I have not been on the forum for a while, so Hi. I know this question has probably been answered in the past but I would like to know what options are available today, to switch out my radian 3 Axis gimbal for brushless. Which systems offer the ability to switch from multi-rotor mounting to hand held?, (like the Movi) The Movi is the most expensive. is it wort the extra $$$? any other alternatives I should be looking at? I know about Brushlessgimbals.com, the Alexmos board that they use has not won any awards for 'ease of use' from what I understand. Thanks
Defy just released their new gimbal which is great for AV work. I've been using their G2 for about 6 months and now and will upgrade to the G2X. www.defywithus.com
Thanks Duane, I looked into them they look interesting. Is it hard to switch back and forth from handheld to multi rotor? Is it easy to set up? Thanks Nick
The G2 was designed with the S800 in mind so it took some work for me to get it onto my CS8 without issues, but once on, loved it!! The G2X has made things even easier resolving some of the complaints that I initially had while at the same time increasing the weight capacity to 3.5lbs!!
Nick, if you already have a radian 3 axis just get the parts to convert that to brushless. Will be cheeper to do, on thing you'll need extra is some carbon tubes the cut up to make the handheld portion.
Hey Paul, I looked into that and I did call a guy called Grayson at Brushlessgimbals.com and he said that they now make an arm to convert to handheld. I enquired about pricing etc. and he asked me to email him for a quote. I did that a couple of days ago but he hasn't responded yet. I will give him a go again today. Maybe its me, I left a message with Defy too and they have not got back with me either A couple of things put me off, firstly: I am not sure how much of a learning curve it is to set up the Alexmos board but I see a lot of converted gimbals for sale. It would seem the ads I have come across, the people are going to Movi's or similar(?). Secondly: I never did get my Radian set up to work properly with video, I put in hundreds of hours and thousands of $ trying. So I do not want the same problems again. With the amount of work my octocopter has generated I don't think I can justify the Movi thats why I was looking for other alternatives..... dilemma! Is it Alexmos pretty straight forward to set up? (yeah right ) I figured having a gimbal that could be used for both Aerial and handheld would give me greater revenue potential. Cheers, Nick
I have tried most of the gimbals available on the market. Defy is based on Alexmos. BeSteady has a special version of Alexmos which has encoders in it. (They have it on BeSteady Four, but not sure for other models) What I can say is, Movi is the best gimbal for "professional" aerial work. Nothing comes close, sorry to say that.
I agree with Ozkan 100%. with the M10/M5 and the Movi Controller (some guys prefer wheels) you get the best system possible. Most of my clients refuse to use anything DJI or alexmos anymore after having us fly for them, and if they do it is always B roll. That being said I have been messing with the Besteady 4 and it rocks. Encoders make a huge difference.
Ok thanks Ryan.the besteady is up there in price isn't it? Ian not sure if it would be easy to attach to a cinestar
Ya, the besteady is about $9000 US, 7500 Eur. Its also heavy at 2500g or 5.5 lbs. They also don't do a full cage, which I have found to be advantageous on every camera I have rigged. My friend uses the Besteady on a steadycam rig with a RED and its great. I think the Besteady has much more holding power then the movi (on par to the ronin). If you want ease of use the Toad in the hole on the Movi/CS can't be beat. I can be from van, to flight area, to flight check to air in under 10 minutes with the M5/10 on the CS6/8 HL.
G2x isn't out yet. Mid February for a release. Defy also makes a Multi rotor adapting plate for getting the G2 onto the S800 which is what Relentless (Defy) have used for their aerial stuff in the past. I picked up that kit, mounted it onto my copter and did a few little mods that allowed me to swap the G2 on/off by removing 3 little M3s used in mounting the handle to the pan motor. Plenty quick enough for me as I'm not usually pulling off my copter to go handheld same day. My jobs are usually really separate. Retracts have been needed, though I was working with a guy to make me a plate to go under the pan motor. Legs, video tx and battery were going to mount on this. The G2x is going to be much easier to do this with. You can see in the design of it that there is room for the battery, vtx etc to be directly underneath the pan motor. Once I have the new one in hand, I'll know exactly what it will takes to have a retract-less Defy. Plus, the G2x isn't going up in price from what the G2 was, but they've gone from a single IMU to dual and increased camera capacity from 2lbs to 3.5.
If you have the skills add some JST pigtails to power things from the Movi battery. Makes things look super clean. I run two out on my m5/10 and use them to power wireless video/follow focus/camera (in the case of theBM4k/red/camera that runs on external power)