Couple of years ago, these things were so expensive that i actually tried making one myself… it was “kinda” functunal but not really something you’d use in public :P but now i discovered this baby on amazon for just , so i went and got myself one :)
I guess its made in china and sold under different names like eimo 60cm, Walimex Pro 60cm, s-60, CamSmart Steadycam, SunSmart 60cm, etc.
While all of that might make it seem a bit fishy, there no need to worry! Its of quite high quality- everything is made from metal, no plastic… even the knobs are aluminium! only the central pipe is made from carbon fiber(which is good since its light and better to handle than slippery metal)
Overall, its super solid, looks professional, works well and totally worth the price :)
Only cons i can think of are:
- It is missing a quick release (so you dont have to re-calibrte when you do a shot off the steadycam) but then again, you can buy some universal solution for that and screw it on top.
- Switching of weights is tedious (if you have very different lenses, you might need that) is fairly slow since it takes loads of spinning to get those knobs on and off. but for this aswell, you could probably come up with a solution if it really annoys you
- the screw for dslr’s is bit too long so i need to put an extra layer in between the camera to have it totally tight
- if you remove the bigger screw then the smaller one can fall out and go missing when the camera is not attached
- The rubber on top is fairly soft and will end up wearing out fairly easy
These however are just minor things which are fine(and fixable) for the quality and price you re getting
And here some test footage and a few shots:
Sir,
It does not seem to be the same that is sold on ebay.co.uk. Have they changed the article?
And do you know if the plates are Arca-Swiss compatible?
Thanks,
JA
there are many somewhat different versions out there, the none i linked to still looks pretty much the same ( http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00E3VZSAE/ref=oh_details_o02_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ) and not a glue about the quick release ;)
I meant amazon.co.uk.
Howdy just wanted tto give you a qukck heads up. The words in your content seem to bee running
off the screen in Chrome. I’m noot sure iif this
is a formatting issue or something to do wirh internnet browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let you know.
The deign look great though! Hope you get tthe problem fixed soon.
Cheers
Hey bro. I just got mine after watching your sample video and as you said it won’t be magically pre balance and this is one of my problem. I’ve been testing it for three days already and i can barely balance and stable it..im not using any stand to balance.. but it’s really difficult.. once i got the exact balance after a 10sec of footage it turned out balance again.. :( when u were doing the running footage were u holding the column?;because it’s hard to keep it focus on one direction.. btw im using a 7d with sigma 17-50 os hsm a total of 1.5 kg.. thanks again..
Are you sure it is balanced? search for youtube on “how to balance a glidecam” to make sure… in a neutral state, it should not lean back/fourth left/right and it should be a little bit bottom heavy…. something like this would help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Wap0nQPQ8
After that, search youtube for how operate one, and yes, of course you would (slightly) hold the column to steer the thing…watch something like this for instructions:
http://youtu.be/ZxNt-xDf508?t=38s
or this to see how it is used on set:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q41ZUTDywwM