Steadicam Help needed ASAP

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peter917

Active member
Hello everyone, so I have decided to venture into glidecam/Steadicams since cinematography is something I want to pursue. I purchased a Vest + Glidecam kit and I am having some issues. Camera is balanced very well with a 2.5-3 second drop time. I can spin the gimbal on the vest and the camera pretty much stays level with the horizon. My shots are great when it is just walking but running is where I am getting the issue with the vest.

There is major bumps in evey step and I am not sure if its footsteps or literally the spring arm jumping up and down. I can hear a noise from the system as I run, the springs are loaded for up to 5kg, I am using a c200 with a sigma 18-35mm and about 4 counter weights on each side. It did come with springs rated for 10kg. Could it be that the running motion causes the springs to compress more and cant handle the weight at the speed, as when I am walking it is just fine.

**Also not sure if this is normal but if I let of the camera on the vest the camera and vest arm fly away from my body to where I have to pretty much hold the arm so the camera doesn't pull away with the arm.
 
Seeing 'footsteps' has been an Achilles heel of using any stabilizers to run with cameras since the beginning of their existence.

There are some Steadicam masters on this forum (Charles) whom hopefully will see this and provide you more information, but just understand that running and producing super smooth footage will take lots of practice and experience along with a perfect setup. In my personal experience, eliminating the bounce (up and down) has always been the most difficult task with a Glidecam.
 
You need to adjust the arm (where it attaches to the vest) so that the sled and arm stay in the same place when you're standing still in a normal position. I don't know anything about the model of your stabilizing system, but there are some that are worse than others. The good ones are usually very expensive. You might need to adjust the spring tension on the arm or load the sled with more weight (if you can't adjust the spring tension) if the arm is bouncing too much.
 
Peter there should be some means to adjust the angle of the arm on the belt once you are wearing it. You need to find the adjustment where the arm won't really either swing towards or away from you. Your energy should not be majority spent trying to keep the whole arm/sled from swinging away from you. Sounds like you missed that setup.

As for bouncing, again there is an optimum point to adjust spring tension. You need to read the manual or look more online. You should be able to jog fast in one spot like an idiot in one spot (as I often do to show off to my friends and make them laugh) without the sled really bouncing / bobbing up and down like crazy.

I'm using a steadicam flyer 24, not sure how the build compares with your system, but many work the same.

Good luck, cheers,
 
I also suggest that you attend a Steadicam class, there you'll learn how to properly set up such a stabilizer.
 
Thanks for all the replies. I have the flycam galaxy vest and flycam red king stabilizer(same design as the devin graham glidecam). I actually think I just found out the issue..the shake I am getting is not like footstep shake it is like vibrating shake. I noticed that if I grip the handle on the gimbal and shake it vigorously the top sled itself shakes in turn shaking the camera. I looked closer and it looks like whatever they use to make the sled plate connect together(its 2 pieces) is some kind of mix of screws and a tacky material and it is ever so slightly loose causing the entire top sled to shake when running at full speed. I think I may have to return the stabilizer and get a glidecam as I am sure that their units are better made.

61Qmzo0GHhL._SL1000_.jpg

As you can see in this picture the part of the plate that says "release" and the plate underneath it with the balance knob must be loose somewhere causing a horrible vibrating shake when the gimbal is being used a fast speed.
 
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