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Steadicam or Glidecam

S

sbcooler

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I am wondering what people prefer here at this forum...the Merlin Steadicam or Pilot OR the Glidecam 2000/4000 X-10?

I am kind of curious what would go best with say a Scarlet when it comes out and my older Sony Z1u?

Pros and Cons of each?
 
sbcooler said:
I am wondering what people prefer here at this forum...the Merlin Steadicam or Pilot OR the Glidecam 2000/4000 X-10?

I am kind of curious what would go best with say a Scarlet when it comes out and my older Sony Z1u?

Pros and Cons of each?
Click to expand...

the actioncam code name "Rhett" - coming soon:)

pros: fully up-dateable to all actioncam models

cons: not ready yet
 
Having used the Pilot myself, with a EX-1, I have to say it is a really nice little rig.
Quality wise you can not go wrong with Steadicam/Tiffen.
You get what you pay for.

Just be sure that the camera you want to use is within the weight limits.
Don't think that the maximum loaded rig will give you the best performance.....
 
Whilst I agree that you can't go wrong with a Tiffen Steadicam- Other brands are also worth investigating if your budget doesn't stretch too far-

I use a Glidecam V-25- which was fantastic when flying the Varicam, some 16mm cameras etc- sadly the RED can only be used on it when stripped down as much as possible- even then, it's pretty much at the end of it's load capability.

But for a scarlet? for my money, you couldn't go too far wrong with a V-25. I haven't tried other brands apart from my steadicam and glidecam- I have heard good things about the actioncam though...
 
James Alan McAleer said:
Whilst I agree that you can't go wrong with a Tiffen Steadicam- Other brands are also worth investigating if your budget doesn't stretch too far-

I use a Glidecam V-25- which was fantastic when flying the Varicam, some 16mm cameras etc- sadly the RED can only be used on it when stripped down as much as possible- even then, it's pretty much at the end of it's load capability.

But for a scarlet? for my money, you couldn't go too far wrong with a V-25. I haven't tried other brands apart from my steadicam and glidecam- I have heard good things about the actioncam though...
Click to expand...

Can not agree with you about Glide Cam V25 . With Arri Clap On Mattebox and 2 Filter on ARRI Prime 18 it works very nice .
And only in this configuration you need to extend it to maximum.
In my configuration with Bartech FF , AJA , and small wireless it works for me ok.
 
I owned and operated a Glidecam V-16, also the Varizoom Black Hawk. The Black Hawk was a much better steadi, worked great with Aaton XTR-Prod super 16mm. The Glidecam's engineering was more like a hobbyist's garage project. It wasn't built well and it was hard to operate and not very smooth.

That said you couldn't go wrong with real Steadicam products.
 
Based on where you are, there are a lot of high-end 'Steadicam' and wannabee 'Steadicam' manufacturers.

As Rob said, Steadicam/Tiffen is great.
Flyer is great to fly. Haven't tried Pilot but it's supposed to be good.

so, you want to get into Steadicam world.....Make sure you do the workshop.
It's a very expensive, intensive business. Takes 2~3 years to finally operate properly....

Good luck !

Yuri
 
Barry Gregg said:
I owned and operated a Glidecam V-16, also the Varizoom Black Hawk. The Black Hawk was a much better steadi, worked great with Aaton XTR-Prod super 16mm. The Glidecam's engineering was more like a hobbyist's garage project. It wasn't built well and it was hard to operate and not very smooth.

That said you couldn't go wrong with real Steadicam products.
Click to expand...

Don't know the Varizoom but the Glidecam V25 is a much more "professional" rig than the V-16. No comparison between the two Glidecam models.
 
The Glidecam products are junk. If you do some research you will discover all sorts of problems with them. I was very unfortunate to once witness the springs in a Glidecam arm snap - sending the rig and a JVC 101 crashing to the ground (the camera and lens were wrecked).

This problem is not an isolated incident (i've heard of a few others) it results from the springs not being properly tempered.

I recently bought a Steadicam Pilot for my EX1 (and Scarlet!) - the build quality is amazing and you can fly it all day long without any fatigue.

Adam
 
To be fair, springs do break in other stabiliser products too.

Not that I'm touting Glidecam as I haven't personally used them, but without knowing the specifics of the incidents I think it's hard to judge whether it's quality control, manufacturing deficiencies, poor maintenance or simply overloading of the rigs which can cause problems.
 
yurikawana said:
Based on where you are, there are a lot of high-end 'Steadicam' and wannabee 'Steadicam' manufacturers.

As Rob said, Steadicam/Tiffen is great.
Flyer is great to fly. Haven't tried Pilot but it's supposed to be good.

so, you want to get into Steadicam world.....Make sure you do the workshop.
It's a very expensive, intensive business. Takes 2~3 years to finally operate properly....

Good luck !

Yuri
Click to expand...

At NAB (Tiffen Booth) I had the fortune of a couple of short private lessons from the inventor of the Stedicam. He had me flying the new Archer in an hour. Mastery would take months, not years. Take the course for sure but research the instructor which makes all the difference.

-michael zaletel
(shooter)
 
Thanks for all the responses. I live on Long Island not far from NYC. Where would be a good place to try one out and buy one? And where would be a good place to maybe get some training...any suggestions?

I have heard a consistent chatter that the Steadicam Pilot is a little hard to use than the Glidecam 2000/4000? So do people agree the learning curve is a little tougher with the Steadicam products? Tougher to find the CG (center of gravity) to balance? Or is this not a real difference between these products?

Also the Steadicam Merlin is about $1,400 less than the Pilot...it says it can go up to 5lbs...what happens if you go to 6 or 7 lbs..can it do it or is it hard to manage? Is the Pilot much bigger/heavier than the Steadicam Merlin?

And if I took some private training for a day...and then used it once a week for 2-3 hours...could I get good at say after 10-12 outings? I edit also so I can learn from my footage.
 
Mastery would take months, not years.
Click to expand...

Depends on your definition of mastery. If you have low standards, hell you can figure it out in weeks.

No offense to those who fly the lower end rigs, but they don't know what they are missing, or even what the differences are between the real systems and the less so ones.

Actioncam makes good stuff, as does MK-V, GPI Pro, Greg Bub, and Baer Bell. I wouldn't waste my money on any of the low end systems, as you will end up replacing it, they don't hold their value, and you will learn bad habits. Why own one at all if you are not an operator? You are going to spend $80k on a good system, and you can rent a world class op and a great rig for at least 40 days for $80k.

Cheers,

Nick
 
bicycle?

bicycle?

Is it possible to where the vest and arm and ride my bicycle at the same time. I've seen people run with these and they look great. I've seen someone on a segway with one and it looks great. Now I want to know if I can get on my bike and take some great super smooth footage..is that possible?
 
sbcooler said:
Is it possible to where the vest and arm and ride my bicycle at the same time. I've seen people run with these and they look great. I've seen someone on a segway with one and it looks great. Now I want to know if I can get on my bike and take some great super smooth footage..is that possible?
Click to expand...

Are you not worried that balancing a camera might conflict with balancing yourself on a bicycle?

You could try it :beer:
 
Yes, SBCooler, I think you should definitely try that. With your camera. And then report back to the rest of us.

:-)

I really like our RED-edition Actioncam. . . great, great unit for the money.

I just ordered an EasyRig, and whereas it isn't here yet, I think it is safe to say that it is not at all designed to give you smooth, tracking shots. It's designed to make hand-held shots easier on the body.

Stephen
 
Alright I am getting the idea that my novice-ness in this area is showing. So riding a bicycle while operating a merlin steadicam is out of the question unless I have the skill to be in Circ D'Soleil!
 
There was a great article in Event DV about Brian MacKenzie - a Unicycle Glidecam Operator based in Canada. Truly impressive talent to do both the Glidecam and the Unicycle at the same time:

EVENTDV Article

The problem with trying to ride bike at the same time is that with most if not all stabilization system - you have to manage the system with both hands. You wouldn't be able to keep your hands on the handlebars to steer yourself. Perhaps a tandem bicycle might work if you had someone else doing the driving. That's why the unicycle concept works so well.

Call me lazy, but I'd rather pay for and outfit a Segway with a Steadicam versus facing the steep learning curve of riding a unicycle.

So yeah - Cirque du Soleil skills...

-Michael Rivera
 
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