Can someone help with this? http://instagram.com/p/oCD8ojKKsT/ After doing a few interviews I certainly see the value in getting the camera 'up' and keeping your arms at a lower, more comfortable height. But I just can't get my head around how to accomplish this inverted configuration; it's probably simple but I'm missing it.
I'm sure this isn't the proper way of doing it but after turning the Movi on and letting it stabilize, I carefully flipped it over and it righted itself. Granted doing it this way the camera ends up upside down. Just did a little testing and I think the better way of doing it is to rotate 180 degrees the camera tray (pitch axis only, leave the roll axis alone). This puts the locking tabs facing backwards (towards the operator) instead of facing forward. Now flip the Movi around so that the gimbal is on top, mount your camera and get it balanced, and then turn the Movi on. I did the balancing and bootup twice, once with the Movi in it's holder (with me helping to keep the Movi in place / stable, since it won't balance itself in the holder with the gimbal / camera on top), and again with the Movi just sitting in my lap. Both times it booted up fine and now the camera is right side up as well.
Very simple. Rotate the handles as you see in the instagram. Pull out the camera. I sit the MoVI with the cross bar down on my lap. Helps if you have a helper. Again looking at the instagram photo you will rotate the tilt bar so that the camera mount is on the down side just like it is in normal use. Now put the camera on and do the normal balance process. Main difference is that the camera locking cams. Good to go.
I just purchased the TERO, so I'm using my MOVI 5 for the first time inverted, but when this happens the camera is upside down. Do I have to move the plate for the camera to the other side of the posts and re balance if I'm using it in the inverted mode? Or is there something very simple I'm missing, I searched the forum to try and find a simple answer but no luck. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!
You can just take the camera out of the cage and flip it over, along with the cage and put it back in. The IMU will initialize to the nearest 180 degrees so as long as its pointed in somewhat the right direction during startup, you'll be fine.
I knew there was an answer to this, thank you! Am I correct in saying that I'll have to do a complete re balance of all axis' on the MOVI after doing this?
Pan probably won't change much, if at all.. but roll and tilt should be different. You should always confirm balancing before powering up the MōVI.
Since I'm on the shorter end, I find that filming people while the M5 is inverted is much easier to hold and get those eye level shots. Otherwise I have to hold the M5 up high and that gets old real fast. Any tricks/tips on how to hold / place the inverted M5 while resting? When it's not inverted, all I do is hold it with the top handle bar or even place it on the ground. It doesn't really work when it's inverted and I'm in a spot where there isn't a chair/place to sit (If there is, I'd balance the handle bars on my lap). It would get tiring to hold it and flipping it back to the normal way might screw up all of the cabling/balance. I'm always nervous when flipping it back to normal.
If you find yourself holding it for long periods they have this great new tool out called a tripod! Haha. Worked on a documentary recently where the director would have me setup for moving around with the MOVI, telling me he wanted b-roll first and we would do a sit down interview afterwards on the sticks. I start rolling and we immediately go into a 20 minute, totally static interview. "Ahem, can you hold this teary moment while I transition to a tripod please?" Makes me so happy to spend all this money for the gear for stabilized movement, time to setup it up and then, kill my back standing there, static. On my next shoot with that director I rented an EasyRig. Made a world of difference for those long days in a documentary setting where things are on the go and unpredictable.