Ok thanks appreciate the input

Whats a good Steadicam with vest and arm for something like a ursa mini , or even a little larger original alexa, so up to 20 pounds..anything good 1000$ and under?

@Tobsen OK ... check the black dials that are set into the silver part of the male socket block. Adjusting these dials should cause the two pins (called "rod ends") to move independently horizontally in and out of the block. This angle adjusts the "left to right fall" of the arm. You should be able to adjust the dials easily when the arm is loaded, but you may find it easier to check when the arm is unloaded. In the Steadicam Operator's Handbook (by Jerry Holway) they recommend to have the bottom pin all the way in, then back it off 1/8 of a turn. The top pin should be all the way in and then backed off about three turns. Then adjust the top pin either way to fine tune. (This is a good starting position for Steadicam brand systems, and should be similar for Wondlan). If your dials do not move the pins, you may have a faulty unit.

@Tobsen Could you perhaps provide a photo of your socket block / arm connection? I am having difficulty working out what model you have and how it adjusts.

The Wondlan dual arm vest that I have seen (basically identical to the Laing M02 vest) has two screws with round black knobs facing forward (one above the other) on the silver "female socket block" part of the vest. The male socket block section is inserted beside these screws, and then the screws are tightened to lock in the socket block. You can adjust one screw tighter than the other to affect whether the socket block tilts slightly forward or backward, which means the arm will fall away or fall towards you. There are also two black dials set into the male socket block section that adjust the "left to right" fall of the arm.

@cp_from_oz I have the dual arm and it lacks the function to tilt it "away from the body" and "towards the body". Just left/right adjustment. Sorry for my poor English - no idea how to call it.

That Laing socket block looks like a good solution regading adjustment. I hope I can get something like that for the Wondlan to make it work better.

@cp_from_oz

Laing M02 is available on our deals now, you can PM me to get details.

Is there a plan to have the matching Wondlan Sled available with the leopard arm?

Wieldy sled is Glidecam knock-off. I do not know if the arm has been copied from elsewhere.

Great info guys, thanks for posting.

Emm says this arm has performance close to that of the Merlin (i.e. the gold standard for small arms) . He points out that a lot of these cheap arms have springs that are too powerful for light cameras, but apparently not the case with Wieldy. emm will be doing further video comparison . Wieldy also has good demo video (including 320mm FF long lens work) for its single-arm system at:

Wieldy rig is also on ebay labelled as "Came" brand although there are some reports Came bearings are of differentquality.

I requested that these arms be assessed in videos by a few critical performance indicators:

• the effective boom range

• the range of payload weights and what feels like the “sweetest” load on each arm. This is the critical “iso-elastic feel” of each arm (i.e. Merlin claims that only a small constant lifting force from your hand is required to boom the arm through its entire range, even at the extremeties of the spring range, which means it is highly iso-elastic). Whereas a less than ideal spring will need heaps of grunt from your hand to lift at the ends of the boom range and is thus not considered iso-elastic.) The iso-elastic performance will vary according to the weight that is placed on the arm, hence the "sweet spot" or ideal carrying weight for each arm.

• the "operating footprint" or room that the arm takes up outside the hip area of the operator (i.e. how easy it will be to operate in confined quarters). This can be influenced by the length of the "bones" (i.e. "arm sections") and also how far out to the side the socket-block connection or “effective rear pivot point” of the arm is. Often the cheaper arms have a more monstrous “operating footprint” are are bad news for any sort of confined shooting. Having a 2-axis adjustable socketblock like the Merlin/Wondlan (although helpful for adjusting the "fall" or natural floating position of the arm) is likely to increase the operating footprint of the rig and make it more likely to bang into door frames when going through doors or confined spaces. I tried a Wondlan-copy arm and the rear pivot point of the arm sat 37cm from the centreline of the vest - effectively 15cm outside my natural hipline! That's a lot of real estate. The Wieldy has only a drop-in socket-block without axis adjustments and looks to have a smaller operating footprint, but I am waiting on confirmation from supplier, as it also has longer arm sections.

Regarding the quality of bearings (especially the critical pan bearing around the post) there is a good simple test --> Hold the rig at arms length straight out in front of you and rotate your whole body through 360 degrees over about three seconds and come to a stop. A perfect bearing will retain the original camera axis (pointing direction), whereas if there is significant friction in the bearing, the camera will be pulled off axis. (A few degrees can be acceptable). This test simulates the standard moves of an operator who has to walk around the rig during the shot and have the camera orientation undisturbed.

It is interesting to see the Laing stabiliser pictured above offers an in-built HDMI cable run through the centre-post for proper monitoring. It is possible to do a DIY mod on these posts to run HDMI, as per the attached sketch ... with the warning that drilling the carbon fibre might affect its structural integrity / flexibility.

I hope people can post any videos they know of for these rigs ... in terms of setup and also operating results.

In comparison with a Steadicam, Sachtler or ABC system that allow the bolts to be adjusted freely without dissassembly, this is much more time consuming. I think Wondlan should change that in future models.

hi, , i found this on the web ..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Wieldy-1-7kg-Carbon-Fiber-Stabilizer-Steadicam-Camera-Video-Steadycam-Vest-Arm-/261145291423?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3ccd78ea9f