Building Stabilizer in Washington State, USA

[Jon Fairhurst]

Hi, I'm Jon Fairhurst from Camas, WA. I plan on building a stabilizer for a 5D Mark II.

You can see some of my stuff on Vimeo: http://vimeo.com/user1059940

A few years ago my son and his friends and I did a web series called Colonel Crush. I was the composer: http://colcrush.com

More recently we shot a festival short on the 5D2, called The Murder of Dirk Snowglobe, a film noir comedy. We used a Steaditracker for handheld work - and wrapped a USB cable around the lens to pull focus!!! Time to upgrade! http://DirkSnowglobe.com

[Charles King]

Welcome Jon. Glad you could drop in This camera seems to be very popular. I am planning on flying the 7D soon and am just getting into getting accustom to it. Well, not yet but been reading up on it for an upcoming shoot. Great job on 'Dream Job' Love the look.

[Tom Frisch]

Hey Jon, I feel like I've seen your posts elsewhere online.
I'm in Portland, slowly building my rig up.  Nice to meet you and good luck.

-Tom

[Jon Fairhurst]

@Charles - The 5D's rolling shutter (skew) is the reason I want great stability. Too bad I don't have $5k+ for a pro rig.  I'm building mine for lightweight cameras only - max sled weight will be 15 lbs or so. I'm going to try to be creative and remove as much mass from the middle as possible, as well as striving to minimize drag. Should be easy on the back, and moderate on the wallet, but we will see.

The scuttlebutt is that there will soon be some electronic remote focus controls available for EOS lenses on the 5D/7D/1D. That would be perfect for Steadicam work. Also, it shouldn't be long before Magic Lantern will be available on the 7D. That will give you manual audio gain control, zebras, live histogram and waveform, among other things. It also include an electronic rack focus that can toggle between two preset points with settable speed. Currently, you have to trigger it from a camera button. If it can be triggered from an IR input, then we would have a zero cost electronic focus control for limited A to B shots.

@Tom - Yeah, I post at DV Info and Cinema5D. So... how far along are you on your rig? I'm still in the planning stages. If you know of good local machinists, please let me know. Years ago I rebuilt a Lotus motor and used Eastco in Gresham. They do great work, but they're really set up for motor work. I have no idea if they do anything custom. For cars, they are highly regarded, and my motor is still running strong ten years on...

BTW, I know a guy here in Camas who has done the full training, and operated a Steadicam ON THE FIELD one season for the XFL. He said that on one occasion, he was behind the QB, and the ball flew near his feet. With all the players running at full speed, he just stood there and got as skinny as possible!

Anyway, it would be great to learn about the local resources that you've dug up, as well as to know what to avoid.

[Tom Frisch]

Hey Jon- that's where I recognized your name- from your audio posts on Cinema5D.  I bought a juicedlink preamp on your recommendation.  I've slowly been working on a headphone amp to be hacked/installed inside the same unit so I can monitor the audio OUT of the 5D without any extra kit/batteries.

On my steadicam, I've done a ton of research, and made one 1 prototype arm section.  Currently am in design development phase, needing to put some time into it, but busy with work as of late.  I'm my own machinist, and not a very good one, but this project is a good excuse to learn more about it.

-Tom

[Jon Fairhurst]

Yeah, the JL (or external recorder) is a must for 5D2 work. Right now I velcro a Boostaroo to it. I've also thought about hacking the headphone amp inside of the JL.

So, how did your arm section prototype turn out? Does it bounce or float - or something in between?

I'm more of an engineer and assembler than a machinist. I'm trying to be clever enough to minimize machining beyond a saw and drill press. Hopefully, I won't be *too* clever.

So, have you ever participated in the 48 Hour Film Project in Portland, or do you prefer to make money from video?

[Tom Frisch]

I got a headphone amp on a chip from maxim, and am having a circuit board fabbed to mount said chip.  It's a very small surface mount part, so I'm not sure if it's going to work or not.  Also waiting anxiously for the 24P firmware for 5DmkII, which then means I'll be waiting again for magic lantern, unless Canon manages to turn off the auto audio gain... I'm not holding my breath for any of those.

The prototype was semi-floaty, but what I've learned in the last few months in discussions with Andreas, Carter, and others has lead me to believe I can get a MUCH better result than I was in the prototype.  I've got new springs now, and need to make some time to machine some new parts.

I did 48 film festival a few years back.  We did a movie called "The Big Schwarz"  which was a romantic comedy about a porn writer who was also a virgin.  We won best costumes, but I felt that we were robbed, and should have taken 2nd place.  The winner "Love and Sappiness" was fantastic.  Beyond that, I've been doing more paid work than non.

-Tom

[Jon Fairhurst]

I remember The Big Schwarz. It was classic! I specifically remember the camera work in the hallway.

That year, we got Musical and won best score with Heart Break Break In. http://colcrush.com/movie/index/00240001