Your one-stop thread for all things Steadicam.

No, there is a bit more to it than that.

The gimble (or whatever is used instead) can only work with so much weight, for one.

The last thing you want is to break the gimble and have your camera fall to its death.
 
Are there any articles that give basic advice on balancing a sled? Like any "rules" of thumb or whatnot?
 
No one seems to ever mention indicam.com

I bought one of their sleds, they have a few vest arm options too and it's a rugged mother with probably the smoothest most robust gimbal I've seen. If I added the refined screw adjustability of the glidecam 4000hd to this gimbal, it would be perfect.
 
I own one & love it. The finish / quality is awesome.

http://shop.ebay.com.au/easyoutletuk/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562 or http://shop.ebay.com.au/easyoutletuk/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686

banner_features.png
 
thoughtgrenades said:
I own one & love it. The finish / quality is awesome.

http://shop.ebay.com.au/easyoutletuk/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562 or http://shop.ebay.com.au/easyoutletuk/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686
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This looks interesting. There is a video with it. Of course, they will pick the best video to highlight their product. I've never seen a bad video of steadycam products. They all look great in the sales video. How they perform in the real world, along with build quality and longevity is another matter.

I have a friend who has a home-brewed steadycam that includes a vest and support arm. Recently an aluminium weld has broken, but since he's a mechanic, and built the thing himself, he was able to repair it himself.

I ain't that handy. And the Merlin with vest is way too expensive. Plus the training that goes along with it... I stick to my tripod and/or a dolly.
 
We own and operate two blackbird stabilizers currently. We have tried a lot of different types, and I can say, this one DEFINITELY exceeding our expectations, by far. I've used it with a 7D and an FS100. The AF100 was a bit too big for it.

The biggest thing that separates the blackbird from the other stabilizers in the weight distribution at the bottom. When turning the rig, or even in wind, I found that the blackbird is WAY less susceptible to sway. Also, because the weight stays EXACTLY in line with the arm as you extend it up or down, you have very fine control of setting the speeds of the camera drop. This is what I didn't like about the merlin design. As you move the arms around, a lot of weight is shifted. It was a lot harder to get the perfect balance on the merlin to us. Whereas, with the blackbird, it was pretty straightforward and I could nail it MUCH easier.

I find the gymbal of the blackbird to have a great feature I didn't see on the others, and that was a drag setting. I like to put a tiny bit of drag which I find smoothes out the operation even more.

With a DSLR on the blackbird, I could shoot all day with it. I am not a bodybuilder. That said, I prefer more weight on a stabilizer system then less BUT I want that weight at the top and bottom and not in the middle. I found some knock-off glidecam designs to be just TOO heavy for no gain.

I don't think you'll go wrong with the merlin or the blackbird honestly, it's going to come down to preference. You can rent them from a lot of places and it might be the better thing to do. I rented because I wanted to know. Another thing is that I have considered a vest so I could add more weight to my system because the larger systems with A LOT more weight are just SO smooth. You can use the merlin vest with the blackbird as well, but I've not had a chance to try this.
 
As Rick has stated the Blackbird is a great rig. I use my Af100 on the Blackbird with the steadicam vest/arm.
 
That video was actually filmed by me, a consumer of their product. If you have a look at my youtube channel you'll see the video along with the description I added. I don't work for them but was so happy with the product & service I made them a promo for free and I filmed it on a compact Canon IXUS 220 HS aka ELPH 300 HS :). I'm no professional either.



scottfs said:
This looks interesting. There is a video with it. Of course, they will pick the best video to highlight their product. I've never seen a bad video of steadycam products. They all look great in the sales video. How they perform in the real world, along with build quality and longevity is another matter.

I have a friend who has a home-brewed steadycam that includes a vest and support arm. Recently an aluminium weld has broken, but since he's a mechanic, and built the thing himself, he was able to repair it himself.

I ain't that handy. And the Merlin with vest is way too expensive. Plus the training that goes along with it... I stick to my tripod and/or a dolly.
Click to expand...
 
Rick Burnett said:
We own and operate two blackbird stabilizers currently. We have tried a lot of different types, and I can say, this one DEFINITELY exceeding our expectations, by far. I've used it with a 7D and an FS100. The AF100 was a bit too big for it.

The biggest thing that separates the blackbird from the other stabilizers in the weight distribution at the bottom. When turning the rig, or even in wind, I found that the blackbird is WAY less susceptible to sway. Also, because the weight stays EXACTLY in line with the arm as you extend it up or down, you have very fine control of setting the speeds of the camera drop. This is what I didn't like about the merlin design. As you move the arms around, a lot of weight is shifted. It was a lot harder to get the perfect balance on the merlin to us. Whereas, with the blackbird, it was pretty straightforward and I could nail it MUCH easier.

I find the gymbal of the blackbird to have a great feature I didn't see on the others, and that was a drag setting. I like to put a tiny bit of drag which I find smoothes out the operation even more.

With a DSLR on the blackbird, I could shoot all day with it. I am not a bodybuilder. That said, I prefer more weight on a stabilizer system then less BUT I want that weight at the top and bottom and not in the middle. I found some knock-off glidecam designs to be just TOO heavy for no gain.

I don't think you'll go wrong with the merlin or the blackbird honestly, it's going to come down to preference. You can rent them from a lot of places and it might be the better thing to do. I rented because I wanted to know. Another thing is that I have considered a vest so I could add more weight to my system because the larger systems with A LOT more weight are just SO smooth. You can use the merlin vest with the blackbird as well, but I've not had a chance to try this.
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My first dislike for the blackbird is the height.
Its pretty tall and the weight range is shifted more to the middle end of the DSLR setups.
If they came out with a smaller lighter version that was 1 to 3 pounds I'd prob consider it more.

Does anyone have any worthy videos of the blackbird in practice?
Every single video I've watched so far of the blackbird has serious sway or shake that I do not see in the Glidecam demonstrations.
I've seen more "amatuers" using the glidecam with near perfect success but not the same with the Blackbird.
All the Blackbird footage looks liek Merlin footage to me...lots of sway and footsteps.
I dont see that as much in glidecam shots for example.

Anyone got any links?
 
The problem I've had with the setups for lighter cameras is they just don't work that well. I've tried a number of them on light setups and while the system is balanced, having no weight to the system, even the smallest wind can start to move the system. With my 7D I actually added weight to the top plate of the Blackbird because I found most of system worked better with more weight at each end, and this include the glidecam setup shots as well.

I've use a glidecam and I didn't think it was any easier or harder in terms of keeping it steady once balanced right. However, without a vest, the offset handle of a glidecam was VERY uncomfortable for me. that handle always wants to rotate out due to the weight offset, whereas the merlin and blackbird balance that weight above.

With the blackbird, how far that weight descends is also based on how much weight you add to the bottom, and if you use the gimbal extender or not. You can get that weight higher up to you, but honestly, after using the blackbird for more than a year, the height NEVER bothers me. In fact, I like the bottom because sometimes I will leave the camera on the stabilizer and put the bottom of it along my belt if it's a shot that does not require a stabilizer and it acts as a body brace. Works REALL well for that as well.

I cannot remember which specific shots, but the blackbird was used EXTENSIVELY in this series that we did. Especially in episode one with the soldiers coming towards the camera and us moving backwards. This was THE FIRST time I had used it, so we only got better throughout the year we did these episodes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMrwNz24j_g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia9Ms_fVEHI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfXY4-iG3_E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVg-ruQmKL8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Z3IALdF3k

I wish I could find the video that sold me on the blackbird. It was also a first time user with the blackbird and it was so smooth it was amazing. I've actually run with my blackbird to test it and it was smooth.
 
I'd be very suspect of only having one vertically moving arm. Having used a Pilot vest recently with my Blackbird, having those two separate arms moving makes a HUGE difference. The person who was letting me borrow the vest explained how they worked together and showed me how they worked together to provide the vertical stabilization. Having not used it I cannot say for sure, maybe it's fine, but I'd still be worried about it if I couldn't test it.
 
The single-articulated arm is challenging. Having double-articulated means much better shock absorption.

The other challenge is a center-mounted arm, rather than side-mounted. On the large, double-articulated rigs from Steadicam and Glidecam, you'll notice that the arm is mounted on the right side. This way, the stabilizer arm literally becomes an extension of the human arm. The cheaper rigs that have center-mounted arms aren't as easy to maneuver, just because the center mount is a clumsier design.

I've used the DV Sportster from Varizoom, and it's a PITA. It takes a lot of practice and getting used to. That said, it's heaps better than trying to fly hand-held and it can get good results. It's just a little finicky.
 
Updated the list with a few new ones at the bottom

Tiffen Steadicam Merlin -- ($799 PLUS shipping) Obviously the best of the bunch. Balances up to 5 pounds.

U-Flycam Stabilsierung -- ($130 after shipping) Crazy name. Construction looks solid. Holds up to 3.5 pounds. Some reviews say it's crap. Some say it's decent.

Hague DMC DSLR Stabilizer -- ($250 after shipping). This is a newer product. Can't really find much about it. Anyone have experience with it? Supports about 4.4 pounds.

Hague Maxi Motion Cam ($340 after shipping) -- Looks pretty sturdy. Supports up to 6.6 pounds. Could probably fasten some accessories on here. Not overly wowed by the design.

U3X Longbow ($175 after shipping) -- Although it looks pretty nice, I've read some reviews saying that you have to physically bend the stabilizing bar to make it work. Not to thrilled about that. Supports up to 5 pounds.

Glidecam HD2000 ($450 with shipping) -- Construction-wise, this is solid. Seems like this is one of the most-popular steadicams out of the bunch. Holds up to 6 pounds.

The BlackBird ($485 PLUS shipping) -- A newer make, I believe. Holds up to 8 pounds.

Wondlan Ares ($320 with shipping) -- All-around, this looks pretty top-notch. Solid build. Good handling and pretty good out-of-the-box results. Holds up to 7.7 pounds

Varizoom Flowpod ($399 PLUS shipping) -- This is advertised as being very unique. Can give you good up-top and down-low steadicam action. Holds up to 5 pounds out of the box.

Steadicam Gizmo ($98 with shipping) -- Looks very DIY. At least from the test video, though, appears to deliver decent results.

SteadDSLR – ($300) – This is actually a steadicam/shoulder rig combo. Not sure how well it does either. But it at least looks like it does an average job at both.

SteadiGo ($200) -- Looks a little DIY-ish, yet somewhat not DIY-ish at the same time. That probably doesn't make much sense, so you'll just have to check it out. Nice that you can easily adjust left/right for cameras with flip out LCDs.

EZ-Steady ($325) -- This looks like a super solid rig. Nice handling and nice controls. Looks fairly sturdy and top notch.
 
I still disagree that the Merlin is the best in the bunch. :) I find the Blackbird to be superior in terms of results, Merlin wins on compactness. To me, it's difficult to get the dynamic balance set correctly easily on the Merlin, whereas, with the Blackbird you don't have to set it, the design is already dynamically balances no matter where you slide the weights up and down. This makes the biggest difference when you want to rotate the camera with your guide hand. With the dynamic balance off, the unit will sway easier which I am not a huge fan of.
 
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