My "first" test is up! Password: laing-m02

I decided to do this quick test when my friend Victor showed up at work and agreed to be my lab rat... I mean, actor. We threw this together in 20 minutes during my break. Not 100% happy with it, the rig wasn't perfectly balanced so it's a bit wobbly and I touched the post with my knee when booming down there at the end. And you can see my shadow twice. There's a lot of stuff I would fix if having more time to make further attempts, but it's still cold in Sweden and Victor and I were freezing (at least he had a hoodie, I had a T-shirt). It's decent for this first quick go, I wanted to make it fairly long and do as many variations as possible.

Sorry about the second half, Victor made me do it xD But I guess I can loose some pride as thanks for helping me out when no one else wanted to.

Nice to see a RED on it, but the test flight in the video doesn't really do the rig justice. Either the guy in the video is a beginner or he doesn't know how to balance properly.

I'm looking into buying the Steadicam practice cage to add more weight on both my GH2 and EX1. We used them on the workshop where I got my certificate with small handycams. It comes with 5x 4lb weights if my memory serves correct and can be stacked so you can choose how much weight you want. Again, if my memory is correct. In Sweden the cage is almost $500 US, so I'll probably look into a DIY solution first.

@eteotico @cp_from_oz

thanks for these nice demos nd explanations. How do you think will the vest fit to tall people? ( 6ft 6)

Yes, I've preset low mode with markings in the LCD bracket. From high mode to low mode, I only need to move the gimbal by an inch lower, re-angle the LCD so that it faces me when it's inverted and slide the LCD bracket all the way out to achieve dynamic balance. I now shoot inverted and use the camera remote control to record or stop since the camera is so low. Note that the image on the LCD screen is not inverted. The Sony FS 100 automatically corrects the LCD.

@eteotico To my uneducated eye, that was incredible. When you said low mode, did you actually invert the camera?

Thanks, @eteotico got the same advice from @cp_from_oz and I thought I had adjusted the socket block enough for my belly, but I was wrong. I've managed to get it the way I wanted it as well as the arm but I had to use the incuded allen key to adjust the springs. It's nearly perfect now. The drop time is a bit fast, I need to figure out how to add weight on top, adjusting the gimbal more will make the camera to high up for me. Which makes me wonder what to do when I will try my GH2 on it... Will look into to getting some rubber on those knobs :)

There are fore and aft and side to side adjustments on the socket block. This should allow you to balance the entire rig. Check the Steadicam Operators Handbook for details. Balancing the arm and sled should be easy. Regarding the springs: What is the weight of your camera with accessories? What is the gauge of the springs your arms came with?

Here's a challenging test I just uploaded with the Laing M-02. I used a 50mm lens at f5.6. My subject was a little girl who was soo difficult to keep in focus. To top that, I set the rig in low mode so that I could capture her pov.

@hemo22 Are there measurement marks on the bottom post? I'd be very happy if they already placed a white line that runs across the post. After moving the post up or down, I spend so much time trying to align the bottom sled with the lcd bracket and top sled.

Hi cp, The combined arm 's length is 26 inches. It's nice and short. Without springs, it probably has a boom range of about 24 inches. I want to answer your querry about isoelasticity. It has a sweet spot of about 12 inches at 1 kilo torque. I am using a strong spring-4mm (lower arm) and a medium spring-3mm (upper arm)

This is my crude way of arriving at my estimates. I placed a weighing scale on the table. I mounted the stabilizer (vest, arm and post) and placed the 6.8 kilo sled on top of the scale. I bent up and down, and watched when the scale would register past 1 kilo. I noted my height and calculated the difference. Hahaha. I hope hempo has a spring scale. I don't think it's isoelastic compared to the flyer or ultra. However it has a beautifully smooth ride with a limited boom range. It's precise, well built and has many features found only on more high end rigs and a price to beat. It's like comparing a BMC with a Red Camera. The BMC has awesome image quality but has many shortcomings. Well that's the reality of a 3k vs 8k price. (I'm waiting for the BMC deliveries to stabilize before I upgrade my FS 100.) I think the Laing will be a great tool for the BMC.

@hempo22 What is your opinion on the camera trim adjustments on the top stage (e.g. smooth travel? easy adjustment? good position for quick changes? firm locking? long travel?)

Also, we have not seen any hard measurments of the arm's performance yet. If someone can get a set of digital luggage "hook" scales and measure the human lift/push required at different points of the boom travel, this will help us understand the performance of the arm under different sled weights.

Ideally an arm should require only around 1kg max of even force to boom it through the entire range. Keep in mind that "just because it has springs and it bounces, doesn't mean it will perform like a true Steadicam".

@eteotico Have you settled on your favourite set of springs? Did you use some from the Century catalog? What total sled weight are you operating? Can you include breakdown of weights for camera, monitor, batteries/weights.

The more data and precise measurements we have for this rig, the better informed our buying choices will be. Without such data, a purchase is a gamble. Putting together this data is pioneering work. Pro Steadicam companies do not issue this sort of precise data, but with those companies you can go on their track record or pop down to the showroom to try one or speak to any one of the hundreds of operators using them. In this era of Chinese rigs, the data will be critical to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Got my M-02 a couple of days ago, will do a video review as fast as possible but I need a couple of weeks of flying it first and before that I need to modify the vest a bit. Otherwise it looks really good. Unboxing photos:

Package at the door, 10 days from order to delivery. Customs around 10% of price:

Everything was in a soft bag (would've loved a hard case with cutout foam but for the price I paid I'm happy):

The manual, chinese only, not useful for me:

The vest is really good, but I need to modify it (I always "destroy" a new vest when I get one):

The stabilizer, got markings on the post for easy and precise adjustment, great if you need to move to another location and reassemble your setup quickly. Same kinds of marking on the dovetail/camera sled:

The arm has it's own small bag, that's great! This is the part that needs the most protection:

Tools and different parts (screws, pins, spare parts):

Additional springs:

Counterweights (x16) and the docking bracket at the upper right corner (you need to get a stand and a good one can be bought fairly cheap. I already have one):

So far, so good. I'll be back as soon as possible with more :) Thanks @Vitaliy_Kiselev for making these deals possible! :)

Thanks for all the help Vitaliy & eteotico! I think I still got my Steadi-Op Handbook somewhere, I got it during training. I'm actually a certified operator since a few years back but I could never afford a rig until recently when I got a used Glidecam 4000 Pro (awful to balance) with the Smooth Shooter arm (single) and vest (not very adjustable) for about half the retail price. It was in pretty good shape, but the manual was rubbish. I found some videos on vimeo and it was different to balance compared to a "normal" steadicam. But it was a good start and I really want to get back to it (I became a editor and colourist because that was the jobs in demand and I'm good at it.) But I love flying a Steadicam, so when I can finally afford it it's time to go back to the gym and build up those back muscles again :)