the camera.
And if when correctly ballanced and with teh rig compleaty static the sled still pans, then there is a slightly bigger problem with teh gimble.. It *should* stay anywhere you you leave it (esp in on the pan axis)

- Mikko
 
i too am looking at getting the smooth shooter for my 4000 would love to see some pics of it set up maybe some of the footage you have done would be great too....

Paul
 
just had a look at the pics on the smooth shooter one thing i cant work out is how do you boom the unit upwards if the 4000 just slides over the pin on the arm does it not just lift off or is there some thing that comes with it to clamp it on.... or have i missed it alltogether ?

Paul
 
You may have slightly..

When you boom up (by holding the gimble) the arm of course is dooing a portion of the lifting because fo the springs (hey, that's the idea of the arm!) and this lifting force also keeps the arm post inside the gimble handle. - Of course if you lift the gimble higer than the arm can go (when teh arm hits the top stops) you can lift it right off the arm.. but this isn't very likly either as the wight ont eh other side of the gimbel causes torque the essentially locks the gimbel handle into place!

This is hwo al gimbles attach to arms. - the only time a locking mechanism is used is with F and J brackets for low mode.


- Mikko
 
mikkowilson said:
That "panning drift" is unfortunatly not a attribute of gimble "sensitivy" (which come to think of, i'm not sure is a term...) but rather a sign of imprecision.

If the camera pans slowly when you turn the rig, then that's a small amount of friction in the gimble that is turning the camera.
And if when correctly ballanced and with teh rig compleaty static the sled still pans, then there is a slightly bigger problem with teh gimble.. It *should* stay anywhere you you leave it (esp in on the pan axis)

- Mikko
Click to expand...

Friction in the gimble makes sense since it only happens when I check the balance by moving the camera from side to side and then stop. It rotates around just a tad (about 5 degrees) and if I repeat the side to side movement and stop it will very slowly rotate another 5% in same direction.

When I move the camera in and out or up and down its stays rock centre level and pointed in front. The drift is always consistently clockwise as would be seen looking down on the rig from above as in an othorgraphic projection top view.

Since the gimble is a precision fit bearing I'm not sure if there is a way to add any lubricant, ie. WD-40 or something as its likely the bearing is sealed.
 
the general consensus is that you never ever want to put WD-40 anywhere near a steadi ..apparently it dont' like it much. It needs a lubricant (which WD-40 isn't)

But really, that is somethign that you may just have to overcome with practice.
...these are the sort of things that make some rigs cost so much more to get these little details workign properly.

- Mikko
 
Craig!

Craig!

I envy you... i want a smooth shooter! hehehe
Congrats on finally getting it.... i use 2 discs on each side (4 total) on my 4000... it's a tricky device but i'm sure once i get the hang of it, it'll be awesome... i just wish i had the smooth shooter so i could add more weight (to camera and the bottom) so it wouldnt move around as much.... soon!
-Paul
 
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