Pistol grip 3-axis gimbal stabilizer

[Davey]

21 minutes ago, SR said:

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.

Spent the last hour looking for a solution - even though mine hasn't broken yet. Might just use another plate at 90 degrees and clamp it in two places. If I drill the arm or weld the original plate in place, I cannot see me being able to sell it in the future.

Could you post a picture of your balanced camera when done?

 

[Davey]

Oh blimey. Now I have the slow spinning to the left problem that others have spoken of. I did originally read of this problem on B&H reviews of the DS1, which nearly put me off getting it. Currently wishing that I had stuck with my gut instinct that these gimbals just don't have a good enough level of quality control to be parting with £550.

 

 

 

[The Chris]

 

1 hour ago, Davey said:

Spent the last hour looking for a solution - even though mine hasn't broken yet. Might just use another plate at 90 degrees and clamp it in two places. If I drill the arm or weld the original plate in place, I cannot see me being able to sell it in the future.

Could you post a picture of your balanced camera when done?

 

I've had the DS1 for a couple months, only used it a few times, but the plate locks in really tight on mine. I spent time when I first got it to make sure my A7rII wouldn't slide out. Once clamped tight, I can't get the camera to move at all. I can't see the camera falling off, its really solid. Did something break on yours?

The DS1 is on and balanced without any tuning to the stock PID's in this shot, just positioning the camera until its level. I'm getting no vibration, though in one of the modes it tilts slightly to one side.

[SR]

7 hours ago, Davey said:

Could you post a picture of your balanced camera when done?

Well, if only I could get the camera to stay on the DS1.

[Davey]

9 hours ago, The Chris said:

 

I've had the DS1 for a couple months, only used it a few times, but the plate locks in really tight on mine. I spent time when I first got it to make sure my A7rII wouldn't slide out. Once clamped tight, I can't get the camera to move at all. I can't see the camera falling off, its really solid. Did something break on yours?

The DS1 is on and balanced without any tuning to the stock PID's in this shot, just positioning the camera until its level. I'm getting no vibration, though in one of the modes it tilts slightly to one side.

Nothing broken yet, but I can see the tiny screw that secures the base plate's dovetail failing after minimal use - just doesn't feel right. Decided to ditch the 16-35, take another break for a few weeks, try the 55mm on the height plate and perhaps a bit of added weight on the hot shoe. Once I see it working properly and not spinning to the left, I will purchase the less front heavy 28mm F2.

Thanks for the picture.

[The Chris]

4 hours ago, Davey said:

Nothing broken yet, but I can see the tiny screw that secures the base plate's dovetail failing after minimal use - just doesn't feel right. Decided to ditch the 16-35, take another break for a few weeks, try the 55mm on the height plate and perhaps a bit of added weight on the hot shoe. Once I see it working properly and not spinning to the left, I will purchase the less front heavy 28mm F2.

Thanks for the picture.

I've thought about adding a arca Swiss base and just using a L bracket. I'll take a closer look at the screw, it's not difficult to replace with a higher grade steel screw if needed.

The 16-35 is much heavier than the 10-18 I usually fly, even though it's within spec, that's a setup that's really front heavy. That's a small benefit of the a7rII s35 mode, aps-c lenses are much lighter. I can also use the 16-50pz. If I were shooting FF I would use the 28/2 or the Loxia 21.

Being able to easily flip the DS1 and get low shots is what sold me on it over the H1 since the H2 wasn't shipping when I bought mine. Hopefully you can get your issues sorted. 

Cheers

[SR]

So the seller, Owldolly, has concluded the problem with my DS1 after I showed them a video of the problem:

Quote

What happens is either the cnc bit shaves off too much metal by a small fraction of an inch or the paint thickness wasn’t enough.

They have been actually quite great about it so far, prompt in replying, even extending the return policy, too. Fingers crossed that it'll work with the new parts.

[Davey]

1 hour ago, SR said:

So the seller, Owldolly, has concluded the problem with my DS1 after I showed them a video of the problem:

They have been actually quite great about it so far, prompt in replying, even extending the return policy, too. Fingers crossed that it'll work with the new parts.

Nice one - hopefully, your issue will be resolved.

My fe 28mm F2 arrives in a few hours, so I shall try again with a much less front heavy set-up that I had with the fe 16-35 F4

I am also hearing that the slow drifting to the left can correct itself when the unit is switched on and off a few times - but only if balanced to near perfection.

Also got a better height plate solution by taking the sliding quick release plate off an old sled type steadicam that I had to ditch because of defective bearings.

[Moshimo Garcia]

To stay on the topic of gimbals, I was wondering if anyone here has owned or owns the Ronin-M? I was waiting to get the Pilotfly h2 but it never shipped no was ever any indicator given so gotta take what I can get.

The problem that I am currently having with the Ronin-M, though, is that no matter what I do to try and get the X axis balanced manually before running the Tuning App, it does not stay in place the way it should.

I had my buddy record me as I attempt to illustrate the problem. Any suggestions would be a Godsend. 

 

[DPStewart]

On 5/16/2016 at 2:17 PM, Davey said:

Oh blimey. Now I have the slow spinning to the left problem that others have spoken of. I did originally read of this problem on B&H reviews of the DS1, which nearly put me off getting it. Currently wishing that I had stuck with my gut instinct that these gimbals just don't have a good enough level of quality control to be parting with £550.

 

 

 

I had that problem upon delivery of mine.

I ran the "Horizon Calibration" sequence on a PERFECTLY LEVEL flat tabletop. I ran it about 6 times to get it to work itself out. Only took about 5-minutes. I turned the DS1 off in between every cycle of the sequence too.

It's been fine ever since (5 months) and that slow turning to either side never came back. 
 

[Davey]

Getting closer to perfect balance (talking fractions of a millimetre) but still getting that drift/spin even after calibrating / switching off and on / recalibrating.

Might it be that I need to look at the '3 weight settings' that I just heard about? My set-up is now very light (A7s2 / 28mm f2) and I am wondering if there is a change needing to be made - particularly as these are designed principally for the 5d MkIII.

 

[TSV]

22 hours ago, Moshimo Garcia said:

To stay on the topic of gimbals, I was wondering if anyone here has owned or owns the Ronin-M? I was waiting to get the Pilotfly h2 but it never shipped no was ever any indicator given so gotta take what I can get.

The problem that I am currently having with the Ronin-M, though, is that no matter what I do to try and get the X axis balanced manually before running the Tuning App, it does not stay in place the way it should.

I had my buddy record me as I attempt to illustrate the problem. Any suggestions would be a Godsend. 

 

I just only had bad experience with DJI, first with their Ronin, so hard to calibrate and once done the result was not that great (worse than my TV-Came Single). Add to this the worse support ever (They even refuse to meet me in their office here in Japan for help. I just asked them to show me how to make it worked, they refused). Then I bought an Osmo... Work great when it comes to stabilisation but the X3 video quality is just crap (Especially in 4K).... Sent if back after 2 days. Bottom line, I will not in the near future purchase any new DJI products... This company comes with the worse user experience possible, they make really good locking and well built products, promise a lot and at the end...

[superfly]

I recently purchase a pilotfly h2 but only use macs and ios and am not able to get them to recognise the unit, thus upgrade drivers or obtaon the requisite software- any advice or solutions?

[Fredrik Lyhne]

9 hours ago, superfly said:

I recently purchase a pilotfly h2 but only use macs and ios and am not able to get them to recognise the unit, thus upgrade drivers or obtaon the requisite software- any advice or solutions?

You have to upgrade on a PC. I ended up sending my unit back so cant really help much, but at least at I managed to upgrade on my friends PC and then I was able to connect to the software on a Mac. If you need assistance I would recommend contacting Pilotfly Europe if you havent done that already. 

[Matthew19]

On May 20, 2016 at 10:22 PM, Moshimo Garcia said:

To stay on the topic of gimbals, I was wondering if anyone here has owned or owns the Ronin-M? I was waiting to get the Pilotfly h2 but it never shipped no was ever any indicator given so gotta take what I can get.

The problem that I am currently having with the Ronin-M, though, is that no matter what I do to try and get the X axis balanced manually before running the Tuning App, it does not stay in place the way it should.

I had my buddy record me as I attempt to illustrate the problem. Any suggestions would be a Godsend. 

 

It seems like it's a bit bottom heavy since it always wants to roll back to center. I'd move the body up slightly, which may make the tilt a bit off. Sometimes you'll just have the mind the best comprise and let the motors do the rest. 

 

For what it's worth, I made this on the ronin-m with no lens mount and an unbalanced camera. It was my first shoot and I didn't have a chance to read on balancing.  It still performed pretty well. 

 

[tellure]

Awesome video, I loved how much energy and dynamism you had in every shot.  Excellent use of the DJI Ronin-M.

[redline2097]

What handheld gimbal you guys would recommend to pair with RX100 IV? I have been looking Beholder MS1. Is there any good cheaper alternative? RX100 weight only 300gram but is it too heavy for gopro gimbals? 

[tellure]

I have a Pilotfly H1+ that I'm gonna put up on ebay soon, could easily handle and RX100 IV.  Only main drawback for me was the battery life (~2 hrs), but I solved that with an external USB battery pack with 12V output for charging in the field if necessary.

[Shepard HS]

Which pistol grip gimbal will perfom best with Blackmagic Micro (+ BM Video Assist + probably Aputure DEC LensRegain and lightweight EF lens)?

[tellure]

Payload is one of the most important things - you need to choose a gimbal that is ideally rated for a fair bit higher weight than your setup.  When you add up the weight of all those components what does it come out to?