Steadicam Volt Smartphone Stabilizer

I don't see the point of this kickstarter: there are dozens of similar products out there, with a similar price, already in the hands of the consumers. What's special about this one?
 
Towards the bottom of the page is this:

"Steadicam Volt and DJI Osmo Mobile allow for electronic stabilization. The Steadicam Volt gives you agile precision movement and a true human experience when operating, compared to the DJI Osmo Mobile and all other 3-Axis Gimbals, which makes slow robotic movement relying on software for the framing. You'll notice an example of this in the video where the Osmo lags when panning. Our patent pending technology that allows for this responsiveness will only be available in the Steadicam Volt."

My question is why is such a large company doing a Kickstarter?
 
my son used to use the Steadicam "Smoothie" for his go pro and it wasn't very good at all and forget it if there was any wind.

the Steadicam Volt looks nearly identical in design and operation.

i agree that a 3 axis gimbal is "not fast" to "turn" like a regular steadicam rig but it is steady with no effort.

you couldn't give me the Volt.

david
 
david_p said:
my son used to use the Steadicam "Smoothie" for his go pro and it wasn't very good at all and forget it if there was any wind.

the Steadicam Volt looks nearly identical in design and operation.

i agree that a 3 axis gimbal is "not fast" to "turn" like a regular steadicam rig but it is steady with no effort.

you couldn't give me the Volt.

david
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All Steadicam and Steadicam type stabilizers results depend largely on the skill of the operator, BUT there is almost no mass with one that small which makes it extremely difficult to stabilize, because it's affected by even the smallest movement.

You can usually spot '3-axis gimbals' as opposed to true Steadicam easily. So much of the '3-axis' stuff is so mechanical looking and usually with severe delays in pans and tilts. The good stuff you see on the demo's is usually from a multi-person set-up with someone carrying the unit, someone controlling the pan and tilt and someone pulling focus, not one person using it in "majestic mode" or whatever individual manufacturers call their one-man modes.

A lot of Steadicam ops I know that have been asked/forced to use these 3-axis gimbals on shoots instead of Steadicam, hate them.
 
Samuel H said:
I don't see the point of this kickstarter: there are dozens of similar products out there, with a similar price, already in the hands of the consumers. What's special about this one?
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Maybe we are seeing the future of the professional equipment manufacture/production cycle(HIVE just did this same thing with their 100C LED)... Instead of sinking a ton of money into a product and completely shouldering the expense, even though it may be something customers may be asking for, they are now deciding to let the customer put their money where their mouths are, so to speak.
 
Please don't quote me on the tech but this is not the same as the Smoothee or any other previous Steadicam brand product, in that it incorporates brushless motors into the mechanical gimbal for the sense of added inertia. It's a concept that will likely be introduced into their larger models and will be an interesting thing to see as it develops. I haven't tried the Volt yet but have talked to a couple of colleagues who said it was a lot of fun to operate.
 
CharlesPapert said:
It's a concept that will likely be introduced into their larger models and will be an interesting thing to see as it develops.
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That's what I was wondering about. Would be great if it didn't add much weight, and could be turned off at the switch of a button for when you don't want that mechanically smooth look. I wonder how much it would add to the cost.

I guess the main downside is if it worked really well, it may mean selling a current Steadicam rig to replace it with that.
 
Eric Coughlin said:
That's what I was wondering about. Would be great if it didn't add much weight, and could be turned off at the switch of a button for when you don't want that mechanically smooth look. I wonder how much it would add to the cost.
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I think the point of the combination of technologies is that it retains the look and feel of Steadicam with the sense of added inertia via the motors, so it wouldn't have that mechanical gimbal look. And I understand that yes, it can be turned off and you have a conventional handheld Steadicam at that point.
 
Hadn't watched the Kickstarter demo video until just now:

https://vimeo.com/197399523

Actually for me the best part had nothing to do with the Volt, it was the glimpse at 1:02 of inventor Garrett Brown wielding the custom rig built for the speeder bike background plates from Return of the Jedi. I've never before seen footage of that system, just pictures. It employed multiple Kenyon gyros and a butterfly Vistavision camera in a roll cage, facilitating Garrett's 15 minute long takes shooting at 3/4 frame per second. Here's a great article GB wrote about the experience:

http://www.theasc.com/magazine/starwars/gallery/jedi/stcm/pg1.htm
 
CharlesPapert said:
I think the point of the combination of technologies is that it retains the look and feel of Steadicam with the sense of added inertia via the motors, so it wouldn't have that mechanical gimbal look. And I understand that yes, it can be turned off and you have a conventional handheld Steadicam at that point.
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I see. So unlike a gimbal it doesn't strive for a perfect horizon, but instead adds inertia (drag?) as if there was more weight on the rig. Hmm, it seems like you could do that just by adding drag to the gimbal like a tripod head does, no? What exactly is the motor doing, adding drag, or correcting for horizon and tilt? I guess ideally you could control how much effect the motor has nermerically, from adding a slight amount of inertia, to full perfect horizon like a regular gimbal system.
 
You can't add drag to a Steadicam gimbal because part of what it is doing is isolating the operator from the rig and drag would defeat that. So the motors are creating something like an artificial inertia, simulating what happens with the larger mass of a big rig, or gyros.
 
CharlesPapert said:
You can't add drag to a Steadicam gimbal because part of what it is doing is isolating the operator from the rig and drag would defeat that. So the motors are creating something like an artificial inertia, simulating what happens with the larger mass of a big rig, or gyros.
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good info & clarifications charles..

david
 
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