Anybody got a steadicam laying around?

[DesignDawg]

Man. I WANT ONE. BAD.

I'm working on a short film, and several of the shots I am storyboarding really need to be steadicam shots. I know a guy who has one, but I THOUGHT it was another friend of mine who owned it. Turns out, the guy who DOES have it moved away a year ago. I'm actually thinking of making a homemade one, but I would have to destroy a perfectly good tripod.. --Unless someone here has this big unknown contraption sitting in their closet with the word "steadicam" on it, and has always wondered what it was. Anybody? Hehe...long shot, I know.

Ricky
DesignDawg

 

[SendTrash]

<< I'm actually thinking of making a homemade one >>

yeah, isn't a steady cam nothing more than a camera attached to a pole with weight on it? To balance it? Or is it more complex than that? How would making a homemade steady cam ruin a tripod?

 

[DesignDawg]

Send,

Well, there are MANY different levels of steadicams. Some of them cost about $70,000.00, and a person could practically do a track-meet style long jump (complete with running approach) with no visible sign of camera movement. The other levels, the much lower ones, like for mini-dvd cams and stuff, are KINDA just a pole with a counterbalance, but even then, there is a handle that pivots freely. You hold the steadicam with one hand, and operate it at the gimbal (at the center of gravity) with the other. New, the things cost as much or more than the camera that would be mounted on them. --A little steep. To make a homemade one, I would have to take the pole out of the tripod and somehow make a pivoting gimbal on it. Just the act of taking the pole out would require completely dismanling it. Sucks.

Ricky
DesignDawg