Pistol grip 3-axis gimbal stabilizer

[dafreaking]

27 minutes ago, blafarm said:

I assume they would rather have control of the entire device (stabilizer/software/camera) -- than deal with myriad customer service problems caused by different camera/lens combinations, software settings and operator errors.

At the same time, in spite of having complete control, I've read a number of posts regarding performance issues with the OSMO.

At least DJI can attempt to address those problems knowing that the hardware in the field that's been sold is uniform.

 

 

The OSMO has a lot of issues. Seems to have gotten better over time. Things like 4K would crash it a lot. We ended up using it on 1080p. It would crash most Android devices too.. And sometimes the stuttering was really really bad.

[Fredrik Lyhne]

14 hours ago, shooter said:

Is Came TV a safe bet on settings?

I haven't used it, but I believe that If you mess with PID you breach warranty. I'm not 100% sure though. Check out Cheesy Cam, Dave Dugdale etc

11 hours ago, Franz Schuier said:

Base line - Dont expect a gimbal to "just work" like your apple laptop. There is always some learning and tweaking involved (even on the movi / which is the user friendliest by far) - for the size and prize this thing is the best at the moment. And the encoders used make battery life great.

 

I hear you, but when the manufacturer tells me that it works out of the box, I don't expect to spend 10 x times more time trying to get the unit do work than actually using it. As I said maybe I got a bad unit, the USB cable with extended connecter didn't work until I unscrewed the handle and updated the software with another USB cable. Even with Pilotfly's own settings it causes camera shakes when panning and tilting from time to time. 

As I said I would not recommend this product to anyone who's not willing to spend a lot of time learning PID. With that said I believe the H2 has the most potential of the 3-axis gimbals on the market right now, but it's just not for me. Expensive lesson learned.

[shooter]

8 hours ago, Fredrik Lyhne said:

I haven't used it, but I believe that If you mess with PID you breach warranty. I'm not 100% sure though. Check out Cheesy Cam, Dave Dugdale etc

 

So, does it work straight out of the box?

 

That's really nice!

[Fredrik Lyhne]

22 minutes ago, shooter said:

So, does it work straight out of the box?

 

That's really nice!

I'm not sure, check out reviews  

btw, @photographer-at-large posted a link to a to the successor of Came-TV Single on page 7 in this thread.

[ricardo_sousa11]

I once tried a CameTV with an NX1 and never got it to work, it would simply not ballance with any lens, tried NX1+14mm samyang, 24mm samyang, 50mm canon f1.8 and 35mm f1.4 canon(ultra light!) and none of them worked, it simply wouldnt hold the weight. I then tried with a 600D with 24mm Samyang, also didnt work, but it did work with a 50mm f1.8, Im not sure if it was a faulty unit (it was a friend of mine), but it was a terrible experience.

Im thinking now if I jump to the H2 or not, but I will probably wait a bit more and see more reviews.

[blafarm]

Came-TV at NAB 2016:  Came Optimus

Pricing and pre-order information to be released soon 

[Michael Ma]

On 4/15/2016 at 2:00 AM, Fredrik Lyhne said:

Sorry guys but I'm cutting my losses and sending it back. I tried to load Yoshihide PID settings and Pilotfly's settings that they posted on facebook yesterday and it just keeps freaking out. I had to unscrew the handle back and forth to change settings and switching between different USB cables, sometimes bluetooth works and sometimes not. I've been getting a lot of error messages. But I assume all gimbal manufacturers buy boards from BaseCam Electronics and uses their software, so I'm not sure who to blame, Pilotfly, BaseCam or myself. 

Maybe I just got a bad one, who knows. This gimbal might be easy to balance, but if you want your footage to look like Dave's or Yoshihide's you better start learning PID and spend a lot of time learning to walk. The H2 sure has plenty of potential and the 2-hand handle is really nice, but for my needs I rather get a GX85 for now and wait for the GH5. 

A lot of people are having great results with DS1, H1+ and a few with H2 so far, but unfortunately I'm not one of them. Cinegain stated in an earlier post that he wanted something idiot proof, and in my experience the H2 is not. 

My question is is the gyro calibrated?  From reading the description of your problem, this could very well be it.  After you balance it, you have to calibrate the gyro or it's gonna freak out.  They should really emphasize that the gimbal will not work properly unless it is.  I'm just going to guess that the H2 needs calibration as well.  And even calibrating properly requires some digging into Pilotfly's youtube channel.  

I think the gimbal manufacturers need to get off of the idea that a gimbal should work out of the box.  I just really can't see how they can come up with a device that's going to support the whole spectrum of bodies of lenses with just 3 preconfigured profiles.  It's just not going to happen.  I think that's the problem with the Came TV Single.  There's are some people who got really lucky and it actually worked out of the box, then there are a lot of people running around with terribly unbalanced and uncalibrated gimbals and they are relying on the batteries to compensate (thus the really poor battery life for some), and there are just people who return them because it just doesn't work for the configuration.

In my experience, PID settings really don't seem to change much of anything unless they are grossly miscalibrated.  The buzzing and the freaking out from my experience is from the lack of gyro calibration and improper  balancing.

[Fredrik Lyhne]

@Michael Ma I live in an a classic old apartment and it's pretty hard to find a 100% straight surface here to do the gyro calibration. It seemed straight according the in-camera-leveller, so I didn't want to mess things up even more. You could be right though, cause even when I was walking really slowly it buzzed mildly to cause camera shakes. Same when tilting it 90 degrees forward. 

I agree with everything you said. The marketing is not very accurate and it would be better for everyone if they just took the time to show and tell us how to use the device. The lack of support and documentation is poor. This is the first time I hear that this might be the problem and they should have told me straight away when I said it was not working. 1.2.3.4.5 etc checklist. "Let's figure out what's wrong!"

I sent it back as they didn't have any suggestions for how I could get it working, other then adjusting PID which didn't help. I couldn't sell it either so it's probably gonna cost me 200-500 USD depending on of they give me a full refund or not. 

[SR]

My Beholder DS1 is coming around May 8th. Quite excited. Any advice and links on your choice of 3.7 volts (18650 - what's that?) spare batteries for the DS1? 

[Cinegain]

Sure. 18650 batteries are ones that are mostly popular for driving the more powerful CREE LED flashlights. https://www.fasttech.com/category/1420/batteries is a reputable seller, avoid things with 'Fire' in the brand's name (good chance they're rubbish and dangerous (like... catching fire)). Panasonic, Samsung and LG would be good bets. I like SoShine ones. Get ones with PCB (Protective Circuit Board). Avoid mixing different brands/models.

If you really want to delve into it... here are some further links:

• http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650Summary%20UK.html ( and I'd recommend to get a 2- or 4-bay intellicharger with it from either Nitecore, Sysmax or Jetbeam; http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers%20UK.html )
• http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?9-Flashlight-Electronics-Batteries-Included
• http://budgetlightforum.com/forum/batteries/rechargeable

[SR]

4 hours ago, Cinegain said:

Sure. 18650 batteries are ones that are mostly popular for driving the more powerful CREE LED flashlights. https://www.fasttech.com/category/1420/batteries is a reputable seller, avoid things with 'Fire' in the brand's name (good chance they're rubbish and dangerous (like... catching fire)). Panasonic, Samsung and LG would be good bets. I like SoShine ones. Get ones with PCB (Protective Circuit Board). Avoid mixing different brands/models.

If you really want to delve into it... here are some further links:

• http://lygte-info.dk/review/batteries2012/Common18650Summary%20UK.html ( and I'd recommend to get a 2- or 4-bay intellicharger with it from either Nitecore, Sysmax or Jetbeam; http://www.lygte-info.dk/info/indexBatteriesAndChargers%20UK.html )
• http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?9-Flashlight-Electronics-Batteries-Included
• http://budgetlightforum.com/forum/batteries/rechargeable

Thanks, I did follow your lead and look into Panasonic batteries and found these. 

[tellure]

Accidentally posted this in the wrong thread.. here's Brandon Li testing out the PilotFly H2: 

He's been on the facebook group a bunch getting help resolving some jitters.  From his comments there and on Vimeo it sounds like he's got it tuned pretty well now.  Not sure how much he needed it though.. that guy has been doing insane handheld shots for years that look smoother than my gimbal shots..

[Cinegain]

Upcoming remote for timelapse controle for example...

Apparently holds a flippin FS5 too!

[SR]

Ahhhhhhhhhh, that's insane. I wonder if the DS1 could even do that (I think H2 is a lot bigger if I'm not wrong). Speaking of which, my DS1 arrived today! Can't wait to try it out.

[Davey]

On 11/05/2016 at 5:21 PM, SR said:

Ahhhhhhhhhh, that's insane. I wonder if the DS1 could even do that (I think H2 is a lot bigger if I'm not wrong). Speaking of which, my DS1 arrived today! Can't wait to try it out.

How did you get on?

Given up on mine for a few weeks - will try again in the near future. It's better that way if still struggling to get it balanced after 4-6 hours - lest it ends up going through the window.

 

Certain camera body / lens combinations simply won't balance without additional height plates, secondary weights added to the hot shoe, clamps added to the main plate etc.

One problem tends to beget another problem. The MS1 was the same, which is probably why Dave Dugdale never mentioned the Beholders again.

[SR]

On 5/15/2016 at 5:15 PM, Davey said:

How did you get on?

Given up on mine for a few weeks - will try again in the near future. It's better that way if still struggling to get it balanced after 4-6 hours - lest it ends up going through the window.

 

Certain camera body / lens combinations simply won't balance without additional height plates, secondary weights added to the hot shoe, clamps added to the main plate etc.

One problem tends to beget another problem. The MS1 was the same, which is probably why Dave Dugdale never mentioned the Beholders again.

I'm having a bad experience myself:

Step 1: Lock the base plate onto the camera. Done!
Step 2: Slide the camera with the base plate into the stabilizer and tighten the lock. Done!
Step 3: Test the ... oh wait, camera, along with the base plate, is sliding out.

I'm going nuts.

[Davey]

1 hour ago, SR said:

I'm having a bad experience myself:

Step 1: Lock the base plate onto the camera. Done!
Step 2: Slide the camera with the base plate into the stabilizer and tighten the lock. Done!
Step 3: Test the ... oh wait, camera, along with the base plate, is sliding out.

I'm going nuts.

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like the screw has gone, as in this video:

 

[SR]

55 minutes ago, Davey said:

Sorry to hear that. Sounds like the screw has gone, as in this video:

 

Thanks, man. I couldn't quite tell what happened with his (video was difficult to understand, even at 1.5X, will rewatch it again in a bit). I've written to Owldolly, where I got mine from. Hopefully they have some sort of solution. The problem is, I live outside the States, so sending it back would be a super pain in the ass. I had my friend bring it for me (hence why it took long). The locking system is truly bizarre. Surely there are easier (better) ways to lock a base plate.

[Davey]

1 hour ago, SR said:

Thanks, man. I couldn't quite tell what happened with his (video was difficult to understand, even at 1.5X, will rewatch it again in a bit). I've written to Owldolly, where I got mine from. Hopefully they have some sort of solution. The problem is, I live outside the States, so sending it back would be a super pain in the ass. I had my friend bring it for me (hence why it took long). The locking system is truly bizarre. Surely there are easier (better) ways to lock a base plate.

The locking system is an absolute shambles of an idea. No idea what possessed them to skimp on the one area of the entire project that could see (in my case) £3,600 of gear crashing to the ground from a height of five feet. 

I could barely understand what was going on, either, as couldn't the subtitle program - but you can see for yourself how frail the thing is when trying to lock the base plate down. It just doesn't feel right as if it is wearing every time you come to tighten it. The implication is that the screw is not long enough if I have understood the video correctly.

I am going to have another go at balancing tonight, but will be mindful of doing so nowhere near a hard surface. 

As my a7sii and 16-35 FE need to be raised slightly, I am now looking at the idea of permanently welding the base plate into position and then having a small rig dovetail mounting plate fixed on top of it.

[SR]

36 minutes ago, Davey said:

The locking system is an absolute shambles of an idea. No idea what possessed them to skimp on the one area of the entire project that could see (in my case) £3,600 of gear crashing to the ground from a height of five feet.

Tell me about it. My camera fell right after I locked it in tight the first time. Luckily I was sitting on the floor and my room's floor is carpeted. To be honest, I've gotten a better base plate locking system out of this.