Balancing a Steadicam Jr

[Bnew]

Does anyone on the board have experience with these?

For my last project I rented one out for a day but couldn't balance the fucker for the life of me. There was no documentation with it, just the video which was not a lot of help and about 45 minutes long and bloated with unneccesary crap, sounded like it was aimed at joe blow who's never touched a camera in his life and is going to track round his yard filming his 3 year old.

Anyways, I did everything it said to on the tutorial, yet it was just SO finicky, even when it would seem balanced, it wasn't perfect so just wouldn't work at all. Is there some kind of minimum weight? Because the camera was quite a small one at about 750g (the specs say that but it sounds absurdly light), so perhaps that was the problem?

This time we'll be shooting with a PD150, but if we go with the steadicam we'll be relying on it for a few shots, and this time with proper actors and on location so can't afford to fuck it up really. Anyone got any tips?

Also, what about other alternatives such as glidecam / hague stabilizer, are they in a similar kind of price range?

And where are some good places to rent gear and stuff from too (in London)? We paid ?20 per day for the Jr from Spectacle Productions which i'm told is reasonable but I dunno, the Jr seemed like junk to me and renting for 10 days would cover what I imagine the cost of the whole thing to be?

[curtinparloe]

Yes, it's a bugger.

After ages of trial and error, I managed to balance an XM2 on one, but it seemed to be about the maximum weight a steadicam jr will manage. I couldn't use the monitor, and I think I used the cam's own LCD screen, partly for balance. I had it on the very rear hole, and batteries in (essential for the weight), and then used the small adjusters to get it right.
I reckon I could get it balanced with a PD150, but it would probably take a few hours. If I get chance I'll try it tomorrow, and give you a rundown of what I did if you like.
?20 does seem pricey to me over 10 days - I'm sure you could buy one for ?200 somewhere(although, if it won't balance, then a free one isn't worth it).

[curtinparloe]

Well, I couldn't do it. What a big failure I am.

The PD150 was just too heavy, simple as that. I got some reasonable results with an XM2, but I reckon that's about the maximum weight, to be honest.

My advice is not to use a steadicam jr with a PD150. Try something else, like a glidecam or something, but make sure whatever you use definitely supports the weight.