flowpod for DVX

Dizkoteck

Dizkoteck

Well-known member
I just got a flowpod for my DVX.

Its a dandy equipment, nice in theory but I was hoping more of a miracle stabilizer. Its a little wobbly at times and I have trouble keeping the horizon straight, I feel like Im on a Spanish Galleon.

Any suggestions or advice that can help? more weights? moving weights? etc?
 
Re: flowpod for DVX

The Flowpod is an unusual piece of equipment that will require some skills in order to use it as well as it was designed. It is, of course, not meant to be as serious a stabilizer as a Steadicam or it's copies but it's capable of taking some fairly smooth video.

You first have to adjust the camera plate precisely for level shooting (front and back/side to side) and this can take a bit of time to do it right.

Next you have to balance your camera top to bottom so that when you move it at the handle, the weight is almost equal between the handle and camera and the handle and telescoping base with the base being just a bit heavier (of course). If you turn the rig horizontal and let the bottom drop, it should swing down and pass vertical (drop time) in about 2 seconds. I'm not sure how you do this on a Flowpod but my guess it's done by moving the telescoping elements up or down or by adding/taking away weight near the camera.

You will probably have to rebalance the camera platform again as this balance becomes more critical when the top to bottom weight is adjusted properly.

Once the rig is fine balanced you have to work on control and not over control. Your holding hand supports the stabilizer and decides it's elevation but your other hand, called the control hand, decides where the camera points i.e. tilt, pan, keeping the rig vertical in moves or turns, etc. Too much control hand lessens the rig's smoothness so be careful.

Normally the control hand would adjust the rig just under the gimbal but on the Flowpod your control hand should do it's work just barely above the gimbal or handle hinge. That's the closest spot to the hinge.

After all this there's the walk and everything involved in helping the rig do it's job well. That's a topic for later though.

There should be a good manual that comes with the unit that would give you more insites into the rig's operation.

I hope I might have helped somewhat. The Flowpod is a nice idea with many uses and I hope you become proficient in all of them.

Smooth shooting!

Tery
 
Re: flowpod for DVX

Thanks tery for the response. The manual that comes with it is a tad uninformative only telling me how to assemble it.
Now do you use 3 weights on the bottom? or should I get more?
Thanks
 
Re: flowpod for DVX

Dizkoteck,

Tell me what happens when you hold the rig by the handle only (no control hand). Does it want to turn upside down? In other words, is it top heavy or bottom heavy?

Tery
 
Dizkoteck - You should start with only one of the ring-weights, and add more only as you need them.

I found that with the DVX, tape in, I only needed one weight (almost at the bottom of the shaft) to get good balance - good balance meaning that, if you hold the handle vertically in one hand, and the rest of the rig horizontally, it should very slowly swing back to vertical when you let go, and center itself at even balance...if you've balanced it, of course.

But, when I added the miraculous new big battery (hosanna, hosanna) and quick-release hardware (which IMHO is absolutely essential if you need to move between tripod and flowpod while shooting) I found that all three weights were required, right near the end of the shaft, to get proper balance back.

I can't recommend a quick-release solution highly enough, btw...it means no more disassembling and assembling the mounting plate just to get the camera on and off, and once you've got it balanced, you shouldn't have to mess with balancing it again, aside from maybe some very occassional fine-tuning.

Ideally, you want to use as few weights as possible, and get the best effect from them by moving them up or down the bottom shaft, as required. More weights equal...well, more weight, meaning that the whole rig becomes heavier and therefore more tiring to use, unless you are attaching it to the arm/vest, which I have...but I use it freehand more anyway, since I am still getting the hang of using the vest without bouncing around and whacking the rig into myself and generally looking like a clueless spaz in front of the clients I'm trying to impress...
 
Bring this thread back from the past.

Sad Max, where did you get the "quick-release hardware" for your Flowpod? I can't seem to find anything like that for sale.

Thanks
 
I got mine from B&H.

Search for "Manfrotto" and "quick release" on their site, and the item should turn up.
 
Dizkoteck said:
I just got a flowpod for my DVX.

Its a dandy equipment, nice in theory but I was hoping more of a miracle stabilizer. Its a little wobbly at times and I have trouble keeping the horizon straight, I feel like Im on a Spanish Galleon.

Any suggestions or advice that can help? more weights? moving weights? etc?
Click to expand...

I PM'd you a fix for the problem. Good luck! :Drogar-BigGrin(DBG)
 
bsmall said:
Yeah, my thought, too. Let's make it a public fix! I need one!
Click to expand...

First of all I want to say that I think that the flowpod is a great product and in no way am negating the positive performance that it was designed for. My fix is a simple and inexpensive way to augment the use of the pod and also allows the changes to be removed for the pod to keep its original configuration. It was meant for modest and comparatively inexpensive stabilization; but I observe it was never meant to compete with a vest mounted camera stabilizer or even fit into competition in that category.

Here is the addition for stabilization:

I have inspected the construction of the flowpod and the physics of your wobble can be countered with 'Y' stabilization. You have a nice camera mount and a great handle but you need to attach lateral weights to the base of the rig 90 degrees off the bottom point and perpendicular to your direction of shoot.

I would recommend modifying your pod into an upside down 'T' with two 2 to 2 1/2 pound weights laterally on the ends of the T towards the sides. Mount the weights at least 8" each from the center post. This will give you stabilizing inertia at a leverarm away from the vertical axis and will significantly help stop the 'galleon effect' you describe. What you are doing with the build is creating a harmonic reasonance in the motion of the device that has a very slow vibrational frequency, and will minimize the top-heavy pendulum effect you described.

Personally I would just drill two unobtrusive holes into the base vertical tube and attach a 3/4" aluminum tube sideways with two lock-nutted bolts and washers and then would mount the weights on the bar with a simple set of normal variable dumbell weight set ring clamps. Then the whole shooting match is removable.

Having stronger Y stabilization and increasing X stabilization on the rig will significantly improve the performance of the pod. With practice, you should be able to spin around your target with smooth camera shots, and even, with practice in 'tanking', move forward and backward briskly with the improved pod. You will even get a bigger bicep as your arm becomes the spring arm of a more expensive camera stabilizer. Woo hoo! :kali:

Best to you and happy shooting!
 
Oh, one last thing... Place a sliding camera mount on the top and slide the camera to counter for any offset of the weight of the pod addition. :engel017:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top