User Experiences with Chinese Stabilizers

R

raminolta

Active member
There are now different brands of Chinese stabilizers, vest and arms in the market; many being sold on Ebay: Wondlan, Laing, Wieldy ans Came (which seems being the same at Wieldy). I can often see in the pictures they share some components: some Wondlan vests and arms that look identical to some Wieldy, etc..

Prices are considerably lower than Steadicam and Glidcam. Of course, I wouldn't expect them having the same level of quality as Steadicam. However, I am not a professional and I wouldn't care having the highest quality. I am also just a novice looking for something that posses a decent level of quality and is quite useable.

In my search, I have found two people online and on Youtube who have tried these Chinese models and they are overall positive about them: one from Cheesycam (cheesycam.com) and Nitsan Simantov (on Youtube).

However, I would like to hear evaluations from more people. I see these devices are being successfully being sold on Ebay so, I am wondering if there are some actual users on this forum who can share their experience?
 
Thanks. It looks like the Chinese ones are good enough. I was thinking about the Blackbird. However, if I could have one stabilizer + vest + arm for the price of the Blackbird (full kit), it's no brainer.
 
I suspect the usual Chinese system has kicked into play now sales are on the up. Most of these manufacturers are basically a rented office and small workshop. They don't make much themselves, they buy from specialist workshops who build kits of parts. So somebody makes arms, somebody gimbals, somebody vests, somebody else makes the posts and other components. Each 'name' pick bits and pieces to make their own version that gets badged up. I deal mostly with moving head lighting products and so many have the same housings I did some investigation. These devices have a base unit that has the main circuit boards and the pan mechanism. The actual bit that lights up is then sourced and attached. They all have a combination of features - but they can consist of zoom, iris, gobo, CMY colour, Colour Wheel, dimmer shutter and a strobe function. There usually isn't enough space for all these features, so each 'make' has it's own collection of components. They then program an eprom or two to make the right things happen. So when you give them your money, they then source the parts, often from other office/workshops in the same building, put them together, test them and ship them out. Exactly the same system would work for stabilisers. It's cost effective and for them works really well - sort of a cooperative approach. In the US and UK, we'd all panic about sharing our manufacturing in this way. I've also discovered that very often they don't actually have any of the products they've advertised until you pay for yours - they then just get the bits in and assemble them - sometimes discovering that things don't work. "Dear Mr Paul, we are very sorry but the gold covered grills can only be made in silver, is this ok?" They showed a product that couldn't actually be made!

I think this is probably, for them, and excellent way of making decent products available to us. It also explains why they can never answer technical questions, as they genuinely know nothing about what they're selling.
 
Paul, I don't know why - maybe it's lack of sleep - but I'm eating a late breakfast over here in LA and laughing my head off reading your post. I'm sure you didn't intend it to be a humor peace, but your post killed me. I could just imagine the utter confusion on all sides; the buyer in the West being baffled as to why a product he ordered cannot be shipped to him - he saw a picture, after all! Well, the product doesn't exist - yet - and may never exist if the imagination of the seller was too ambitious. Meanwhile, the Chinese sellers are getting flooded with questions from buyers and have no idea what they're even asking about - after all, the seller is just selling some widget they know nothing about, and may as well be selling potatoes as lights, it's all commerce with no expertise.

Btw., I see this all the time: products designed in Korea or China and it's clear that the person designing it has literally ZERO production experience with that product - absolutely none, never have been on a production, or even seen a production. So I see jibs and cranes and stuff that clearly are designed by someone telling them, "well, you see, that's how filmmakers move a camera see" and just based on a description, they go ahead and design with no consideration of how it would actually work in the field. On the other side I see buyers here or on cheesycam who see pictures of these products and then start the floods of questions "how good are these?", "wow how can they get them so cheap?" - because they see the picture and it looks like a jib or crane or light, but you can't tell from the picture that it actually doesn't work like a jib or crane or light.

Good times, lots of laughter.
 
taras4444 said:
Will the wieldy work with the blackbird?
Click to expand...

Do you mean Wieldy's vest and arm? If so, AFAIK, the hole on the blackbird's handle is slimmer than the post on the Wieldy's arm so that the post can't go into the hole. However, it shouldn't require a highly sophisticated engineering skill to replace the post on the Wieldy arm with the z-post from Blackbird.
 
What happened to your steadicam vest and arm?


raminolta said:
Do you mean Wieldy's vest and arm? If so, AFAIK, the hole on the blackbird's handle is slimmer than the post on the Wieldy's arm so that the post can't go into the hole. However, it shouldn't require a highly sophisticated engineering skill to replace the post on the Wieldy arm with the z-post from Blackbird.
Click to expand...
 
I let it go. I didn't need to have a vest and arm for my light set up (Sony Nex 5R + 18-200mm lens). I am just practicing these days without a vest and arm. Even with such a light set up it can be tiresome. I will see how it goes and maybe, sometime in the future if it becomes a serious hobby or profession, I will buy a vest/arm again.
I did a research online about the Chinese ones, before buying anything. I wanted to know if they are any good. General consensus of the people who had tried them, was they weren't good over all; maybe not as well made as Steadicams but, they are still good enough. I still preferred trying out the Blackbird.
 
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