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  • 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 :)

Letus Gimbal

I am very excited by this product and have put my deposit down for batch 2. My intended use is slightly different from most of you. I would like to get some of your opinions on what I want to use it for. I am primarily a natural history shooter and I do a lot of work shooting from rocking boats with longer lenses mostly the 70-200mm. As most of you can imagine I get a lot of unusable footage. I am hoping to use it as a portable "perfect horizon" attached to my easyrig . I do not know if it will arm on a rocking boat at all but I am willing to take the risk.
 
Mark van Coller said:
I am very excited by this product and have put my deposit down for batch 2. My intended use is slightly different from most of you. I would like to get some of your opinions on what I want to use it for. I am primarily a natural history shooter and I do a lot of work shooting from rocking boats with longer lenses mostly the 70-200mm. As most of you can imagine I get a lot of unusable footage. I am hoping to use it as a portable "perfect horizon" attached to my easyrig . I do not know if it will arm on a rocking boat at all but I am willing to take the risk.
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Mark, that is a great application…and I am very curious how it will perform. I do quite a bit of on-water shooting as well. I'm hoping to test the Helix in this exact situation once mine arrives. I am also in Batch 2.
 
I am going to GUESS that any gimbal-based stabilizer on rolling water is going to show some amount of "sway." I may be wrong - I hope I am - but I think we will only know for sure after someone has tried it. Since I don't have much of an access to a boat, it probably won't be me. :-)
 
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Some clips here - Besteady ones, but the gimbal principle is common... would be interesting to see what the Letus can do :)

https://vimeo.com/86246296


A clip from the video - good example as you can see the movement in the speedboat and how the gimbal is working against it...

https://vimeo.com/86049902

 
Terry VerHaar said:
I am going to GUESS that any gimabl-based stabilizer on rolling water is going to show some amount of "sway." I may be wrong - I hope I am - but I think we will only know for sure after someone has tried it. Since I don't have much of an access to a boat, it probably won't be me. :-)
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I've thought about doing some filming from my brother's boat, since he's always keen to take it out in exchange for having company and someone to help get it in and out of the dock. But I'm wary of damage to my Epic from salt water air (and, on a boat, splash and the other unthinkable.) I have a cheap rain cover that would probably do for splash, and modest use and prudent precautions (taping inputs with gaffer's tape, etc.) are probably enough to safeguard things. But I still am worried that some "junk" may develop in the way of noisy audio circuits or other signal paths. Would love to do this, though. If anyone with lots of experience shooting in salt water environments (I'm near the Gulf of Mexico, Pensacola, Navarre, Ft. Walton Beaches) wants to chime in and tell me I'm way too paranoid, I welcome the counsel.:-)
 
I was imagining a situation with a slower more rocking motion, not a speedboat, but while those clips do show some movement it is not as bad as I thought it might be. Seems definitely acceptable.
 
Andy White said:
Some clips here - Besteady ones, but the gimbal principle is common... would be interesting to see what the Letus can do :)

https://vimeo.com/86246296


A clip from the video - good example as you can see the movement in the speedboat and how the gimbal is working against it...

https://vimeo.com/86049902

Click to expand...

That second clip is pretty impressive in terms of what the gimbal is doing to compensate.
 
The official Oracle Team USA cinematographer filmed everything with a camera inside waterproof housing and gimbal last summer for the America's Cup. I was working for Discovery and we were provided awesome footage to supplement our material. We had many as 8 Go Pros on Oracle's AC72 so the mix was just lovely.There were brief runs where our material was strong without a gimbal but took a perfect storm of glassy water and good positioning chasing Oracle's yacht to get somewhat comparable results.

'Somewhat' is a stretch, believe me and at that point was hard for the massive AC72 made of carbon fiber (including mast and sail) to haul a$$ so footage was not great. On windy days we were moving at 40 knots+ and the gimbal footage was absolutely awesome. Sure wish we had a gimbal last summer.

AC722013_zpsaf273fa8.jpg
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Andy White said:
Some clips here - Besteady ones, but the gimbal principle is common... would be interesting to see what the Letus can do :)

https://vimeo.com/86246296


A clip from the video - good example as you can see the movement in the speedboat and how the gimbal is working against it...

https://vimeo.com/86049902

Click to expand...

Would like to see a BTS to see if the operator is wearing some form of a Steadi arm. Seems like a real smooth Y axis on the second clip
 
Good example of how the hand held rigs can work.


That two arms are required to operate these rigs can be a significant safety issue when standing or sitting from a bumpy moving platform.

Whilst not meant to be direct criticism of the guys in the vid, its prudent to wear a basic helmet (skateboard dome) when working on fast moving vehicles. Especially if not wearing a life jacket shooting from a boat and especially if both your arms are occupied holding a camera.

In this case he is wedged in the bow so is secure, but if standing and there is a sudden and large deviation of movement it is natural response to throw out an arm to protect yourself, so either you drop the camera or get thrown against the vehicle or vessel.

So bear this in mind when planning to use kit that requires two hands to hold.


Also insurance companies have less investigative work if you show them a camera that has been submerged rather than hope they believe that your kit is resting on the bottom, so securing the camera to the vessel is prudent but not always possible if you are changing position.


Mike Brennan
 
Michael J Brennan said:
That two arms are required to operate these rigs can be a significant safety issue when standing or sitting from a bumpy moving platform.
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Letus' 4th axis will allow it to be tripod mounted (or to mount the rig to anything from underneath its other 3 axes). Or to a hard-mounted steadicam arm. A distinct advantage over other units and will ameliorate the kinds of safety issues you're describing...

With the right rigging, it will probably work very well on boats.
 
Thanks for all the input. Those 2 clips are very impressive but I am guessing looking at the video thatthat unit was armed on land where the accelerometers could calibrate properly while absolutely steady. We have been using a DJI S1000 octocopter with a ZenMuse GH4 gimbal taking off and landing on a boat and that gimbal has been arming and working amazingly well. Some very impressive piloting going on as well by the Octocopter crew.
 
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I would be grateful for any footage. I'd prefer to see simple movements like following, tracking to get an idea of how smooth it is compared to Steadicam work. There is a lot of complicated 1ers out there but I'd appreciate seeing it perform the basics.
 
I'm extremely interested to hear feedback about using it one-handed in "low mode". How heavy is it? Could you hold it this way for a couple minute move? How easy is it to go back and forth from two hand to one hand operation?
 
Tom Greenberg said:
I'm extremely interested to hear feedback about using it one-handed in "low mode". How heavy is it? Could you hold it this way for a couple minute move? How easy is it to go back and forth from two hand to one hand operation?
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With a GH4, SmallHD + Rode I'm able to swing between horizontal (I'm going to call this Cradle Mode) to Suitcase and back with one hand. Real nice balance to this rig with a light camera package. With a RED you need two hands to make the transition but it is waaaay easier on Helix than any of the Yoke style gimbals out there
 
Thanks Zeb! If you get a chance and wouldn't mind shooting some footage illustrating one hand use with an Epic, I'd really appreciate it. Having a big argument with my business partner about the lack of a top handle on the Helix. He feels that cripples the unit...I (of course) disagree, lol...
 
Tom Greenberg said:
Thanks Zeb! If you get a chance and wouldn't mind shooting some footage illustrating one hand use with an Epic, I'd really appreciate it. Having a big argument with my business partner about the lack of a top handle on the Helix. He feels that cripples the unit...I (of course) disagree, lol...
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Heavy camera package = Steadi arm

Best Steadi arm gimbal = Helix

Plus you can set a Helix down on any flat surface - no stand needed

Your move Yoke Design ;-)
 
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