why my stablizer footages keep turning left and right?

K

kenwood33

Member
I have this stablizer called the monocam, as demonstrated on the following video:

https://vimeo.com/68187127

I believe I have it stabilized with a drop time of 3 second and a canon 6d+16-35 on top. When I try to do a shot walking straight on a flat surface, the camera keep turning slightly left and right by itself through out. I am doing the same shot as the girl was doing on the video above and it did not happen for her. I am wondering what I am doing wrong? Maybe it is not properly setup? Or my technique is wrong? Or something else?
 
Make sure your stabilizer is properly balanced, so the camera is not leaning on any side. Then it's just a matter of practice - a LOT of practice. People practice for months before they're decent enough. It really takes a lot. If you mean that the camera is rotating from one side to the other, then your technique may be at fault in that you use one hand to carry the weight by the handle, and one hand holds the shaft just below the gimbal to provide some turning control. To keep from twisting, you have to hold it gently to provide direction, but that hand should not be supporting the camera weight or correcting for listing to either side, it should hold gently with 2-3 fingers, just to prevent twisting. If you camera is properly balanced (along all axis) and you get a 3 second drop, but the camera *sways* like a pendulum (not "turns" as you wrote), then that's because of your walking technique - you should try more of a cushioned, "duck" walk, and the arm that is holding the weight of the stabilizer/camera should not be touching your body, but away from your body. Practice, practice, practice.
 
Mostly agree with what OldCorpose says, however, you should not hold the sled away from your body as you will get fetigued a lot sooner. For shots where you are walking straight forward the stabalizer should be on your left side if support it with your right hand. Othe rpositions require other placement.

On to troubelshooting your problem, can you share with us some example footage? It could be a couple of things. The first is you might not compensating for natural drift. The drift would happen because the pan inertia is low on a lightweight rig like yours, so something as small as wind or air resistance can naturally turn the stabalizer even if you haven't touched it. To solve this you need to practice making small corrections and you can add more weights on the bottom of the rig. The more weight you have (and the wider they are seperated) the more pan inertia you will get.

The other possibility here (and what it sounds like to me) is that its a low quality gimbal and has too much friction built into it causing you motion to effect the rig. This is common with some of the lower end steadicam knockoffs. If this is the case you can try sending it for repair or lubing/greasing it yourself (don't use wd40). Hold the rig with the camera pointed straight forward, now walk around it with the gimbal/post trying to keep the camera in the same position, pointed the same direction (don't correct with your left hand). Does the camera want to turn in the direction you are walking (clockwise or counterclockwise) if so then your gimbal has friction in it.

Good luck
 
Im pretty sure you jut are not contolling it properly - you must apply pressure to the post to point the camera where you want..
 
Make sure it's really three seconds. The way most people count, three seconds is really about 1.5. Count SLOWLY one-one-thousand, tow-one-thousand or use the stopwatch on your phone. Or shoot it dropping and check the frames in your NLE if you want to be really accurate.
 
Does your footage end up looking like this:


This was an example of the gimbal needing lube on a flycam. Also make sure your camera and plate are not moving or loose on the rig. Hold the sled by the post and shake it, see if there is any play anywhere.

Watch this video at 10:00. It will show you how to test your gimbal:

 
You want to use a very light oil. Tri-flow etc. This is the difference between a well lubricated and not well lubricated gimbal:

 
I found this video below, which talks about replacing the heavy oil in the gimbal with lighter oil. The video suggests using ptfe spray.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGXMjkvOxHg

I am going to give it a try and see what happen.

I did the test in which I held the stabilizer in the middle and ran around it, and it did turn to the direction that I was running towards. So that means the oil in the gimbal is too thick.
 
egproductions said:
Does your footage end up looking like this:


This was an example of the gimbal needing lube on a flycam. Also make sure your camera and plate are not moving or loose on the rig. Hold the sled by the post and shake it, see if there is any play anywhere.

Watch this video at 10:00. It will show you how to test your gimbal:

Click to expand...

Well, gimbal resistance can definitely be a problem, and perhaps changing the oil can help, but I'm not sure the first video is an example of that. The rapid rotation from left to right is not due to gimbal resistance, I don't think. I think it is due to the fact that you are holding the shaft too strongly. Do this test: just let go completely, and only hold up the stabilizer with one hand, don't hold the shaft. What will likely happen is that the quick left to right rotation will disappear, and what will happen instead is that the camera will drift all over (because it is not held). But think about why the left-right rotation disappeared - because it was induced by your hand. How was it induced? Well, as you walk step by step, you are slightly twisting your body from side to side, and by holding the shaft, you are transferring that twisting to the camera by your fingers. You could put the best oil in there and have the smoothest gimbal, and it would still happen. To sum up, yes, gimbal resistance can be an issue, but I'm not convinced that the rapid twisting left-right is a problem with the gimbal, instead, it's a problem with your technique. But I'm not an expert, so maybe someone who is more of a pro steadicam operator can chime in - I'm just giving my 2 cents worth of a personal opinion.
 
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