Does Weight Matter When Using Steadicams?

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A friend of mine bought a steadicam or glidecam, I forget which one. He's a stocky guy and probably weighs about 220-240 lbs. When he's wearing the steadicam with his DVX100a he really gets worn out. He says it's really heavy and when we remove the camera it seems to be a big weight off his shoulders. He sweats like hell when wearing it as well.

The other day I tried it and I weigh about 140. I thought it was as light as a feather. It didn't hurt my back at all. The only problem I had was trying to keep the camera from bouncing back into my face.

What is he doing wrong? He's definitely wearing it wrong. He thinks its because he has a bigger chest than me. So the vest fits weird on him. On me the vest is perfectly verticle. Any suggestions?
 
Not really. He's not athletic, but I'm in less shape than him and the rig felt fine on me. I'm just wondering if its hitting a pressure point somewhere that may be causing problems.
 
There seems to be two things that wear you out when wearing a glidecam/steadycam. The first being the weight on your shoulders/legs from the weight of the system. When using a HVX with my glidecam Smoothshooter, I have it balanced with a 12 pound sled. The total weight of the sled and system isn't that bad. The second thing that can wear you out is dealing with where the sled is relative to your body. As the sled goes further out from your body, it gains leverage and feels effectively heavier. By heavier I mean that it makes your vest and you inside it want to lean forward. To stay upright and in control you have to use muscles in the small of your back to counteract the leverage. If I can keep the sled close to my body, I can use the smoothshooter for an hour or possibly more, but if I have to keep the sled further from my body, that time gets cut down to a couple minutes.

At work we have a bigger glidecam we use with our varicam. That is balanced with a 50 pound sled. Even with the sled close to my body, it feels like I have a small child sitting on my shoulders. I can only use the system for a couple of minutes max before taking a break. And those 50 pounds kill the small of my back as it extends further from my body.

So I guess it could be that he is wearing the vest wrong, but I would bet he is holding it further away from his body than you are.

~Ian
 
eventually it will wear you do trust me. I worn my stedicam glidcam smooth shooter for 18 hour in one day i was destroyed afterwards. It only tiring when you have to do complex shots and its really hot outside.
 
While a large heavy rig (Over, say 20lbs of camera payload) can begin to get heavy after a while (say an hour) [Heavier film cameras - say 40lb cameras - get heavy after only a few mintues), a lighter rig like a SS or a Flyer should never really be tiring. Of course if you have it loaded heavy and are running up a lot of stairs you will get tired, but it should never be painfull.

You should NEVER feel any discomfort oprtating a Steadicam (or other stabilizer). The only thing that should happen is your legs will get tired, never your back (except when first starting out as you develope a specific muscle).

If it hurts, you are dooing something wrong.

There are 3 key elements to remining comfterble, 2 of them have allready been discussed.
1) Posture. You should be standing and walking normally when operating.
2) Position & weight of the rig. As said, a heavy rig or one that is placed far away will tired you faster. It may also adversly affect your posture.
3) Quality of the system. This is one of those subtle, but key, differences between systems. A good system will distribute the load properly throguh your muscles and tendons, and it will allow you to operate with proper posture. A poor system may need you to compromise yoru posture (bad!) to get a smooth shot.


Your operator firend is probably dooing something wrong. Very wrong if he can make a light rig hurt. First he should read this: http://www.steadivision.com/steadipos.htm
Then he should find an experienced operator, take a workshop, or even (for starters) another person, to help make sure that he is standing properly (normally) when he's operating and that the vest (key) and rest of the rig, is adjusted properly to him.
The rig should attach to the operator, the operator shouldn't contort around the rig.

- Mikko
 
I can get some slick fcuking moves with the vest on...but man you should see the wierd fcukingway I move.

Walk normally? Really? Holly sh*t. I can't even imaginge that. I believe you that it is preferable but I've never seen it. I've only seen that kinda honched low squat walk way.

That's my style, weird squaty low walk but smooth.

At first it felt like I was being punched in the kidneys by a midget but after it whipped me into shape I could pwer through long shifts with no problem.

-rook
 
Rook, that's not good.

"Squatty walking" - where you are using your body to absorb the shock instead of letting the system work - is a very fast ticket to a bad back and the end of operating.

You should never have to "power through" your shots.

Have you tried standing up straight while operating? In adition to beeing good for you, it will give you more control over the system and should result in better shots.

What system do you have? Aplusjimages, what system does your friend have?
If either or both of you could post pictures of the operators in the rig (preff mostly from the side), I could tell you what to improve.

- Mikko
 
I walk with my back straight, but tend to bend a bit in the knees for shock-absorption. Is that bad, Mikko?

At DVExpo, the Glidecam rep watched me trying out the V25 and said 'oh, I can see you've operated before...' but then again, I think he said the same thing to the gent before me, who kept banging the rig into himself and almost fell over while wearing it...
 
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Again, bending your knees to absorb shock is something that your shouldn't be doing. There's a rather expensive arm there to do that for you. (or your real arm with a handheld rig, which should also be operated correctly).

The position you are operating is in called "Whoopie". Read that article on posture I linked above.

You of course shouldn't walk with your legs locked (seen that before too), but rather as you would normally.
Absorbing shock with your knees will do 2 things:
1) It'll use your muscles, not the springs of the arm, to absorb shock. You muscles will get tired and you can't operate as long. Springs don't get tired.
2) It can place excessive wear on your knee joints. Again, something better left to the rig's arm.

Yeah, I wouldn't put too much merit in the things said by sales people in general. Though you can tell pretty quick who's' been in a rig and who hasn't.

- Mikko
 
Mikko,

I'll get the name today and post pictures since we are working on it today. My friend does squat a little. The weird part about it is how after 15 minutes of wearing this rig he is sweating and hurting. We pop the arm off just to provide him relieve. I feel that it shouldn't feel that heavy. He can pick up the entire rig with no problem, but when you strap it on him all of a sudden it gains a 100 lbs. So I'm guessing he's getting the "punched in the kidneys by a midget" feeling when he puts it on.
 
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