Portahead 10 brushless gimbal with Arri Alexa on steadicam

[Andreas Kielb]

First application of the Portahead 10 prototype for a short film. The system is designed to be used with a steadicam system as portable device and adds electronically stabilized roll and tilt while the pan acts manually with the steadicam. The weight of the head is 3.6 kg and it is optimized for longer cameras at around 10 kg like the Arri Alexa series or Amira, Red one, Sony P1 or F55 with raw recorder. Shorter and lighter cameras can also be used as the motor output settings can be adjusted. Red Dragon, Epic or Scarlet might be used with zoom lens and accessories without further adjustments, though.

Later there will also be an additional pan-motor in order to extend the system to a 3-axis stabilized head for crane, cablecam or car-to-car shots.

www.portahead.de

 

[Marc Berger]

Hi Andreas,
great!
The first time I see perfect shots with a electronic stabilized gimbal (without vibrations or micro vibrations).

 

[Andreas Kielb]

Hi Andreas,
great!
The first time I see perfect shots with a electronic stabilized gimbal (without vibrations or micro vibrations).

Thanks a lot Marc! I hope to be able to show more footage of the device in the near future. Still have a lot of tests to make in different applications.

www.portahead.de

 

[Marc Berger]

Hi Andreas,
will you be selling gimbals like this in the future? The big thing about gimbals IMHO now, is build quality and with this eliminating vibrations coming solely from the weakness of the structure. And the second big challenge is to write the software for the device hand- and steadicamheld. (I´m talking about heavy cameras such as Epic, Alexa...I know with DSLR there are some professional solutions already).
Please keep it updated!
Thanks,
Marc

 

[Marc Berger]

...and yours showed me the best results ever...

 

[Daniel Stilling]

I hate to say it, but what is the difference between these shots, and shots that could be done with Steadicam only? I don't see a reason for a gimbal on top of a Steadicam if you're not going from low to high in shot, or over a surface you couldn't walk over. This to me looks like a regular (well executed) Steadicam shot.

 

[Andreas Kielb]

Thanks again Marc, I already sell smaller brushless gimbals for DSLR or also Epic etc. on demand. I'll also offer the Portahead 10 after some weeks of further testing. I will definitely keep this topic updated.

I hate to say it, but what is the difference between these shots, and shots that could be done with Steadicam only? I don't see a reason for a gimbal on top of a Steadicam if you're not going from low to high in shot, or over a surface you couldn't walk over. This to me looks like a regular (well executed) Steadicam shot.

This project was only a first chance to actually use the system with the alexa and the shots were not designed as particular auto-leveling test but as part of the film. I did 3 days of conventional operating on that project before a few weeks ago. This was an additional shooting after a local theatre refused some of their already filmed dancers to be part of the film. I hope to be able to show some more specific moves soon. This will include fast starts and stops with the camera facing sideways and wide angle scenes with a lot of streight lines in the picture that usually make every sway error significant. But also for commercial packshots or slow moves that need to be really precise I see a big potential in gyro stabilization.

I'm not 100% sure if Flemming Laybourn used his AR for this shot but I guess he did and it makes a lot of sense to use auto-level for such kind of shots: http://vimeo.com/65450002


www.portahead.de

 

[Björn Benckert]

bug + for effort.
And yes result looks good. Even though it's not to difficult to fly a slow moving camera in a wide open space. But for a first test and such it's not bad.

But to me it does not give much that a normal steady does not allready give. And the weight and size of it all is a bit hard to find attractive... Would anyone go for it just to get the alexa on a gimbal? I guess so, there is DP's out there that are so hard up on arri stuff so they would not shoot with anything else. But to me a dragon on a letus roll stablizer on a steady seams like a better solution.

 

[Andreas Kielb]

bug + for effort.
And yes result looks good. Even though it's not to difficult to fly a slow moving camera in a wide open space. But for a first test and such it's not bad.

But to me it does not give much that a normal steady does not allready give. And the weight and size of it all is a bit hard to find attractive... Would anyone go for it just to get the alexa on a gimbal? I guess so, there is DP's out there that are so hard up on arri stuff so they would not shoot with anything else. But to me a dragon on a letus roll stablizer on a steady seams like a better solution.

Thank you Björn! I also sell a system for around 5 kg (...Portahead 5, though it will be also posible to increase the weight one or two kilos). I already tested it on my steadicam as I did a custom version for another cameramen and steadicam op. This rig can be used like a jib-arm on steadicam due to an additional IMU sensor which detects the orientation of the head. But the system is already abroad after I went to visit him during his prep week for a new feature about the american war of independence:

I'll update my own Portahead 5 system in the next weeks with the second IMU and controller for this rollover feature and then I'll be able to show footage from this system as well. Due to mechanical reasons with the larger camera the Portahead 10 can only be used like a normal steadicam rig but has a lot of potential in my opinion, regardless (see the freeze frame video from Flemming Laybourn I posted earlier, great stuff probably done with his AR ).

www.portahead.de

 

[Marc Berger]

I hate to say it, but what is the difference between these shots, and shots that could be done with Steadicam only? I don't see a reason for a gimbal on top of a Steadicam if you're not going from low to high in shot, or over a surface you couldn't walk over. This to me looks like a regular (well executed) Steadicam shot.

Yes, I´m very curios about a shot from low to high mode too, but this is for me the first time I see a result without vibrations with a heavy setup on a gimbal. Quite sure this will work as good in low to high mode...Right now I still prefer pure steadicam work over all this gimbal shots I saw. But Andreas gimbal looks to have the potential to really add something valuable.