CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other cams)

Canon T3i / 600D, 60D, T2i / 550D, 1D Mark IV, 7D, 5D Mark II.
Panasonic DMC-GH2.
Nikon D7000, D5100, D5000, D90.
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Doughie
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CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other cams)

Post by Doughie »

OK starting a new thread here for my first impressions of my new CMR Blackbird steadicam stabiliser.

I have, or have access to various cameras that i will be using or testing it with, including :
- Nikon D90 (24fps video, at up to 720p resolution)
- Canon T2i/550D (24fps, 25fps, 30fps, 60fps, up to 1080p)
- Sony XR520V camcorder (30fps at 1080i)
- Sony FX1000 (30fps at 1080i)

Right now i am a bit of vacation and have the D90 and XR520 with me. The FX1000 and 550D I have access to occasionally.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
- a bit smaller than i had expected.
- fairly intuitive to put together and really quite fast to get balanced initially.
- very well constructed and designed generally. It's a very nicely engineered and machined piece of equipment.
- great custom carry-case with foam cutouts etc.

Photos will follow, but it maybe a week or so for that.

I have only used it with my D90 so far with a Sigma 10-20mm lens. I've only been able to use it on a windy rooftop (FAR from ideal! - - these things are really susceptible to the wind especially with smaller & lighter cameras) but in my 4 or 5 'test' runs i can already see quite fast improvement in my first attempts. Everything i have read about steadicam stabilisers before says they need practice practice practice! and certainly I can see from my first experiences that quite clearly that practice and user skill will contribute strongly towards the end result. But even in 4 or 5 little 1-minute test runs i can see rapid improvements. One hand holds the support handle just below the gimbal and the other hand needs to *lightly* control camera movement (pan/tilt etc) via a little control knob just above the gimbal.

So thats just a few first impressions. I dont have time to play with it much right now but it's really pretty easy to balance. Drop-time should be around 1.5 to 2.5 seconds but thats just a guide and it's very much down to user-preference. I am looking forward to playing around with it more (not in such gusty wind!!) and i would think that to get to a reasonable level of initial competence will take a few days of practice. I can see also that using a heavier cam will probably be slightly easier than a lighter cam (to start with) but of course using the heavier cam you will run into arm-fatigue issues faster than a lighter cam. The D90 isn't the greatest machine to shoot video with, but it will do for test-runs as i plan to use the 550D for some other stuff later this month. I am predicting that my XR520V will be the easier cam to shoot smoothly with for the simple reason that it has anyway the best OIS internal stabilisation i have ever used on a camcorder, so with that in combination with the Blackbird, it should be a good combination.

This is a very brief 'tips' on the Blackbird :
http://www.primitivebuteffective.com/20 ... kbird.html
but i agree on that writer's assessment in that it will probably take around a week to learn to use it well.

Sorry chris is havent YET used the 550D so i dont have any hand-on knowledge of profiles etc. I have heard that generally you need sharpness and contrast turned fairly low on this generation of D-SLRs.
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Stephan
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Stephan »

There's also this video on YouTube, that you once mentioned I think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV8y50Unl4k

I'm (positively) surprised that such light gear can handle a vast range of video cameras (regarding weight) - from the DSLR up to an EX3! That's very good. Well frankly, on the video he does try to look nice and relaxed and 60+ years old as he says, but we can see the muscles bending on his arm. They should supply the unit with discount coupons for gym subscriptions ;-)

Thanks for all the feedback. These stabilizers are fascinating devices really - simple and yet so effective. The smooth gliding motion looks very nice.

Tech question: about the drop time, I understand this reflects how well the stabilizer is balanced - is that correct? And the longer drop time, the better?
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

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Stephan wrote:Tech question: about the drop time, I understand this reflects how well the stabilizer is balanced - is that correct? And the longer drop time, the better?
Yes I can tell you he MUST be very used to it flying an EX3 ! It's not only the heavy cam, it's all the additional counterweights too. It's just getting your arm used to the stamina aspect. As Rich Greb basically designed and built the Blackbird, i expect he has more time using that stabiliser than anyone in the world. Even running my D-SLr plus ultra-wide lens, (2.6lbs) i am feeling slight arm fatigue after a few minutes. But easy to carry on - no problem at all on that. The blackbird itself weighs about 2.4lbs PLUS whatever counterweights you are using. Heavier cam?? Need more counterweights. I'd imagine for the EX3 you will need absolutely ALL the counterweights.

Drop-time is a trade-off. Longer drop-time (i.e. it is slower to drop to vertical position) means that the Center-of-Gravity of the whole rig is very close to the pivot point (the gimbal itself). This is in theory ideal IF the rig was *perfectly* balanced. In theory you want all forces on the camera/rig to be directed through the exact center of the C-of-G. If that happened, then there is no resulting rotational force on the device and it will not roll / tilt / pan. In the real world though you actually need the C-of-G slightly below the gimbal to give the rig 'reason' to stay vertical. The smaller the gap between the C-of-G and the center of the gimbal, the longer the drop-time, but the more it will be inclined to sway in pan/roll/tilt axes. Faster drop-time implies the C-of-G of the whole rig is further below the center of the gimbal which means it's more inclined to stay upright. Problem with that it - it will be more inclined to pendulum when you go round corners etc OR when starting or stopping. Basically any acceleration in any direction will result in a slight rotational force on the rig so you have to counter-act that with your controlling hand (takes a light touch and experience). The Blackbird's Smooth-Motion (adjustable friction on the gimbal) helps damp unwanted angular velocity in the roll/tilt/pan axes.

OK i have done about 6 little 1-minute runs, and i can definitely see improvment already. Quite a lot of improvement. I am going to experiment a bit with different weights and raising the T-bar and also there is a gimbal-extender included which is recommended for cams less than around 3lbs. My SLR plus lens is around 2.6lbs so i should be running the gimbal extender really and so far i have not. (but that's next!)
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Stephan
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Stephan »

Okay, understood! Perfectly clear explanation, thanks.
noa
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by noa »

Very interesting article, I have been looking around to add a "relative" cheap stabilizer to my bag of gear. Until now, if I needed good steadicam footage I always hired someone with a steadicam pilot which gave excellent results, only, there are a lot of small productions where I don't need that guy full time (I mainly cover small events and weddings) and for some very particular shots I think a stabilizer like the blackbird will do the trick just as well.
What I was looking for was some real-time experience from users and look here :)

Doughie, reg the t-bar at the bottom, doesn't it get in the way? To me it looks you could accidentally hit it with your legs when walking around? That same t-bar also could cause problems in narrow spaces?

I have been looking at the merlin a lot and I realy liked the small form but I read a lot from users with DSLR's having problems balancing it correctly or that after some time you need to re-balance it again, with the blackbird I read a lot of positive reports and have seen many quite ok first test runs.

I also looked at the French Titan (http://www.laigleparis.fr/english-ttn.htm) which has an option to have some small waist-belt (look at the bottom of their site) to carry the stabilizer, it only has one arm so it's not exactly according to the steadicam principle but from what they show in a video on their site it looks quite convenient carrying the rig. But, I virtually cannot find any user experience and I"m not so sure what to think of it, I only found one user response on a steadicam forum complaining that he couldn't get it balanced right.

Thing is I have a backproblem and carrying the wheight to long is not possible so I was considering something like the titan with the belt for support but since I read so many positive reports about the blackbird I'm not so sure what to do anymore. I too will be using it in combination with a 550d and a 10-22 canon lens and a zoom h1 so not sure how all that weight will add up?

If you have some test footage available Doughie I would be very interested to see it and hear some more of your impressions.

Btw, reg your comment of using that sony 520 because of the very good OIS, I don't have any experience with it but I always read from other steadicam users to always shut the ois off when on a steadicam but will be curious about your testresults, I also can agree about the great OIS on that camera, my father has one and i was amazed when i walked around with holding it in my hands how stable it was.

And last thing, I know this is my first post and don't want to sound like a complainer from the start :) but the black/white contrast of background and text is really horrific to my eyes, when i go to another site the text looks like it's burned into my eyes.
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Doughie »

noa wrote:What I was looking for was some real-time experience from users and look here :)

Doughie, reg the t-bar at the bottom, doesn't it get in the way? To me it looks you could accidentally hit it with your legs when walking around? That same t-bar also could cause problems in narrow spaces?
- Bienvenue noa.

OK I have had limited time to play around with my new Blackbird, but in a few days i should have more time. I have literally had time to record about 10 or 15minutes worth of footage with it, but so far i have been impressed with it, the design is excellent, the construction and engineering is solid, beautifully machined, and it feels high-quality and reassuringly 'expensive'.
I have used it with Nikon D90 (24fps, 720p) and XR520V (1080i at 30fps). I have a friend with an FX1000 who lives nearby and i want to try that out. Also i have another buddy who lives nearby who has a 550D/T2i SLR and that can shoot 1080p at 24fps, 25fps, 30fps and also 720p at 60fps.
OK.... T-bar : there are 2 T-bars included in the package ( i got the full kit, with the case, resting stand, table clamp, tripod adapter etc) and i have mainly used the longer T-bar as it has greater moment of inertia which helps with smaller cams like my D90. In my brief use i have been quite 'aware' of the T-bar and I haven't bumped into anything yet. Mainly going round corners its possible to bump it i suppose, but i haven't found that. also the T-bar's function is orientation-independent. In other words for a (eg) "Don Juan" manoeuvre (walking forwards, shooting backwards, with cam+stabilizer to your side) you can simply rotate the T-bar 90degrees so it's aligned in direction that you are walking. Rich Greb actually demo's this in the included demo DVD. I think the T-bar is just ONE of the key features of this excellent device, that benefit it substantially over and above the Merlin (for example).
noa wrote:I have been looking at the merlin a lot and I realy liked the small form but I read a lot from users with DSLR's having problems balancing it correctly or that after some time you need to re-balance it again, with the blackbird I read a lot of positive reports and have seen many quite ok first test runs.
I read a lot about Merlin and Glidecam and Blackbird before deciding. Both technical design, manfacturers sites, but also v importantly users feedback. I got the distinct impression that quite a few Merlin buyers were slightly disillusioned with it. Maybe thats too strong a word - i think a lot of Merlin owners struggle getting it balanced or KEEPING it balanced. I have no personal experience of using a Merlin, so this is just my impression from what i have read. I think T-bar massively helps with reducing unwanted pan-motion (3 axes of rotation of course - yaw, tilt, roll. same as an aircraft, and indeed these 3 axes are also used in single-seater racing car design).

2nd big win i think is the smooth-touch device which enables you to dial in more friction to the gimbal. Now this would seem counter-intuitive BUT it's MODERATE friction and it's finely adjustable. With a small camera, the mass is small, and the moment of inertia of the camera is small and therefore you can sometimes get unwanted motion and dialling in SOME friction with 'Smoothtouch' does damp these small oscillations. I did two runs on an apartment building with D90, one with NO additional friction on the gimbal, the other with added friction on the gimbal dialled in on Smoothtouch.
Much easier to control (remember i have only used it a few times - i will of course improve) with some friction dialled in via Smoothtouch.

- Below is a short clip i did, D90 D-SLR, 1/50th sec, ISO3200 (it was pretty dark!), f4, some Smoothtouch dialled in, around 13mm focal length (about 20mm in 35mm-equivalent terms) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N2zX59jDAE

Going round 90º corners is initially tricky to do without getting some axial rotation. This is one of the key skills to learn : compensating with your 'control-ring' hand for the small amount of roll that you tend to get when you have to induce yaw (i.e. pan ) to actually point the cam in different direction when you go round a corner.
noa wrote:I also looked at the French Titan (http://www.laigleparis.fr/english-ttn.htm) which has an option to have some small waist-belt (look at the bottom of their site) to carry the stabilizer, it only has one arm so it's not exactly according to the steadicam principle but from what they show in a video on their site it looks quite convenient carrying the rig. But, I virtually cannot find any user experience and I"m not so sure what to think of it, I only found one user response on a steadicam forum complaining that he couldn't get it balanced right.
- i have read some on L'aigle too, yes. they make a variety of designs.
noa wrote:Thing is I have a backproblem and carrying the wheight to long is not possible so I was considering something like the titan with the belt for support but since I read so many positive reports about the blackbird I'm not so sure what to do anymore. I too will be using it in combination with a 550d and a 10-22 canon lens and a zoom h1 so not sure how all that weight will add up?
OK another thing i checked before getting the Blackbird is that it WILL go directly on the Tiffen Merlin arm-and-vest. It is designed to be used with that same arm-vest and that is good to know if you are using a heavier cam or have a back-problem like yourself. Tiffen arm-&-vest for Merlin is around US$1500. CMR actually make a little adaptor-post i believe so that the Blackbird will fit perfectly on the Merlin vest-and-arm. So that is always an option for the future.
noa wrote:If you have some test footage available Doughie I would be very interested to see it and hear some more of your impressions.
I will be putting a few clips up when i get more time and a bit more practice.
noa wrote:Btw, reg your comment of using that sony 520 because of the very good OIS, I don't have any experience with it but I always read from other steadicam users to always shut the ois off when on a steadicam but will be curious about your testresults, I also can agree about the great OIS on that camera, my father has one and i was amazed when i walked around with holding it in my hands how stable it was..
aha yes i HAVE just one time tried out my XR520 (with wideangle lens) on it with the full 'Active' in-camera optical stabiliser on it and it may well be, like you said, that it might in fact be 'clashing' somehow with the Blackbird. I am going to re-try that with the 3 different XR520 OIS options : Active, Normal and OFF. I will do same run, try to replicate my performance each time, and see what the results are. It will indeed be interesting to see how it looks with OIS off, compared to 'Normal' OIS mode and then the XR520's 'extreme' mode which is 'Active' which, like you said, is incredibly good just handheld. My intial impressions with Active steadyshot on, in conjunction with the blackbird are inconclusive. I have only used XR520 once with the Blackbird and i hadn't got it balanced properly to be honest.
noa wrote:And last thing, I know this is my first post and don't want to sound like a complainer from the start :) but the black/white contrast of background and text is really horrific to my eyes, when i go to another site the text looks like it's burned into my eyes.
Interesting. I *like* black background and lighter-text. But that's something for Stephan, not me. Try reducing brightness or contrast on your monitor. No reason it should be horrific to your eyes. I suspect tone down your monitor settings if it's hurting your retina.
Last edited by Doughie on 27 Sep 2010 04:31, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: typos etc
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Doughie »

One more thing :
time-wise, balancing a camera on the Blackbird is really surprisingly easy. Even going slow, you can get it close to perfect in like 5 or 10mins. My recommendation is to keep Smoothtouch completely off (lowest friction) when doing static roll and tilt balance (basically getting the center of gravity of the whole rig perfectly vertically below the center of the gimbal.

On the Merlin i was highly amused to read this comment on another site just 2 minutes ago, posted by a new Merlin owner :
"After 18 hours (yep...i know I'm slow) of balancing my merlin with my new lens, I have come up with some cookbook settings. I thought I would save someone some frustration and post what I got. If you have another setting"

18HOURS??!? OMG! I don't think he was joking either. That's crazy. Blackbird is fast, and it retains balance. The Table-mount is great. You can put it on a tripod or a table-surface. I will take photos sometime soon of the Blackbird, balanced on the mount, (on a tripod) with my D90 or XR520. Also i'll post pics of the case and all the accessories etc.
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by noa »

Thx a lot Doughie to take your time to explain, as with every purchase I make I always ask myself; will it benefit my business? I had some cash to spend now and while I originally wanted to replace my 3 year old Q6600 pc I think I will go for the blackbird instead. My pc still does what it's supposed to do, yet slower (talking about render/trancode times only) then a new model and investing a new pc will buy me some time but it's won't enhance my productions.

Adding the 550d to my bag of tricks have given me some footage I never could have get from my Canon xh-a1 and it supplements my main cam and workhorse very well and I think the blackbird will give me that same little extra you can't get with your camera alone. I also must say the short clip you did looks very good, especially for just using it a few times.

Thanks again for your response.
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Doughie »

noa wrote:And last thing, I know this is my first post and don't want to sound like a complainer from the start :) but the black/white contrast of background and text is really horrific to my eyes, when i go to another site the text looks like it's burned into my eyes.
Stephan has now modified the text so that instead of white it is a kinda 'off-white' or pale grey so that should reduce the contrast issue and make the forum a little more readable. You see - 1st post and we consider and respond to user-feedback if we can !
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by noa »

A greyish/black combo is better. I compare this site with the canopus forum, they have more or less the same look but also a black background which is toned down a bit as well. My screen had already lower contrast and pitch black and very white can be quite harsh to the eyes.

Well, now I'm thinking about it; can't the black background not be replaced with a picture of Scarlett Johansson? It might be somewhat distracting but should improve readability a lot. ;)
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