This thing looks pretty amazing!!!!

This doesn't look bad at all. You don't have much to lose if it turns out to not be so great. Buy it and let us know what you think. In principle, this looks pretty good.

Dan
 
That looks great for the price! I saw a variety of things based on that principal at NAB and the first thing I though was why the heck would anyone want to haul a lead weight counterbalance around. It would make so much more sense to have a counterbalance made of a pouch which you fill with stuff you already have to carry anyway; extra batteries, hard drive, whatever. Or at least use a perfectly weighted long life battery... Find the balance point and away you go without carrying a 5 pound dead weight in addition to all your other gear.
 
Ah, looks like they finally put up a website for it. That's a model that used to be sold on ebay. I used one with an HVX for a while and added a rod support system to use with the Cavision handgrip. Didn't work all that well since the rod support screws up the rig's balance. On the website it seems like they're just put the camera on there by itself which probably works better, but be aware that if you're gonna add a handgrip you want a rod system that goes as low as you can make it.
 
Please do! looks a bit uncomfy for my shoulder....but small and maybe I can hook a bag to it for either my paglite battery or FS 100...the price is tempting but you might get what you pay for...
 
Yes, Chris. Please let us know what you think of it once you get it and post some footage. That footage on their site (at least some of it) looked suspiciously too smooth to me. Not saying that they cheated, but whoever shot it may be better at handheld than mere mortals.

If you add the Century Optics .06 WA that I just received yesterday for the HPX170, I bet that would look super smooth, it is so wide that it looks amazingly smooth now without any shoulder mount.

Dan
 
i figure even if this lessons the shakiness "somewhat", for the price, it's well worth it. will post results.
 
Got one from ebay quite a while ago for my DVX and like it better than I expected to. Unlike anything else I have seen this one has a handle on it. I have a habit of chasing guys with guns through the woods and this comes in handy. The handle lets you do low mode shots like following people on a trail. The handle could be either longer or moved forward slightly so that your hand can find the natural balance point for low mode shots. You would think that unbolting the handle and drilling two new holes to move it forward would solve that but the ends of the handle are contoured to fit the curve of the shoulder portion and moving it forward puts a curved end of the handle on the flat piece. Also they used epoxy on those bolts. I gaffer taped a 5lb weight to the back and that helped me get better balance for running shots but the damn thing is now heavy. Also, there is a tendency to induce roll with your wrist. If you concentrate on not inducing any roll and you use OIS when you are chasing somebody you can get surprisingly good shots. Again, you just have to watch the tendency to roll your wrist when you are dodging saplings. As a proof of concept test I put a 2 foot aluminum cross bar just behind the camera with a 2.5 lb weight on each end to act as outboard stabilizers. This definitely improved stability when running with it but there is a tendency to hit the weight with your knee as you begin to hyperventilate because the total weight is up to just over 20lbs. Dropped the outboard weights and am now just using the weight that came with it and the extra plate. Somehow I am going to shift that handle forward so that I can drop the extra weight.
Oh yeah, this thing works pretty well as a shoulder mount too :grin:.
Get a Bogen quick release plate for it---the long one.
Overall, I think this thing is very useful and a fair deal.
 
I have one and it works great with the straight DVX on it....get a little tricky when the 35mm adapter is added. I believe they do offer more weight you can add to the back.
 
I have one as well.

It attaches directly to the cam or a quick release if you have a plate.

To be honest, it is too heavy for me.
 
It certainly adds weight, but so does any steady cam system. This adds a few pounds but no big deal. You're shoulder can handle it.

used to today for a shoot. It definitely does what it promises. my shots were overall much more stabilized and I was able to keep BOTH hands on the camera to operate controls like zooming and focus while filming. and I just pulled it out of the box with little practice. I'm sure once I use it more i will discover many of its finenesses. for $70 it's way beyond worth it.

ill try and post footage soon but want to master it a bit first.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top