Just bought a Hague MMC steadicam, is it well balanced ?

M

MaKsOZ

Member
What do you think, I don't find it very smooth when walking ( running is fine ).
Also do you have your arm pretty straight when filming or do you keep the camera close to you ?

Thanks

 
Two thoughts come to mind....
  • Practice! I used a Blackbird for a while, and while it's a very nice device, what I came to realize was that you really need to work at the technique.
  • I tried shooting straight down a corridor like your video, and it's a brutally harsh test of this kind of rig -- even the slightest tilt or wobble is painfully obvious due to all the vertical lines. Probably if you're walking beside actors facing sideways it will be much less obvious (and there will be something else for the eye to latch on to). My project was actually to do with the architecture, and I ended up deciding that I need to borrow a wheelchair for that shot.
In terms of technique, I think the idea is to keep the arm bent like an angle-poise lamp; so the camera is fairly close. But the legs matter as much, if not more -- walk with bent legs to keep your body from bouncing too much. Imagine you're walking on very thin ice.

The one other issue I hit was wind pushing on the swing-out display on my cam and setting the whole rig spinning -- even the wind resistance from walking. Keeping the wind resistance to a minimum, and keeping it centered, may help.
 
Thanks a lot for your leg tips, today I did some shots and it help me a lot ( but maybe people thought I was strange !! anyway I don't care.)

I will post some footage later
 
As he says. a very hard test.

if the camera is swinging round then you are gripping the gimbal too tight

if the camera tends to pendulum it may be 'bottom heavy'

Start the move very gently - no more gently than that - move the camera a little then start walking

the camera should be as close to your body as you can get it without knocking or kicking it

this is to make it less tiring

as for bent knees - Im not so sure - it a no-no with a full rig

but puttiing the feet down softly is defo a must some seem to put heels down first (what I do) but I have noe found out there is a school who put thier toes down first, and other that do toes when going really slow and heels when a little faster !

S
 
I just made I quick trip in town with the steadycam, need more practice but I feel more confortable with it ;)

 
MaKsOZ said:
Yes I agree, walking slowly helps getting better shots; but do you think with the MMC it's possible to get very smooth shot ? ( similair to merlin ? )
Click to expand...

Putting feet down softly is not the same as walking slowly.

I said accelerate slowly.

As for the quality of the device I cant comment, Ive only used blackbird, pilot and merlin

S
 
I see the same problem in both videos: the camera is leaning to the left. Your center of gravity is off, and the rig isn't balanced. Until you can get the rig to lay vertically on its own, none of the rest matters.
 
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