What's the best way to get rid of the ever so slight bumps from walking/running? Is it just keep softening off the tilt axis until it gets rid? Thanks! Ben
Hi Ben, Best way is to improve balance and increase stiffness settings as high as possible. If you have tilt enabled in majestic mode try using in smooth lock as a test....you might be accidentally slewing the tilt axis up and down if it is in majestic angle mode. What are your stiffness settings?
Also, remember that the pitch, roll, and yaw dampening do not include vertical translation -- the up/down motion of walking. So a glide walk seems to be the best defense....aka the Groucho Marx walk. (aka the John Cleese/Monty Python Ministry of Silly Walks.) Andy.
Hi Ben, you remind me my first lesson with steadicam twenty years a go ;-) I had same problem. Advice from steadicam world is. Allways perifericly watch a camera movement against surrounding, soon you gonna notice slight up down bumps. When you see them, than is easy to get rid of them. If you wanna spent some time practicing, tie up rope between two tripods or anything else and try copy that line with camera. Soon you gonna feel improvement. J.
Thanks! Tabb, will get back to you with my stiffness settings soon. It was definitely in smooth lock. Maybe it's just a practice thing.. I was glide walking, aka Groucho Marx! But it was only the first couple of runs out so perhaps a little more time. It doesn't help that I didn't have a monitor because my ultra thin hdmi hasn't arrived. So it's been guess work! Thanks guys..
On a shoot this weekend I let a few grips and others try operating when I was getting tired. They all had a similar issue and I'm thinking its because they are more focused on the subject than the camera. We were running dual operator with no on board monitor and 85mm CP2. If you know and practice the path of the move and then concentrate only on camera translation you will get much better results. I focus solely on the rig itself and it's relation to the background. It's much easier to see the vertical movement if you watch the rig and not the subject/monitor. Leave that to the remote op.
Good advice. Well if you are going to see any walking bumps you'll deffo see it on the 85! I've found it to be much better/non existent since I softened the tilt softening to about 70. Something I hadn't realised was that as soon as you turn the movi off it loses it's stiffness settings. So that didn't help.. Is there any way of saving them ? Thanks B
Softening tilt stiffness should only get you a less stable image ... The background/ horizon will wander vertically in the frame.