Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Anyone have any experience with the Chinese knock off Steadicams? Like this one?

What bright monitor under $1500 is going to be suitable for framing purposes and hopefully a bit more?

The smallHD AC7 OLED SDI was going to be my choice but after reading several reviews and looking a bit closer at the brightness specs (seems there is no easy way to define how it will appear in bright ambient light conditions), I wonder if this is a good choice after all?

Does anyone have experience with this Marshall... http://www.filmtools.com/marshall-7-inch-sdi-high-brightness-monitor.html - - would it be a good choice? Looks to have a good contrast ration plus not bad brightness.

This did look great, as for pricing too, but sadly lacks in brightness and will likely not work - http://ikancorp.com/productdetail.php?id=496
 
I was just about to ask a similar question. I was interested in the OLED also until I found out it is not good in the field due to brightness issues. Assuming I want to stick with SmallHD rather than going with a Marshall or TV logic, what is a good alternative? The lcd DP7?
 
Bright monitors. I'm considering selling my 5" red touch and buying the 9." As the touch has been bright enough outside.

Power. Soldered a 6pin Lemo last night. Waiting on a second anton bauer plate and inline fuse housing before I connect the remaining items.

photo-13.jpg
 
david_winters said:
Bright monitors. I'm considering selling my 5" red touch and buying the 9." As the touch has been bright enough outside.

Power. Soldered a 6pin Lemo last night. Waiting on a second anton bauer plate and inline fuse housing before I connect the remaining items.
Click to expand...

Hey Dave,
It would be awesome if you could post some pics of the wiring when finished... Dave quick question, my Red brick charger came with a long 2B lemo wire to power the Red one from the charger. I also have a 2B-1B adapter wire.. If I were to cut one end of the 2B wire, would it be wired the same as the 6pin lemo? I just dont want to cut the wire yet without figuring out the pin out colors to wire this up. Thanks!
 
John Galeano said:
Dave quick question, my Red brick charger came with a long 2B lemo wire to power the Red one from the charger. I also have a 2B-1B adapter wire.. If I were to cut one end of the 2B wire, would it be wired the same as the 6pin lemo? I just dont want to cut the wire yet without figuring out the pin out colors to wire this up. Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi John,

The Lemo has 6 pins. Four large, two small.

Two large pins = + power
Two large pins = - power
I assume the small pins are for Red OEM battery capacity display on camera. Since my batts are Anton Bauer I did not connect the small pins.

You can cut and extend your existing cable, just be sure to check voltage and continuity before powering the camera.

I'll post photos when I'm done, just waiting on a few items from Hong Kong, including the rod brackets you recommended.
 
Thanks Dave.. looking forward to the pics. last question.. I haven't cut my wire yet but are the wires color coded red and black?
 
I opened up my Anton anton bauer to lemo cable made by Switronix, which was color coded. Most likely yes, but use a volt / continuity meter to verify each wire.
 
Unit arrived on Monday (the $1750 version with monitor bracket and adjustable block).

Only just had a chance to do initial balancing... I hope I haven't uncovered a nasty problem. I have an email into the supplier. No one has mentioned this so I assume mine is a unique problem. The gimbal is pretty badly off-set. So, in static balance I get things level. When I rotate the camera 90 degrees, all of a sudden the camera is now pointing noticeably up and the horizon is no longer level, go back to 0 degrees, it's all level. Go to 180 degrees and now the camera is pointing slightly up again, neither level nor as far out as at 90 degrees, horizon is not level either.

The killer is you cannot adjust the gimbal on this units. I hope the supplier is able to rectify this. I am a complete newbie to all this, but this is a pretty obvious problem.

Has anyone done this test with their units, perhaps I just got one out of spec, I doubt it, but you never know...?
 
ShaunMavronicolas said:
The gimbal is pretty badly off-set. So, in static balance I get things level. When I rotate the camera 90 degrees, all of a sudden the camera is now pointing noticeably up and the horizon is no longer level, go back to 0 degrees, it's all level. Go to 180 degrees and now the camera is pointing slightly up again, neither level nor as far out as at 90 degrees, horizon is not level either.
Click to expand...

Lol, Sorry fella'
This isn't gimbal, Its your rig isn't balance correctly.
 
ShaunMavronicolas said:
Hey Kwan, if the setup is level at say 0 degrees and you simply rotate it 90 degrees, why would the balance shift, both horizontally and forward/back?
Click to expand...

It does

TiP;
Once your rig balanced properly, it should look like a square box.
for example, your front of the camera should align with the bottom end of monitor and same to rear end as well.
 
Kwan Khan said:
It does

TiP;
Once your rig balanced properly, it should look like a square box.
for example, your front of the camera should align with the bottom end of monitor and same to rear end as well.
Click to expand...

What on earth.

Shaun, I'm going to agree with you. Your gimbal is probably off.
 
Kwan Khan said:
Lol, Sorry fella'
This isn't gimbal, Its your rig isn't balance correctly.
Click to expand...
Kwan is correct. What he's referring to is called Dynamic Balance.
The Steadicam Operators' Handbook explains this in great detail.
While I don't doubt that a cheap chinese rig could have a defective gimbal, the issue involves the placement of the battery and monitor on the bottom of the sled.
They affect the balance when panning/spinning the rig.
 
OK, what if the camera is turned 180 degrees? I would assume that if level at 0 degrees and I rotate the camera 180 degrees, it should still be level, correct? This is simply not happening.
 
Kwan Khan said:
Lol, Sorry fella'
This isn't gimbal, Its your rig isn't balance correctly.
Click to expand...
Kwan Khan said:
It does

TiP;
Once your rig balanced properly, it should look like a square box.
for example, your front of the camera should align with the bottom end of monitor and same to rear end as well.
Click to expand...
Scotty Baker said:
Kwan is correct. What he's referring to is called Dynamic Balance.
The Steadicam Operators' Handbook explains this in great detail.
While I don't doubt that a cheap chinese rig could have a defective gimbal, the issue involves the placement of the battery and monitor on the bottom of the sled.
They affect the balance when panning/spinning the rig.
Click to expand...

This is very incorrect. His gimbal is out of whack. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by the front of the camera should align with the bottom of the monitor. Dynamic Balance can be achieved with very oddly shaped rigs, so long as the battery, monitor, and camera's center of gravities (respectively) are in the right positions relative to each other. It has nothing to do with where the monitor and battery are in relation to the length of the camera. (for reference, I've attached a photo of a rig I was operating on recently. It was perfectly in dynamic balance, even with the monitor and battery not "lining up" with the front and back of the camera, as you said they "should")

Dynamic Balance is a tricky issue, and many newbies mistake Dynamic Balance for the cause of their issues, when it RARELY is. I've almost never heard of a newbie running up against a dynamic balance issue. Dynamic Balance is only in play DURING panning. If you pan the camera, stop it, and it is now out of balance, your gimbal is off center. If you can pan it back to the original orientation, and it goes back into balance, that proves it conclusively. Likely, the gimbal needs to be shimmed or adjusted, unless it's a design that is built without adjustments. If the camera is balanced when you have it sitting there, and balanced when you stop it at any point during the pan, but tilts when it is rotating, then Dynamic Balance is the issue. Otherwise, it's not.

Shaun, if the gimbal was off in one axis (the lens tilted down, or tilted up, or went from side to side), I would recommend trying to fix it by adjusting the screws going from the gimbal forks into the pan bearing housing. However, since the gimbal is out of whack on 2 axes, you're probably looking at improperly machined parts. If you post up a video of the rig, I can just quickly confirm it, but I'm guessing you're going to have to send it back, and see if a new one is any better. Even high end rigs occasionally have out of spec machined parts, but I'm guessing the QC is just a lot lower for the rigs coming from China.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_3493.jpg
    IMG_3493.jpg
    85.5 KB · Views: 0
For reference, here is a Glidecam's gimbal being adjusted. As he shows, if you pan it, and stop it, it should stay vertical. A rig in static balance should be able to do that, even if it is horrifically out of dynamic balance. As I said in my previous post, Dynamic Balance is only in play during panning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3XJ8eToaYo

I don't believe the CAME gimbal has that same kind of adjustment system, however, so the adjustment instructions themselves shouldn't be of much use, but the technique of checking it is.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top