How happy are you owners with the F3?

[Viddovation]

I did not intend to imply that an FS-100 doesn't require wireless follow focus. I was trying to show the slippery slope of cost when you run a big chip camera on a steadicam. If an FS-100 costs 6 grand and an F3 costs 14, a wireless follow focus setup on an FS-100 is a lot easier to absorb as a purchase. Ohh and an F3 with a PL lens and nothing else is 9lbs. With all the gak you are going to be over 15 lbs easily. F3's suitably kitted out on a Steadicam are going to be north of 20lbs.

And yes, I suppose you could operate your steadicam with a large sensor camera and choke down the iris. In my view, if you are running solo with a steadicam use a purpose built camera like an EX3 or a Panny 170 that does big DOF or go wide which is how many live stage operators work. They seldom use cameras with chips bigger than 2/3" and they usually have AC's pulling focus or ready to pull focus when the operator moves from a wide angle to something narrower.

To each their own.

Wise words. Although, I think this is a place where rental and ownership can come out very differently. I'm no Steadicam Operator, so I subcontract those operators on an as needed basis, and the client pays for it. I don't need them very frequently, and hiring a pro means better results than if I fumbled to do it with whatever system I could afford.

It also means I don't have as much cost differential for having a larger payload than I would with ownership.

From the original post on this thread I wasn't sure if the OP *needed* steadicam capability, or was looking at it as a nice "plus."