Review of ActionProducts Runner exoskeleton

[Nicholas Wise]

A few people have approached me about my experiences-to-date with the ActionProducts Runner exoskeleton, which I recently purchased via Innocinema. So I thought I would share some initial thoughts.

I’m currently shooting in LA so, unfortunately, I don’t have photos/videos to post from my hotel room. In that regard, please consider this as a part one. When I return to NY, I plan on performing more tests and updating this review as best I can. Feel free to suggest specific tests/videos/photos you would like me to post.

As I don’t have my Runner in front of me, I’m doing this from memory, so if anyone at AP, Innocinema or other Runner owners read any erroneous statements below, please feel free to chime in.

BUILD + SETUP

I learnt to appreciate AP’s build quality when I purchased their Epic modules a while back. I was expecting the same attention to detail with the Runner and this felt validated when I unwrapped it for the first time.

The arms are machined from 7075 aluminium with steel springs (three forearm and three upper) and 19mm carbon fiber rods secured to the crescent wrist guards via two tightening screws (3mm hex). These rods have steel hooks on the end where you hang your gimbal. The arms have an “open system” design, which is great for maintenance and the overall form appears to share similarities with the ActionCam arms that AP have been designing for many years. I thought the red anodized accenting was a nice touch. The elbow is joined via a screw (6mm hex) and two ball bearings.

In the middle of the crescent wrist guards there is currently a hole. Apparently this is where a small cushion might eventually attach.

Each arm has two tensioning knobs, one for the forearm springs and one for the upper arm springs. I wish I had more Steadicam/ActionCam knowledge to know what magic ratio would give me the best performance. If anyone out there has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

While wearing the Runner, you can reach across and adjust the forearm tension knobs yourself. I think this is a great advantage for fine-tuning on the fly as opposed to having to take off the rig first or relying on an AC to dial you in.

The arms are rated to hold up to 33lbs combined. However, I found that at the minimum tension settings, there is still quite a bit of lift, so I doubt there is a low minimum payload. I will have to do more tests to work this out. I’d like to think the Runner’s arms can modify to lighter/stiffer springs, much like the ActionCam series, but I’m not sure if that’s part of AP’s plan.

Depending on your body shape/arm length, you would slide the 19mm rods in/out until the gimbal hangs at the optimum distance from you. I have noticed that, if you have shorter arms, you would end up sliding these rods to a short setting, leading to the chance that the other ends of the rods dig into your forearms. I would recommend AP make shorter lengths available.

The vest itself is … well, there’s not much to it. But I believe that’s a good thing for reasons I will get into later. Two more 19mm carbon fiber rods run parallel up the spine. Attached to these are three aluminium brackets that can be loosened with a 5mm hex and slid up and down independently.

The top bracket connects to the shoulder straps and the main foam pad for your back. The foam pad has a removable breathable cover (via zipper). The straps themselves are quite unremarkable with a simple chest strap. I initially thought these could have come with more padding, but perhaps that would just have been unnecessary weight considering you don’t really feel much load on your shoulders.

The middle bracket is where the arms attach. Jutting out from this bracket are two small dovetail-style plates that can be adjusted in length according to taste. Each arm attaches to its respective plate via a single screw (5mm hex). Once attached, it feels very solid and I have not encountered any loosening, even after a day of heavy use.

If you plan to transport the Runner with the arms detached, it is great to know that it’s only a couple screws away from being ready to use. Also, it is worth noting that your arm tension settings are independent of how the arms attach to the vest. This means that those tension settings you spent so long finessing can stay set during transportation.

I have discovered that sliding the middle bracket up and down when the arms are attached and loaded is very difficult … and understandably so. Best to do it when the arms are detached or pointing skywards (unloaded).

The lower bracket has a smaller lower-back pad (removable cover) and connects to the waist belt. The core of the belt is a strip of sheet steel with more padding to ensure a comfortable fit around the hips. On each hip is a screw (4mm hex) that can be loosened to allow widening/shortening of the waist belt. The belt closes with a single quick release buckle similar to AP’s ActionCam vests.

(For those of you who found a six inch piece of plastic in your Runner delivery with a row of holes drilled through it, I was told this is a buckle extension for those of us with a more generous midriff.)

Also connected to those waist belt adjustment screws on the hips are two small loops. This is where you can hook your arms during “standby mode”. More on that later.

The lower clamp has two extra holes, one on each side of where the 19mm spine rods attach. These are there so your Runner can mount onto a standard 5/8 spud when not in use. I have been using an Avenger 17 rolling stand, which has been working perfectly.

The position of these brackets and dovetails is down to your personal setup and probably has a lot to do with your body shape. I imagine that by relocating the middle bracket, you can shift your boom range higher or lower to taste. I’m using a trial by error method for now.

WEIGHT + FORM FACTOR

As mentioned earlier, the vest itself is quite minimal. Speaking from personal preference, I choose to DP with the least amount of gizmos attached to me as possible. If I have to strap into something, it must feel secure without distraction. Sometimes, I even find EasyRig vests too claustrophobic. Wearing the Runner vest feels un-taxing in this regard and my body can breathe.

The major weight of the whole unit is in the arms, but it is easy to see where AP has made strides to machine out unnecessary weight. With this in mind, I urge users to take care if they put on the vest while the arms point skywards. They can tend to swing about under their own momentum. Your friendly AC could hold these steady while you first mount the vest. Afterwards, you would rely on having the arms secured in standby mode.

Overall, I have yet to notice a distracting amount of weight when wearing the Runner. On a recent shoot, I was very content to keep the vest on when talking to the director in-between takes or during quick turnarounds.

The svelte nature of the Runner is the major reason I chose it. The whole rig is super slim and going through doorways is a breeze. Because the arms wrap around your flanks and under your arms, you essentially maintain your own body width.

Let’s say you are following an actor from behind and they step though a doorway and into a corridor where they immediately turn left to walk down. By the nature of being a couple steps behind, there is that moment when you can loose sight of the actor as they turn. To keep them in frame, one could start the camera’s pan when entering the doorway, as opposed to when in the corridor. With the Runner, I feel that I have the extra inches of space to blend an early pan on the gimbal without fear of hitting the doorframe.

At the very least, it is peace of mind knowing I can maintain speed through narrow gaps and not worry about clipping the rig and spoiling a take.

It is worth noting that when in standby mode, the elbows articulate out sideways, making you too wide to fit through doorways.

 

[Nicholas Wise]

USABILITY

Getting in and out of the vest gets quite easy with practice. On set, I had mine standing on a roller stand. I could back myself in, clip the chest and waist clips, stand upright to lift off the stand spud and unhook the arms from standby mode in about 15-20 seconds.

Un-mounting would generally take a little longer as putting the arms into standby mode was more fiddly - more on that later.

The system comes with two small nylon loops that you pre-attach to your gimbal. Small metal hooks at the end of the 19mm rods hook into these loops. This is my main gripe with the system as it is certainly not an elegant solution, considering the rest of the design. I cannot see any easy way to pass-off the gimbal during a shot. However, I have yet to encounter a shot where I have needed to do so, so it’s not a big issue right now. By the nature of the nylon loops having no rigidity, they won’t be standing upright so you can hook in easily. During my first shoot with the Runner, I found it too fiddly to feel round for these loops while holding the arms steady, so I ended up depending on my AC to hold them ready for me.

I believe AP are working on a more refined solution for Movi/Ronin style gimbals. I hope they don’t forget about us Helix operators.

On a note for Helix owners, since the right handle acts as your tilt control, the nylon loops interfere with this when hooked to the arms. As a short-gap solution, I added a bongo-tie washer to keep these loops away from the handles. It worked surprisingly well.

When you are finally up and loaded, it feels comfortable. The weight feels evenly spread and I didn’t feel any part of my body was aching at the end of the day. Some people might prefer more cushioning in the vest, but I never felt it was an issue, and I appreciated the non-bulky design as mentioned earlier.

The crescent wrist guards are worth talking about. It has been described to me that you can push against these with your wrists to help start faster pans. Because of my bongo-tie solution above, it ended up more comfortable keeping my wrists on the outside of these guards. I imagine I will end up swapping these over to curve inwards.

In any event, I was able to run my fully loaded Helix with fingertip control and boom from low to high with ease. I am also able to boom outwards to a fully extended position without breaking a sweat. Before I had the Runner, I had shot a promo where I was fully outstretched over some furniture. My arms were screaming at me even after a couple takes. Now I can do this shot again and again without breaks.

I also like the amount of lateral movement that the Runner gives you. Sometimes sets get cluttered and actors shift off their marks. Being able to drift left and right without arching your body is really helpful.

Putting the arms into standby mode might start off tricky for some. The hooks at the end of the arms hook into small loops located on each hip. The first arm is always the easiest. When attaching the second arm, there is a point where the back dovetails impede a little on each other, making it trickier. Specifically, the point of contact is the head of each screw that you attach the arms on with. If you are an owner that hates getting scratches on your gear, some relief may come knowing that a scratched up button socket cap screw is easily replaceable.

I would like to think AP is aware of this issue and hopefully they will have a fix in the 2nd generation. I will say though that, when in standby mode, you do get a lot of confidence that the arms will not be able to escape and fly up into any unsuspecting crewmember standing nearby.

SMOOTHNESS

Although the Runner is not an a true iso-elastic system, I have definitely noticed a big improvement is taking out those extra little bumps and shakes that even a gimbal can pick up. I want to carry out more tests to see how much vertical bounce the arms absorb, especially over rough terrain. Our own muscles and arms are the best at doing this, so you can always share the weight between the Runner and your arms to get the best of both worlds.

During a recent shoot, I tripped a little during a complex move. However, on playback, the director and I could not see any evidence of my slip up. And I put this down the exoskeleton absorbing my bounce.

Having said that, I don’t believe this system was designed to act as a dual-armed Steadicam. Today, there are ways to attach your gimbal direct to a Steadicam system, effectively giving you a true 6-axis system (3x rotational axes in the gimbal and 3x translational axes in the Steadicam). For me, the Runner was always about taking the strain off heavy gimbal setups allowing me to focus more on composition.

I would like to stress that practice is still part of the game. Don’t think that just by putting on an exoskeleton, you will instantly have buttery shots. One must learn to harness its potential and synchronize it with your own body, learning to control inertia and momentum, knowing when the let the Runner’s arms feather booms and when to take back control for rapid pans.

Thanks for reading. Part two to follow. I would love to hear from other Runner owners on their experiences. If anyone out there would like to rent my Runner to get a hands-on feel for what it can do, feel free to PM me or send an email to nick[at]cinenick[dot]com.

 

[constantine Tirintzis]

SMOOTHNESS

Although the Runner is not an a true iso-elastic system, I have definitely noticed a big improvement is taking out those extra little bumps and shakes that even a gimbal can pick up. I want to carry out more tests to see how much vertical bounce the arms absorb, especially over rough terrain. Our own muscles and arms are the best at doing this, so you can always share the weight between the Runner and your arms to get the best of both worlds.

Hello , one small correction on your write up from a steadicam operator experience and physics in steadicam type arm technology, that can possibly help you guys with your runner rigs. There will be quite a few things to sort out and you might not get there but the more you get to know the physics the more you will work towards the correct approach in operating.

Though your arms are capable of doing a pretty good job compensating for vertical errors, unfortunatly they arent the best accurate tool for the job, and at the end they pass errors to your vertical axis that . No matter how clever your brain acts to balance the vertical errors ordering your arms to keep the weight in a certain height against your body motion, and depending on the weight of the load you are carrying they pass more or less vertical errors from your body to the system.

A good spring arm is an arm that , carries the least friction in each structure and take the 4th axis vertical errors created from your body away from your camera system.

The more you try to hold your gimbal with your hands harder, the more errors you will pass to your system from your body and hands, and the spring arms will not left to do their work which is , to remove the vertical bounce errors.

The less you touch your gimbal, with very lightweight control with your fingers, the best for the spring arms to do their work and remove the vertical errors from your shot.

Last , a very reactive spring arm, is a spring arm that can eliminate the 4th axis vertical bounce errors while you are walking very very slowly and with minimum up and down acceleration .

Its very easy to absorb fast running errors for any kind of spring arm, and even very bad made springs arms can do that. What they cannot do is absorb slow move errors , because, first of all they are badly designed with bad spring forces through the total boom range, and secondly they are badly designed producing friction when booming up and down,and that will translate in bad 4th axis absorbing ability .

Iam most certain that AP and Brian, being an old school steadicam op has created a friction-less arm with the runner, because this is one of the No1 rules when you make a spring arm, and they have been making quality rigs for a very long time. So all you need to do is find a way to operate your gimbal hand holding it as light weight as possible with your fingers and you will eliminate your vertical bounce.Not the other way around.

Iam sure that Brian will agree to my correction, and it will be a good advice for you guys who try to figure out how to produce better walking sequences.Unfortunately the nature of exoskeleton systems and current operation of gimbals require a good amount of force from your hands in follow mode which leads to worst performance of the spring arms there for, worst vertical axis absorbing the errors.

Its a relative easy practice for steadicam operators , but not as easy to get there if you arent one.

Kind regards:beer:

 

[Nicholas Wise]

Constantine - that is fantastic advice. Thank you so very much.

 

[constantine Tirintzis]

Constantine - that is fantastic advice. Thank you so very much.

:thumbsup: