i have some experience with steadicam and i am aware of its limitations and i don't see any of those rigs replacing SC....
checked out your videos, especially the paparazzi one....looks very nice, i think i would have shot that with SC?
i will have to check out some stuff in person to get the feel for it.....
once focus and matte box is required a larger rig is necessary anyway....
i am aware of the DSLRvideo sites, but coming from stills i see things from a different angle and sometimes there is more then one way to get there....those sites seem to be mostly film/video guys shooting with dslrs (instead of video/film cams...)
thanks for all the input....
The background for the Pap video is an assistant friend of mine was shooting the stills for a 'test'
I was actually just visiting them and I said hey can I come along and film you guys - no planning no prep - no space in the wagon for a load of kit - also I had no input the the scenes he was directing for his stills shoot - I was in effect a 'fly on the wall'
The main reason I could not have used a SC was the constant pulling of focus (im shooting a tight moving head at 105 a lot at F4) and also the zero setup time between shot would have not allowed rebalancing the rig between shots to counter the change in mass caused by a zoom (I used 24-105 never zooming in shot)
I have a merlin, a blackbird and a pilot BTW
--
My rig certainly allows pulling of focus - via the drive belt skateboard wheel combo
I find the cine size MB means you must lift the camera from the rails meaning there is a tendency for the rig to flex - and flex is bad for shots
I use a combination of circular NDs and lense hoods - no MB for RnG- my rig is available in the 'cinema' configuration (a cage) that will accept a MB hung from the top of the cage, bcause the cage varies in heights it will work with any camera from GH1 to 1ds unlike the other makers who are selling different spacers every time a new cam comes out and have been beaten by the 1ds which places the lens too high for the 'standard' cinema geometry
---
How do you think the requirements of a stills shooter are different from a video guy??
I think the difference is..
No AC (assistant to camera)
Acceptable packdown size
Desire for quality shots !
S