Steadicam

J

JB Seesselberg

Member
I'm in the market for a decent steadicam, so...does anyone have any recommendations? By decent I mean costing less than $3000 and still works well. Also, any suggestions on where to look for one on the cheap?

Thanks in advance.:laugh:
 
The Steadicam Merlin with Arm & Vest is $2600 at B&H, and will carry cameras up to 7 lbs, which is enough for most of the popular affordable HD cams like an HVX. Loaded up with accessories though, the Steadical Pilot would be better, witrh a payload of about 10 lbs. It's over your budget a bit though, at $3800. These two seem to be the best of the bunch at the moment. My Pilot's on order...
 
I heard that the glidecams have issues with the fact that you need your arm to support it. Not saying that's necessarily bad, but I was curious as to what could be gained from your experiences with said equipment.
 
Stephen Eastwood said:
www.indicam.com I got the double spring upgrade to hold 25 lb cameras. Work amazingly well.
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Indicam looks like a great value, and a decent product. I had a long chat with Terry Thompson (its owner/designer) a while back about it, and he's a really great guy. Ultimately I decided to go a bit upmarket for the Steadicam Pilot because it seemed it had enough extra quality to warrant the price. My decision was certainly helped along by comments here from Mikko Wilson, who articulated many of the reasons why it was worth it. I'd imagine he'll chime in on this thread at some point.

Once again though, it's my impression that the Indicam is a great value, especially considering its weight capacity, which is reportedly higher than the Steadicam Pilot (the Indicam is also called the "Pilot" BTW).

Having said all this, I must add that I've never used either system. Mikko has used both.

But if you must have over 10 lb capacity and your budget is in the low $2K range, the Indicam could be a very good solution.
 
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Well, we are missing some prety key information here: What camera and accessories are you going to want to fly?

Steadicam is all about the masses, so the weight of the camera is critical information before any recomendations can be made.

Also good information is the type of shooting that you are hoping to be dooing with it?


- Mikko
 
Ted Spencer said:
I took a look at your site, and I've got to say those are some really excellent photos, my man. I loved the creative makeup/applique stuff. And the shot of the lips with the water droplets on it is just awesome. Great stuff...
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Thank you for the compliments! It is always nice to hear.
 
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The camera would be either a Canon XL2 or HVX200. The HVX200 has a rail system, mattebox, FS-100, and a Marshal 7" LCD monitor with an arm. And as far as shooting, mainly tracking shots and anything that would normally require a dolly for a film.
 
I'm not the Steadicam expert, but I think Mikko (who is) will agree that a steadicam is not a substitute for a dolly. Mainly, you can't lock off a shot like you can with a dolly. The motion part can look similar, but a dolly can start off rock solid before it moves or freeze perfectly still at the end where a steadicam (operator) basically can't.
 
This is true. But then again, a steadicam could go where a dolly could not, and turn/change directions on the fly a lot faster.
 
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JB Seesselberg said:
This is true. But then again, a steadicam could go where a dolly could not, and turn/change directions on the fly a lot faster.
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Right. It's the ultimate in stable/free form shooting.

For myself, I plan to have both, along with hand-held (DVMultiRigPro) and Jib (Advanta-jib). It's all gonna beat the crap out of my credit card, but it should make for some pretty cool shots.
 
JB Seesselberg said:
The camera would be either a Canon XL2 or HVX200. The HVX200 has a rail system, mattebox, FS-100, and a Marshal 7" LCD monitor with an arm.
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Whew, that's a lof of weight for anything even half decent for $3k.

You can loose the Marshal as the rig should have it's own monitor. That leaves you with a HVX on rails and a Firestore. Then you are getting comfterbly under 10lbs - depending on how your firestore is mounted.

At that point, the Steadicam Pilot (you'd have a stretch abother grand or so though) would probabaly be your best bet. - Better yet if you can loose either the rails or the firestore. Can you shoot P2 for your Steadicam shots?

- Mikko
 
Yes. Actually, that would make more sense than trying to balance the firestore on there. Heh. So you would recommend the Steadicam Pilot then? How has that one worked for you in the past?
 
Mikko will speak for himself of course, but the Steadicam Pilot is a brand new product that as of this moment has not shipped yet. I understand it will very soon though, this month last time I heard. I eagerly await the delivery of mine.

Mikko has used a pre-production model IIRC, and had very good things to say about it.

Ok...handing off the mic to Mikko...
 
... *takes the mic on the fly.* :)

Yeah, if you are shooting P2, but still want space for a few acessories like rails & mattebox, then the Pilot is a perfect rig.

If you are on a strict budget, then you might want to get the "Co-Pilot", it only comes with a 4:3 monitor, but it runs on Double-A batteries which are cheap. You allready have a good monitor, and it would work on the Co-Pilot, so this may be fine.
Though if you've got the budget for a little more, the full "Pilot" comes ready with a great little 16:9 monitor (so you don't need to keep mounting yours) and it uses standard professional batteries (available with V-Mount/IDX, AB, and PAG plates, your choice) - the catch is that you would need to add some more to your budget above the rig for the battery system if you don't allready have one.

Either Pilot set up whould work for you very well, it's a fantastic rig that flies like a dream. (The only differnce between models is the monitor and batteries)

The only catch is that the Co-Pilot is around $3500, and the Pilot a few hundred more (without batteries). You would be going over your $3k budget, but if you can stretch a little, it will be a very worthwile investment.

- Mikko
 
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