Reliable Pre-Made Steadicam

B

bentramer81

Well-known member
Can anyone refer me to a website that sells the homemade steadicams that work well for an A1. I don't have alot of cheddar, and the few websites I have found it looks like they don't sell them premade anymore. I don't trust my craftsmanship to make my own. So with that in mind if anyone can refer a good quality site that sells these already made that'd be great. Thanks in advance. :thumbup:
 
You can check Thecinecity.com

Consider those stabilizers as work in progress.
You have to revamp them, replace some bolts, and finetune them - redo the vest and whatnot.
They dont work out of the box - but they are a nice thing to start wirh on a low budget.



Frank
 
Sorry for my ignorance on this, but I just looked at the Cinecity website you listed, and those systems look amazing! How can it be that they don't work "out of the box" as you've stated? They look like precision machined steadicam systems, so what's to modify? They say they are selling complete systems. Sorry, am I missing something? Obviously I have no experience with them, which may be why I am ignorant on this, but it astounds me that they could sell "complete systems" that don't actually work. Hmmm.
 
Things like the buckles on the vest are plastic and prone to snap.
You better replace them with metal ones or you may see a $20000 camera hiting the floor.

Some of the threads need retaping, some of the bolts are weak or broken when they arrive.

When I said "they don´t work out of the box" I meant you should revamp it before you mount a expensive camera to it.
I almost killed a HVX, a LEX and some Zeiss glass in the first 2 minutes when one of the bolts that hold the arm to the vest broke.
Nothing you can´t fix with a view $$ and the next hrdware store.

For the price those stabilizers are amazing but those indian companys have no sense for quality controll.

Also I´m a big guy and the vest was made for little slender indians - I had no chance to fit in that vest .

Frank
 
Last edited:
Wow,.. boy am I grateful for your input. Thanks to your experience, the rest of us benefit! I have been looking at these guys on Ebay, and was really tempted,.. but it is even better being able to know ahead of time, the kind of issues that one will face. Thanks so much for posting that, and clarifying for me. I am truly grateful!

Other than those quality control type issues, does it all go together well? Does the arm work properly? Is the sled/stabilizer/gimbal good? Does it balance nicely? Thanks again Postmaster. You rock!
 
Jap, once revamped it works great. Some guys report that they had to align the gimbal, mine was fine. But even if you have the Y made totaly new in a machine shop - for the arm and sled allone it´s a steal

Frank
 
Hazuki, I see that you did make it longer (somehow)..
How did you do it? All I see is some red tape around the tube near the bottom.
 
Yeah, I made it longer. For some reason it was shiped with 2 extra pipes, dont asks me why. SO I used my brain (or whats left of it;-) and used tape to make this whole thing stable and useble. Seems to work quite well.
 
Macaholic262 said:
what would u guys say about the glidecam +smooth shooter setup compared to the cinecity?
Click to expand...

smooth shooter is a decent rig. i havent used the flycam so i cant compare. i can tell you that everything glidecam that i have ever used has been decent quality and at least trustworthy to hod your expensive cam....

however, in the stabilizer world, you do get what you pay for generally. a real steadicam is a well engineered and totally solid machine. nothing compares with the exception of the sachtler stuff which is just as pricey.

when flying the cam every little thing has a huge affect on the shot. so anything that sticks, wiggles, or is loose at all will show up in your shot. the balance is so critical and you need to be able to make micro adjustments to get it right. the smaller the rig and the less weight, the smaller the adjustments are going to be. keep this stuff in mind when choosing a rig.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top