John Paines wrote: -- seeking perfection with a technology which isn't perfect --
If that’s referring to steadicams, then I’d argue the tech is conceptually nearly perfect.
John Paines wrote: And, in the case of gimbals, a danger to your body.
Couldn’t agree more.
It’s a shame that since the 70s, very few designers seem to have taken the initiative to innovate the practicality of the steadicam tech and keep on improving it.
Thankfully – despite taking so many decades – the recent iteration of the gimbals is fairly democratized. Yet, almost all gimbal manufacturers appear to deem it acceptable that 2 points of contact and eliminating camera movement only over 3 axes are adequate, leaving it to others to make spring arms and body-mountable vests.
Easyrig is a good design, but still needs separately available parts to eliminate the 4th-axis movement.
Walter Klassen’s back-mounted vest seems like the most forward-thinking design to date that helps mitigate the steadicam’s strain on the body. I remember reading an operator’s entry on a forum indicating that positioning the spring arm half-way up the back was the most comfortable he’d felt in his years of experience.
I hope that design becomes more accessible soon enough, and the Tilta Float appears to be headed in the same direction.
Here’s hoping that gimbal manufacturers keep innovating in that direction as well.