Tag Archives: dslr stabilizer

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Lately, Ikan has been putting more effort into expanding DSLR accessories, especially Camera Support Stabilizers. Here's a recent Demo video talking about more additions to their 'Elements' line of DSLR targeted stabilizers and their F3 friction follow focus system, which mounts 'every which way but loose' (old Clint Eastwood reference). You can find some of their configurations and accessories over at B&H: Ikan Elements DSLR Support Stabilizers

You can find more information about their Friction Follow Focus here: F3 Friction Follow Focus

Or you can follow Ikan at their WordPress blog where they'll be talking about some of their new products here: https://ikancorp.wordpress.com/

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Wow, when it rains it pours. All i've been talking about is new DSLR rigs for most of the day, but it's good to know our options. Thanks to a tip from 'John', here's another company trying to get their lineup into the DSLR market. I have to say that these model closer to the 'blue guys' than the other company. There's a ton of different accessories already listed from basic rods, clamps, handle bars, follow focus, and shoulder pad. I haven't dug deep enough to find out pricing, but after all the previous posts, i'm not going to get overly excited. Even if they aren't rock bottom, dirt cheap prices, like we've been accustomed to with overseas products, the benefit of having more DSLR accessories in the market is compatibility. All of the accessories from different companies should play nicely together. Your follow focus from blue guys, will mount on a base rig from the orange guys, as well as handlebars from the purple guys. (I sure hope no cinema company is using purple.....) I'm a bit lazy to grab more images, so if you want to take a peek here's the link: https://www.eimagevideo.com/enproduct_largerimage.asp?id=972&cpfl=187

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Just got wind of a new company looking to play in the ever popular DSLR game. Above are a few photos, showing some new gear currently being 'prototyped'. That's about all I can say right now, as I don't have much more information (yet). Whether we'll see this on the market soon would be interesting as well, but looks like when they are ready to go they'll be offering quite a bit. Check out the gear that's in the works...

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After posting up information that the overseas photography equipment company Fancier is getting into the DSLR rig and DSLR support game, everyone was searching for news on pricing. These rigs by the way were shown at Photokina, so they aren't trying to come in as some sneaky blatant knock-off. I'm sure they had a bit of 'inspiration' from other DSLR rig makers, but this lineup is all theirs.

A few reliable comments have come in with some pricing that were received from Fancier themselves. Although it looks good for what you get, the fact that you can get it cheaper in the USA is really going to slow their pace. Here's the prices that are leaking now, and i'm not too optimistic about it hitting the US market. Hopefully these expected prices will change after this post.

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First up is the basic DSLR cage labeled as the FTV-100D. This unit is estimated to com in at $505.94 dollars. Outside of the Follow Focus, you can find pretty much the exact same DSLR cage over at IndiSystems for $129 - top handle and all. Hey, you can even find a popular decent DIY for under $30 bucks.

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Next up is your basic DSLR shoulder support with gearless follow focus, labeled the FTV-110A and coming in at expected $491.65. Just in the last few months there have been several US companies offering a base shoulder rig for under $300 dollars.

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Third on the list is the FTV-110B, which pretty much looks like a bigger version of their FTV-110A (minus follow focus). This rig is expected to come in at $571.02. Wow, that's a pretty penny considering you can already get several nice basic support rigs for half the price. There's definitely room for more companies, but if you're late in the game, you'll have to bring something more original (or cheaper) to grab some attention.

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Fourth configuration is labeled as the FTV-200D coming in at a price of $1,553.15. This adds a matte box, their micro follow focus, and top handle to the base rig. Coming in at a price similar to a Redrock EyeSpy Deluxe bundle which I really love shooting with, at this price, it's going to be hard to penetrate the US market. Sorry Fancier, I really like your (other) products, but if this is really the prices you're heading for in DSLR stabilizers, you have a tough road ahead. Any comments on these 'possible' prices?

You can find more information about their rigs here: https://www.chinafancier.com/enShoulder-Bracket.html

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Nate Horowitz writes in with a kick ass DIY DSLR stabilizer rig. A bike mechanic and film maker, Nate used parts from a Titanium bike frame, aluminum seat posts, and aluminum bar stock. I'm hoping Nate will fill us all in with more information about the exact parts used and how much modification was needed, as this looks like one sweet DIY project. You can find more detailed photos over at his Flickr gallery here https://www.flickr.com/photos/54515193@N05/5049491205/in/photostream/, and feel free to leave some comments on this article. [Thanks Nate]

[Update from Nate] Here's the breakdown of parts in this rig.
The BIKE PARTS:
I hacked off the seat stays and a chain stay off a crashed $1000+
Titanium road bike frame. FREE
I used a bolt on axle on the rear to connect the chain-stay to the two
rails. FREE
The grips are two seat posts with BMX Oury grips slid over them. $10

The HOME DEPOT PARTS:
Aluminum bar stock. $!5
Nuts and bolts. $4
PVC cap and toilet O-ring. (used as a compression ring) $5
Plumbing clamps? (for the rear shoulder). $5

The AMAZON PARTS:
Manfrotto Quick Release Plate $45
USPS Shoulder Strap $7

The PAINT:
Grey Primer $5
Matte Black Spraypaint $5

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John Lo over at John-Lo.com decided to try the Cheesycam DSLR Cage / Fig Rig as first DIY project. He's submitted some behind the scenes footage of how it can be used to provide some extra stability to your video shots, while still adding a mounting point for accessories such as the Z96 LED video light. Looks pretty good, and definitely a huge improvement over traditional hand held shots. He's also posted his own writeup on the DIY over at his website John-Lo.com, or you can find the original DIY article I posted here if you're interested in building your own: http://cheesycam.com/cheesycam-exclusive-diy-dslr-cage-stabilizer/

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We've seen some competition on DSLR support rigs from Hong Kong and Korea. Now it looks like another Chinese company has been listening to the sales of DSLR's. Just received a tweet today from @jphansen about this new line of DSLR Support rigs soon to be coming out of China. The rigs looks very well designed, and should be since they are close to another popular brand with the blue accents. Everything else on the different rigs have gone with solid black. Not much word on the build quality, but these are the same guys who slap their name on the 717AH Fluid head which seems like a decent build. I'm expecting these to be cheap cheap cheap.

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They've seem to come up with an entire lineup of many different accessories including Gearless follow focus, Matte Box, Shoulder Supports, DSLR Cages, Handles, and of courses Rods, Clamps, and mounts. Prices, not sure of just yet, but i'm hoping it's something much more affordable than what's currently available. If anyone catches these for sale on the web, holla at your boy! I'd be interested in seeing more of this.
Here's the link: https://www.chinafancier.com/enindex.asp. If you like this article, Tweet it.

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Thanks to Pierre on Vimeo for sharing this bit of information. I believe the company is called L'AIGLE which if my French isn't too rusty means "The Eagle". Ok i'm lying, it's translated on their website and I double checked on Google Translate. LOL. This particular DSLR stabilizer is called the 'Titan'. The Titan goes from hand held stabilizer into a folded camera shoulder support. Looks pretty cool, and the website offers a bunch of different upgrades and options, with even more confusing price packages. I'm thinking it's going to run a pretty penny since they even threw in some very expensive words like Carbon Fiber, Titanium, Tungsten Carbide, and Aluminum.

From the video it looks like it's pretty quick to setup with a bunch of fine tuning options. Most of these methods to balance are very similar to the Steadicam Merlin stabilizer, including changing the size of the arc. Changing the arc on these types of stabilizers shifts the weight further from the Gimbal making it more bottom heavy without adding additional weights. Being able to adjust this minutely is key to getting perfect balance.

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Instead of going for the vest, they've got a beefy waist belt that could be used for some interesting POV shots, JK!. If the belt works, it would be more comfortable to hide under a jacket, hmm..where did I see this before?

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All in all it looks like a quality made stabilizer with lots of thought and design. I'm still going to say that it doesn't have the range and flexibility as the Glidecam HD stabilizers i'm using. For a few reasons, you can't rotate 360 degrees, run while tilting the stabilizer, and if you dare - flip it upside down! I flipped mine taking advantage of the Canon 60D articulating LCD screen. Very handy for Steadicam Stuff. If you think that all sounds like too much to ask, check out some of my ''amateur techniques'' (i'm no professional) with the Glidecam HD 4000 Product and Steadicam Merlin Vest.


[Thanks again Matt for letting me use the BTS footage]

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It was a scorching hot day yesterday, but the bright sun helped bring in some light into this old unused factory. There was no electricity so the band rented a 5000 watt generator for the shoot. We had full run of the entire abandoned lot which was awesome. This place was huge with several buildings over 8 stories high and had so much texture of steel, brick, and concrete. Sitting right off the water, the place was just so large, we didn't get to see everything. The entire area is private, fenced off, with 24 hour security so we were able to just leave stuff everywhere. I'd love to get back there and shoot again if I could. Would be a perfect setting for a horror film, that's for sure.

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We started indoors with some really slow camera movements on the DIY track. It could have used another saw horse down the center for some additional stability, but worked fine for just slow movements. Going faster, it wanted to flex. We also did a bit of Crane shooting and later threw in some really close up hand held beauty shots of the band.

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We moved up to the roof in the late afternoon, and to really show off the height we were at, slung a Canon 60D on a crane over the side of the building. A bit scary, but it should be a really cool looking swing from over the side of the building back onto the roof. Hopefully that went pretty smooth, but from what we can see on the LCD it came out great.

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Next we went down to the outside grounds for a walking Steadicam Shot. The band followed the camera slowly while singing to the music. With the Canon 60D articulating LCD, I was able to walk forward and let the band frame themselves by looking into the LCD. They were able to monitor themselves and stay in frame, while I concentrated on not falling over or tripping on anything.

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I'll get the video footage once the editor hands them back, and show some of the shots we did. The Steadicam looked really great with the Canon 10-22mm Lens I rented and had all this space to run around in. Flying through a wide open room with large glass windows and concrete pillars everywhere had a very cool flying effect. I have to admit that with the changes in light, using the white balance on the 60D was much more effective than trying to set it on the T2i (which was being used for some BTS video). The 3 Canon 60D's worked really well and meshes closer to the workings of the 7D than a T2i. Definitely a great camera to work with. Now that i'm done with this project, I may sell one of them, but tempted to keep them both!

[Thanks to Matt for grabbing these BTS photos while we were running around in the heat]

Related Articles:
http://cheesycam.com/canon-60d-video-stabilizer-first-flight-glidecam-hd4000/
http://cheesycam.com/glidecam-hd4000-bts-with-canon-60d-steadicam-vest/