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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Stephan
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Stephan »

noa wrote: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.
<hijack mode on - sorry!>
Actually now, with the changes I made for you, contrast is lower here! We have 81% gray on full black background, vs. ediusforums 100% white text on 13% dark gray, and DPReview.com 100% white on pure black! I find ediusforums more aggressive, but you know... color preferences and tastes... I usually tend to say that I'll switch colors only after the hugely successful DPReview has - pretty bad excuse don't you think? ;-)
At the moment I really need to focus my time for an add-on to this website, that I think you'll love as a useful resource (hint, hint, teasing, teasing...)
<hijack off>

PS: a hearty welcome here, noa! :-)
noa
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by noa »

Just killing time now while my pc is crunching it's teeth on rending a project...
for me content is always king and then it doesn't matter what layout/color or whatever supports it, if you content is good people will be coming back anyway, even if the high contrast differences kill their sight. :D

Just another question on the blackbird; what is the weight in KG? Hopefully it's as light as it looks.
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Doughie »

noa wrote:Just another question on the blackbird; what is the weight in KG? Hopefully it's as light as it looks.
OK I just weighed it on some pretty accurate scales, and the Blackbird (with one large counterweight on each side of the T-bar which is what i need to balance my D-SLR) weighs 1.5kg.
noa
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by noa »

That sounds good, well, I will find out soon enough, just ordered one an hour ago :)
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Doughie »

how's your CMR Blackbird experience going noa??
- good i hope.

It's been a little while since i wrote in this thread so here's an example of my latest experience with the CMR Blackbird on a (fairly windy!) day:

I did some Steadicam stuff last week, mainly shooting 'Behind the Scenes' stuff at a beach-house and all of my B-roll stuff was done on my Blackbird with Sony XR520V. I think the combination of the Blackbird and XR520 (good OIS on that cam) is pretty powerful. Quite a lot of wind in the outdoor shots on this beach, and wind makes using a Steadicam device a lot harder, that's for sure.

Anyway, this is an edit of my 'Behind the Scenes' footage. The model Erika I knew already, so I managed to get her to do the shoot just for the price of lunch! I wish it was always so cheap...
A-cam for this shoot was FX1000, on a track-and-dolly which we built recently for very little out of PVC tubing and metal-bars as 'railway sleepers'. Most expensive part of the track-and-dolly was the little 'skateboard' wheels which we bolted the tripod dolly to. Apart from that, it was inexpensive to construct.

Some of the pool shots were done using Smooth-Slow-Record (SSR)mode, at a genuine 120fps. Resolution suffers, yes, but still it's a useful tool to have in the bag. You can set up SSR to record the NEXT 3seconds or record the PREVIOUS 3seconds (it buffers the footage in memory). depending on the predictability of the content you're filming determines which of these two 'next' or 'previous' modes of SSR is best to choose.

Behind the Scenes edit :
http://www.vimeo.com/16491962
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wagsy
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by wagsy »

Hi Doughie

Good job, yes it does not work too good in the wind.
Keep practicing and it becomes easier thats for sure.
I still wobble around the place, but it has become easier.

Tell your model that she look pretty good in that little white dress...has so got a little red on too. :-)

Have you used a DSLR on it yet?

Cheers
Wags
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Stephan
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Stephan »

Nice video!

Are you sure this is the B-roll? Traditionally, 'behind-the-scenes' were supposed to be shaky, casually shot, with people laughing or doing lousy jokes... But here, with the polished look, nice motion, cool song, you wonder which cam is doing the real job ;-)
noa
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by noa »

I was on a short (an well deserved :)) holiday in Germany last week and decided to take the blackbird with me just for fun. (My wife didn't find it funny at all but that's the price she have to pay for being married to a videographer :D)

Here's a short vid I did just after about 2 hours of testing:

http://vimeo.com/16325159

I was not able to play the included video because there was no dvd player available and the included book was not that detailed about setup but I managed pretty well I think. Will be taking it with me in a bout 3 weeks on a payed assignment, will be going through the dvd anyway as soon as I have some more time available because I saw there were some very good tips there.

If I can get this kind of result just after that few hours of trying I am sure it will be a very valuable tool, together with my 550d and canon 10-22 lens it was surprisingly light. I"m happy. :)
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Doughie »

wagsy wrote:Hi Doughie

Good job, yes it does not work too good in the wind.
Keep practicing and it becomes easier thats for sure.
I still wobble around the place, but it has become easier.

Tell your model that she look pretty good in that little white dress...has so got a little red on too. :-)

Have you used a DSLR on it yet?

Cheers
Wags
Hi Wags - good to see you here mate. Another sonyHDVinfo.com ex-member signs up ! good stuff...

Yep i have actually just acquired a possible solution to windy days with the Blackbird. I read on another forum that Charles Papert, hollywood movie Steadicam professional recommends a 4x double-net be used as a wind-baffle for Steadicam. you need an assistant to walk/run with it next to you. A solid object doesn't work - it creates vortices and turbulence and also a net-type device is much easier to control. I have double-layer mosquito-net screen and i'll see how it works.

Yes i've used a Nikon D90 on the blackbird and also a Canon 550D. I like the 550D, produces essentially the same video as your 7D, and you can choose from 24fps, 25fps,. 30fps and even 60fps (at 720p). I used it on a house shoot a week ago and i was NOWHERE near your skill level (yet!).

So here i plug my Aussie mate wagsy's Blackbird skill....
check out one of his real-estate vids below, this with blackbird and Canon 7D in sunny Perth :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOZ2nWoy6YE

I'll get there with the 550D, just takes time (550D is my mate's down the road - i can only borrow it occasionally).

Yep Erika is a fun chick - we had a great time making that stuff at the beach-house. I actually still have all her dresses at my apartment !!!! (now now, no smart remarks, lads..) - she left them in my truck and hasn't picked them up yet. I don't know if she has a red dress, i'll ask her to bring one along next time.
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Doughie
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Re: CMR Blackbird stabiliser (with D90 & T2i/550D & other ca

Post by Doughie »

Stephan wrote:Nice video!

Are you sure this is the B-roll? Traditionally, 'behind-the-scenes' were supposed to be shaky, casually shot, with people laughing or doing lousy jokes... But here, with the polished look, nice motion, cool song, you wonder which cam is doing the real job ;-)
Yes maybe i should promote myself to the 'A-cam' ! Actually since i just saw your post, i just uploaded the A-cam demo reel from that same shoot and here it is ... :

http://www.vimeo.com/16571498

Ben, the A-cam op, has only got a 0.45 wideangle attachment lens for that FX1000 and it does fisheye a lot. He's getting a genuine Century optics WA lens (0.7x or 0.8x i think) in a couple of weeks. Should be FAR better than the one now as it has loads of barrel-distortion.

The pool filter wasn't actually working that day, so the water was a bit cloudy so the underwater shot wasn't as clear as we had hoped. Still it worked ok i think.
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