Day 629 – If it were easy, everybody could do it…

I’ve become obsessed with the Steadicam. No, really… an intervention is called for. I can’t seem to stop tinkering. At one point i firmly decided to remove the Sennheiser wireless receiver i’d attached to the camera with a rubber band and abandon the idea of recording sync-sound, only to reverse course after googling “sennheiser wireless lav mic” and discovering this.

The bottom line is i want this product, this “simple video” to be good, dammit. I want the camera to float like a soap bubble on a gentle breeze past the art hanging in the gallery while the vo explains why art is key to quality of life. I want the audience to be mesmerized. I desperately need a win here… i need something good to happen.

The main technical problem i’m wrestling with is the Canon Rebel 2Ti (with the cheap kit lens) is too light for the Merlin. The balance formulas help, but even when static balanced perfectly the slightest movement sends the system into oscillation. The added weight of the wireless receiver is actually a help, but my half-assed method of rubber banding it to the hot shoe of the camera added a maddening layer of balance complexity. I tried rubber banding it to the lens barrel, but despite the fact i could again static balance w/o problems the offset mass of the receiver seemed to make dynamic balance impossible.

Ok… must… do… something… else.

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