I bought the same steadicam Haberdasher bought (the one Vitaliy posted at the bottom of page 5), and I'm still having a hard time getting it set up and using it.

For starters, ZERO documentation is included, so it's up to you to figure it out. Right off the bat I was confused by the top plate. I assumed it would slide out so I could affix the camera and slide it back in. This is not the case, as the top plate does not come off. Makes it very time consuming to attach the camera, so I'll be adding a QR down the road.

I then spent about a half hour attempting to get the camera balanced (GH2 with 20mm pancake). Having no instructions, I had to rely on YouTube clips of people balancing similar style rigs. In the end, I thought I had a pretty good balance and a nice, slow drop time, so I gave it a try.

And the results were awful! So, laughing it off, I went back to the drawing board. I didn't have much time to do a lot more tweaking, but I'm finding I still have these problems:

1. The camera wants to rock fore and aft as I walk forward, pivoting at the fulcrum. It's really slow, like it's only barely off balance.
2. The camera wants to spin about the vertical axis, like panning on a tripod. I can't keep it looking straight ahead. (Unless I want to turn a corner with it, then it points straight ahead no matter how hard I try to get it to turn!...)
3. I'm not sure what orientation I should use for the bottom plate with the weights on it. Should it be oriented left-right (parallel to the camera body), or should it be oriented fore-aft (parallel to the direction of shooting)?
4. What do you guys do with the camera's shoulder strap while the camera is on the steadicam? There's no quick release to get those things on and off, so it would take way too much time to remove them every time I wanted to use the stabilizer. I found that the straps got tangled up in the rig too easily and affected the balance.
5. I mostly shoot things that are low to the ground (my kids), and I found that when holding the stabilizer any lower than about stomach-height, the handle bumps into the top plate and knocks the camera around.
6. I have no idea what I'm doing!

I'm not a professional videographer, just a guy that wants to shoot video of his kids that aren't so shaky. I guess I was under the delusional impression that I could just balance the steadicam once, then quickly pop the camera on every time a spontaneous moment comes up that I want to film, and it would magically make everything nice and smooth. Boy was I wrong! These things actually require a lot of know-how, not only to operate, but to set up. And they require setting up before EVERY use, so they're not a tool for spontaneous filming.

I plan to keep practicing, though, and hopefully get some fun shots with it. If anyone has any tips, I could use all the help you're willing to give me. For instance, the whole point of these things is to lock the horizon in, but what do you do when you want to look up or down with the camera in the middle of a shot? For instance, my daughter is crawling toward me, and so I need to aim the camera lower and lower as she approaches. And how do you keep the camera pointed at the subject when it's free to spin about its vertical axis at will--I turn a corner, and the camera keeps pointing the direction it was before? I suppose that must involve using your off hand on the fulcrum as Shaveblog pointed out, but does anyone have any pictures or video clips demonstrating this technique so I get a better idea of what's needed?

Anyway, it's still a cool new toy to play around with, and I hope to eventually post up a decent example of something shot with it.

@Haberdasher

Thanks for feedback, hope youll make some video later and post it also.

@Shaveblog Yep, it makes sense to keep the total weight down when considering handheld stabilisers else you risk fatigue and muscle shake, that's the trade off. Personally I also need small and lite weight for travel but it's still a great performer like you say and easy to setup.

Have fun mate.

@Ralph_B You can check out this video by cheesycam. Pretty selfexplanatory (

Hacksaw and drill are my weapons of choice :-) I added a manfrotto 323 QR on top and roughly 8-9 washers on the bottom. I fly it with a GH2 and the SLRMagic 12mm. It's just heavy enough to gain some inertia but not too heavy to use for longer periods. Plus it works like a shoulder support when I switch lens to the Nokton 25mm. Just fold up the handle and tuck the curved part in your armpit.

Hey Rambo,

How do you put the GH2 on a smoothee? I thought the quick relaese plates would only fit a Gopro and an iphone. BTW, nice digs.

I don't need a Smoothee. What I really need is a Rambo.

@oscillian I've looked at doing the modified Smoothee thing but lighter weight aside it seems to require the same amount of balancing as my Nano with the macro adapters, and the lighter weight may even be a drawback when it comes to inertial stability. Thankfully I only need a steadicam a couple times a month and for the amount of work it gets the Nano fits my bill nicely. You're right, though, it's not my wrist's best friend.

I think there may be some misunderstanding about how to properly use a smallish stabilizer with a lightweight camera like the GH2, GoPro, et al. Minus the sheer inertia of a heavier camera and more massive steadicam, you're simply not ever going to enjoy the same locked-down horizon no matter how you wave your arm around or creep down the street. It's just not going to happen. You can perfectly optimize balance and drop time and still get the pendulum thing happening. It's just baked into the scenario of relatively mass-free objects set in motion.

I don't need a steadicam very often but when I do need one I use the Flycam Nano with my GH2. It's far from the perfect steadicam and truth be told the balancing is a PITA but I accept this as part of the deal when I need that kind of smooth flowing camera motion. OOTB the Flycam is a nightmare to set up and operate, but the two things I've found to really make it work a hell of a lot better in terms of minimizing setup time and maximising horizon lockdown are:

1. Weighing down the top plate. Awhile back on this forum Vitaliy linked to a brilliant idea of using two adjustable macro rails, one on top of another, to form a thumbscrew adjustable balancing platform. It works great and isn't expensive, and it also has the benefit of adding mass to the camera which makes it more resistant to motion. Now people are selling 4-way macro rails which cut to the chase - e.g.:

http://www.amazon.com/Cowboystudio-Macro-Focusing-Rail-Photography/dp/B0047DS41S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1365513999&sr=8-1&keywords=macro+rail

You screw that to the top of the Flycam or whatever small stabilizer you use and it makes balancing much easier and quicker, and adds enough weight to reduce swinging.

1. Using my free hand at the fulcrum to dampen motion. This is really the secret of getting pro results from a small stabilizer and camera setup. I know you see all the YouTube demos of guys in pit-stained wifebeaters standing in cum-encrusted bathrooms waving their tiny steadicams around in the bathroom mirror with awesome bathroom echo audio of them telling you this is how the pros do it. Forget all that (and if you can, please tell me how). Use your free hand. Gently place your thumb and forefinger on the fulcrum/pivot point and apply just enough pressure to dampen the free motion, but not so much pressure that you actually move the camera. You just want to steady it and add some damping to the free-balling pivot bearing. Once you get the hang of gently dampening the pivot with your free hand, you'll find these small stabilizers are capable of surprisingly professional performance. You'll also find that with practice you can lightly rotate the camera and aim it while you're in motion, instead of just relying upon waving your support arm around to get the camera to point this way or that.

To be honest I don't really care for using a steadicam, and look forward to the near future when cam drones are good and cheap enough to do away with these balancing rigs once and for all. But for the time being, these two tips get me what I need from the Flycam.

@kellar42 I use Really Right Stuff plate/bracket on top of the Merlin camera plate, so the settings will differ a bit than a standard mount. With camera+14mm pancake+RRS, I use 1 starter weight (the round end piece) in front, 1 start and 1 finish (bigger piece) at the bottom. I then adjust the ark until it balances then fine-tune with the thumbwheels. The drop time is around 1-1 1/2 seconds, so it's balanced pretty well. I can't, for the life of me, can't stop it swinging side to side. It's driving me crazy. I am going to try Glidecam HD 1000 and see if I get better results. I just ordered one from eBay. I will post results within a few weeks.

I usually get swinging when its balanced too bottom heavy (I use the blackbird). Getting a drop time of between 1.5-2 seconds seems to help. And practice. When I look back at the earlier vids I did theres a lot more pitching about. I also find once you've got a swing happening you may as well cut and start again.

I've been using Merlin with my hacked GH2 for awhile. I kinda sucked in the beginning and I have gotten better over time, but can't get rock solid dolly look. It always seems to swing side-to-side. I have to shoot at hour of video to get just a few minutes of usable footage. I've seen some Glidecam footage on Youtube, and they seem much better, giving that "Shining" effect I love. Here's my latest Merlin footage. Notice that it's decent but I can't seem to go pass swinging. If you point to some rock solid Merlin footage, perhaps I can practice more instead of blaming the equipment. Thoughts?