STABILIZERS > Gravity & Body-Mount Stabilizers

Shoulder or Frame???

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Chris Harding:
Hi Guys

As you know I sold my stedicam (old age and lack of fitness etc etc) so I'm going to use a Glidetrack for precision use but have been toying with the idea of putting one cam in a sorta fig rig frame (except mine will be rectangular rather than round)

With shoulder mount cameras I can get quite smooth camera movements and I'm wondering if a frame rig will be a little more versatile??? Ok with an 8lb camera I can only use it for short periods but I figured that your arms have more flexibility holding a frame than your body supporting a camera.

Any good theories out there as to which would be better???

Chris

Dave Baker:
Hi Chris,

I'm not the best qualified to answer this, not having used a shoulder mount cam, but having played around with my "Digirig", I can say it is pretty flexible as to what you can do with it. For example you can hold it low and angle it upwards for shots of the bridegroom's nasal hair, or hold it high and angle it down for shots of his bald spot. ;D

At your advanced age (he-he!) I doubt whether you'd be into all those rockin' and rollin' shots, but you could do those as well.

I've made several versions of my rig, but have never been really happy with the results. Maybe it's only lack of practice, but it hardly gets used. But that's just me.

I would imagine that for your line of work it could be very useful, but what you would gain in flexibility I think you would lose in stability.

There is a website http://www.softweigh.com/video/diy.html where you can get instructions to make one!

Dave

Chris Harding:
Greetings Dave
Hmmm you are the same age as me!! But you want to try running around with 25kg of rig on during Summer here!! Even the youngsters will suffer!!!

What is a Digirig????? I cannot even google for it???? Does it sit on your shoulder for support????

I can get pretty smooth camera movements with the cam on my shoulder but doing low angle is difficult as you have to physically bend your body to reduce camera height!!

There is a guy in Greece who makes a shoulder frame where you can actually turn the camera which is rather neat I thought...he can even walk around a couple and get smooth movement ...I'll dig up the link from the HBS forum.

Thanks for the softweigh link..that's an awesome site and the owner is a great guy too!!!!

Chris

Dave Baker:
Hiya Chris,


--- Quote from: Chris Harding on March 23, 2010, 06:01:09 PM ---and the owner is a great guy too!!!!
--- End quote ---
I've heard that rumour also. Must be true then!

Digirig? Thats what I called my Fig Rig-ish stabilizer, there were pics of it on P3U and a test clip on Fortvir. Handlebars rather than steering wheel. I couldn't have one sit on my shoulder, it would upset the parrot! :D


--- Quote from: Chris Harding on March 23, 2010, 06:01:09 PM ---I can get pretty smooth camera movements with the cam on my shoulder but doing low angle is difficult as you have to physically bend your body to reduce camera height!!
--- End quote ---
That's the main advantage I was hinting at. If you've ever seen the video of Mike Figgis using his rig, you'll have seen him squat down against a wall and use his knees as a support. Good, steady result, but unless you have a wall in your kit, you could use the stand-and-hold-it-at-low-level method. http://services.manfrotto.com/figrig/

The one from Greece sounds interesting, I'd love to see it.

Dave

Chris Harding:
Hi Dave

This is the Greek unit...it has some awesome features too!!  Enjoy

http://www.the-running-rig.com/apps/videos/

Chris

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