Electronic gimbals

Hi.

I wonder what gimbals are people looking at and considering buying?

Some do not work as one would expect.

I just saw Defy 5 demo video and did it feel jerky to me.

I just had yesterday two separate projects that needed some stabilizing in Resolve.

This is what i feel with some stabilizers coming out now as they are not it what one
would expect, super smooth.

Any ideas or toughs?

I'm backing BeSteady on Kickstarter. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/bes ... stabiliser

It can only carry up to 2kg though, so the BMCC would only work with SSD + very lightweight lens (e.g. Canon 40mm F/2.8). I also have a Canon 5D Mark III though and intend to use the gimbal with both cameras (with ML RAW hack on the 5D). I may eventually also get a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera, will see. They are also working on a BeSteady "Four", which will carry up to 5kg.

Tech demo:

Hi.

I wonder what gimbals are people looking at and considering buying?

Some do not work as one would expect.

I just saw Defy 5 demo video and did it feel jerky to me.

I just had yesterday two separate projects that needed some stabilizing in Resolve.

This is what i feel with some stabilizers coming out now as they are not it what one
would expect, super smooth.

Any ideas or toughs?

I think stabilizers and tripod/heads are closely related in that we know the results we want, but it can be frustratingly expensive to achieve when using a budget solution. At least with a tripod, with experience, you can get good results most of the time by carefully controlling it. I'm not even thinking about stabilizers on gimbals as the best look out of reach and the cheapest can show flaws even in the product demos (bless the hearts of those companies that are honest in showing unaltered footage). This isn't very helpful I know. If you have the time to become a ninja master, I think you can make a cheaper stabilizer sing, but practice, practice, practice. I agree they are very desirable to add to your bag of tricks.

Would renting the best quality be a good solution since it may take less practice with the right tool?

Rick Lang
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

To be honest, I'm not sure cost has too much to do with it, more likely experience, as you mentioned. I recently re-watched the promo video of the $15,000 MoVI and even that stabiliser has jerks in the movement every now and then, especially in the aerial shots, which were taken from inside a helicopter, not on a drone:

Right now, it seems that the technology works, but isn't perfect, no matter at which price point. However, I am sure additional software stabilisation and experience in using the devices will make the footage perfect/near perfect.

Another thing i was thinking was combining e gimbal with Eazyrig or steadycam arm.

It should give some stability and take off load from hands.

Makes me wonder why i have not seen something like that in demos.

Just tryed to shoot somethind hand held and god was it heavy after 10 minutes

My shoulder rig is not here yet.

Yeah, the BMCC is currently quite heavy (1.7 kg). I hope BMD will make some changes in the next model to get it to around 1-1.2kg. The aluminium used for the body is probably quite thick at the moment.

I am sure there will be steadicam arm/vest adapters for gimbals at some point. BeSteady said they are looking into shoulder rig attachment options as well.

as per my information BMW would not change aluminium used for the body.

i thing the mass of the cam is ok but question is how you support it and get it stable.

hand held with some lens it is 3 kg and more.

after 10 minutes at your 2 hands the go really wobbly

i plan to get bebob shoulder rig and maybe combine it with eazyrig for now.

Is gimbal that i like will be available then it seems good idea to fly it under eazyrig etc.

BeSteady have just posted a new demo video, this time it's a long lens test on the BeSteady "One":

Looks pretty impressive considering tele shots are usually harder to pull off with any sort of stabiliser.

It looked pretty good!

Some hard ones from the boat where you could see just tiny bit of something but generally really good
compared to other solutions for now.

BeSteady have just posted a new demo video, this time it's a long lens test on the BeSteady "One":
.

Yeah, most demos are shot with very wide glass (for a reason). Since I prefer longer lenses, I'm interested how those things perform at 50/80/120 mm. The footage looks pretty usable, I wouldn't probably be able to do that that with a Steadycam..

Frank makes an important point. It is VERY MUCH easier to steady a wide shot than a longer one. Virtually ALL of this stuff is shot on wide lenses, whether aerial or just following some action on foot. Military and police use active stabilization that can stabilize absurdly long lenses (how about a lens that fills the frame with a golf ball at 1 mile distance?). These little things are not in that league.

Another major issue is camera weight. You can use a cheaper system with little motors and controllers if you have something light like the BMPCC. This obviously works better in quad copters and such, also.

That said, the BMCC benefits from its weight. It needs to dissipate heat with that metal, and when you rig it with more metal, it further improves heat dissipation. So don't wish for a BMCC that is lighter.

The same is true for steadicam operators. An operator who can give you a good shot with a longer lens is really, really good. Most steadicam work is close in, and these gimbals are going to be used pretty much the same way for the same reasons.

So 200 mm EF lens would be good benchmark

I have used a gimbal on a feature film and I can tell you that you can get some incredibly smooth shots but and I must emphasise this, you will need to do some post stabilisation at some point (more often than not). You cannot compensate for extreme vertical and horizontal shake/movement, no matter what you're told. If you want to use one effectively I suggest you take up Tai Chi, seriously.

Also it works much better with a 2 man set up over the single user. One to control the gimbal movement one to control the camera pan and tilt.

Ideally i would have one mounted on steadycam like arm for user and second would operate gimbal.

Ideally i would have one mounted on steadycam like arm for user and second would operate gimbal.

Did that, found it worked better without the steadicam arm. Especially in fast situations.

Ok i see.

Maybe easy rig then ?

I find it hard to hold relatively a lot of gear lets say 30 minutes or hour?

I find it hard to hold relatively a lot of gear lets say 30 minutes or hour?

Yeah!

Ok i see.

Maybe easy rig then ?

I find it hard to hold relatively a lot of gear lets say 30 minutes or hour?

we changed the handles for some diy jobbies that allowed it to be put down. The lads who made it had the movi style handles but because of the need to put it down made some large ones from some aluminium .

It looked pretty good!
Some hard ones from the boat where you could see just tiny bit of something but generally really good
compared to other solutions for now.

I thought so, too. Definitely looks like one of the better affordable gimbals.

(...) I must emphasise this, you will need to do some post stabilisation at some point (more often than not).

I'm sure this will be the case, especially at the beginning, but considering those demo shots were done with a long lens where inaccuracies would show up much more, and there was no lens based image stabilisation or software image stabilisation used, I'd say it's pretty impressive for untouched footage.

Yeah, most demos are shot with very wide glass (for a reason). Since I prefer longer lenses, I'm interested how those things perform at 50/80/120 mm. The footage looks pretty usable, I wouldn't probably be able to do that that with a Steadycam..

If everything goes well, I should receive the BeSteady One sometime around mid-September. The 5D Mark III (with ML RAW hack) will probably be my main camera on this, since the BeSteady One's load capacity is only 2kg. When using the BMCC, I'll have to work with only lightweight lenses (e.g. Canon 40mm F2.8). I'll do some tests.

I don't regret getting the "One" model though, since the recently announced BeSteady "Four" (which has a load capacity of up to 6kg) is way out of my price range at £3850 (I got the "One" model on Kickstarter for £1690). Also, using a lighter camera is probably a good idea, as I'm not the most muscular guy.

New video showing that there's no noise coming from the motors. Apparently quite a few gimbals have motors that make a high pitch noise. The guys at BeSteady created their own custom motors.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10 ... =2&theater