(ambient music)
- Hey guys, it's me, Matti
and you're never gonna guess where I am right now.
Let me show you.
(electronic dance music)
So, yeah, we're actually staying at an ice hotel.
This whole thing is made out of ice
and this is gonna be our bed for tonight.
Me and Peter are sharing this thing.
It's gonna be cozy, fun.
But you guys saw all that cinematic B-roll,
all those smooth shots
and actually none of that stuff was shot on a Gimbal.
I still actually prefer a Glidecam really often
just because, there's no electronics,
it never fails, it's just reliable, easy to transport,
I can just throw it wherever, it's all good.
And a Gimbal can be super expensive
so I thought I'd share some tips on how to use
a $200 Glidecam to get super
steady shots, smooth shots in your B-roll footage.
Now, right away, some of you are saying that
Steadycams are not cheap.
And that's only sort of true.
Yeah, if you buying new right now,
they're a little bit more expensive.
But, actually, I bought the Glidecam XR-2000 --
It was the right way originally.
And this thing only cost about $200 American.
And, also, I checked online and you can
find Glidecams, even the better, newer versions
for around $200 which is a really good deal.
And a Glidecam 2000 can easily hold
a 1 DX no problems at all.
So this is actually the Gimbal that I've been using
for probably the last four years
for all of my travel stuff,
everything you guys have seen on Travel Feels,
unless I'm actually reviewing a Gimbal,
has been shot on this thing.
And Gimbals would be super sketchy to buy used
but Glidecams, Steadycams, not much can break.
And if something's broken, you can tell right away
that, okay, this thing's broken, it doesn't work.
So you can easily buy a used Glidecam,
no problems at all.
And then the second complaint people are gonna give
is, "Well, it's super hard to use a Glidecam or Steadycam"
and I don't think that's actually really true.
It does take a little of bit of practice,
a little bit more practice than a Gimbal maybe
but there's a lot of things about a Glidecam, a Steadycam
that make it way easier to use.
So, here's some things that you need to do
to get the most out of your Steadycam.
First off, we need to make sure the Steadycam is balanced.
That's super important.
If it's not balance properly
it's gonna look like a drunk person's filming.
It's just gonna be all over the place, really bad.
So, the first thing you need to do is
put about the same amount of weight on the bottom
as there is on the top.
So, depending on what camera and lens you're using
you need to put about the same
amount of weight on the bottom.
Then the next stop is the drop test.
And you're gonna hold it horizontally like this,
by the handle and you're just gonna let go.
It should take about two seconds
for it to go from horizontal to vertical.
Once you have that, then you know you have a good amount
of weight on the bottom
and if it's off by just a little bit,
you can just adjust the height of this bar
and that's gonna make it drop slower or faster,
depending on how long you make it.
Next, what you're gonna do is your gonna put the Steadycam
on a flat surface, you're gonna grab it by the handle
and you're just gonna lift it up with one hand.
And right away we can see that it's not balanced right now.
It's tilting in different directions.
It should just stay the same when I pick it up.
So, what you do here is you do the same test again,
you pick it up and whatever direction it's falling,
you need to move the top, the camera,
in the opposite direction.
So, here it's falling backwards
and a little bit to the right
so we're just gonna move it forwards a little bit
and a little bit to the left
and that should do it the trick, let's see.
And, in the beginning, this is a little bit tricky.
People don't like this process
but once you get used to it and then once
it's balanced, it's super easy.
It doesn't really go off balance.
You might have to do a tiny little adjustment.
All right, so now, when we pick it up, it stays straight.
It doesn't tilt over.
It's not moving all over the place.
It's nice and good.
And my real final test is just picking it up and
moving it back and forth like this.
And if it doesn't start going all crazy,
then you're pretty good.
You can test it out.
You're probably good to go.
And in my opinion, a Gimbal is way harder to balance.
There's so many different areas that you need to balance.
With a Steadycam you're just moving it forwards or backwards
or to the side, once that's done and then the height.
You're good to go, that's it.
There's no other tweaking you need to do.
So, number one, make sure it's balanced real well.
(grunts)
Number two, you need to hold the Glidecam properly.
And this is a really important thing.
In the way you hold a Glidecam or Steadycam --
Sorry, I keep calling it a Glidecam
'cause I always just use Glidecams
and I'm just so used to it.
But the way you hold is one hand, the right hand,
your dominant hand is gonna be on the handle
and that's the hand that's carrying all the weight.
The other hand is not carrying any weight.
And then what the left hand does is
goes right underneath this bearing,
the spot where the camera spins.
And this hand is used to point the camera.
So, if you wanna go left, your gonna use the left hand
to point the camera to the left.
So the left hand is just simply pointing the camera
and your right is carrying all the weight.
That's the proper way to hold a Steadycam.
I've seen some people just running around one hand like this
and that is not a good thing.
You always want two hands but this left hand is kinda just
loosely holding and turning the camera
but it's not carrying any of the weight.
If that left hand is carrying weight
it's gonna be shaking all over the place
and it's no good.
(grunts)
(ambient music)
This is probably a good time to thank Epidemic Sound
for hooking us up.
I never thought I'd be sleeping in a fridge.
And if you need some good music for your Youtube videos,
check 'em out.
Link down below.
(grunts)
Number three, you wanna be doing the ninja walk.
Basically, heel, toe, heel, toe.
This is gonna make things a little bit more smooth.
So, the hard thing about Steadycams is that
they're not as perfect as Gimbals.
Gimbals, just a newbie can pick up a Gimbal
and walk and it's gonna be smooth.
Whereas with a Glidecam or Steadycam,
you need to practice it a little bit.
But one of the big keys is this ninja walk heel, toe action.
And it's super simple, it's just like this.
Heel, toe, heel, toe.
Super easy, it's not hard.
It's actually really simple.
Just practice it.
Walk around before you go on a shoot.
Walk around heel, toe, heel, toe like a ninja
as smoothly as you can
and that's gonna help a lot when you're using a Steadycam.
Number four, make sure you're
getting a variety of shots.
Don't get stuck just doing the same kinds of, you know,
follow shots or walking beside somebody.
Think out your shots, plan them out.
Some of my favorites to do are circling around people.
Whether it's a really fast circle, a little bit farther away
or going up really close and just doing a really slow,
smooth circling around a person.
That's always really cool.
And then I like doing the dolly in or dolly out.
But this is something that you really
need good auto focus for because
you can't be manual focusing while you're moving it.
So, that's one of the big reasons that I use Canon
because I can trust their auto focus.
So, keep that in mind but try a whole bunch
of different shots.
Don't just get stuck standing there with a Glidecam.
You're gonna look like an idiot
and your footage is gonna suck.
And then, lastly, just know the limits
of the tool that you're using.
No tool is perfect.
So, a Steadycam or a Glidecam is not better than a Gimbal
and a Gimbal is not better than a Steadycam.
They're used for different purposes
and they give a different look.
So, know the limits of the tool that you're using.
For example, a Steadycam is not the best for
precise, exact movements,
a Gimbal is better at that.
It's a more clinical, clean, perfect look.
Also, a Steadycam sucks in high winds.
It just throws off the balance immediately
'cause the wind hits the camera
and throws off the whole balance.
Whereas a Gimbal can use those electronic motors
to keep that balance going.
But then there's some really big advantages to Steadycams.
For example, if you need to do really quick movements
you can move this as fast or as slow as you need,
you don't need to adjust anything.
Whereas with a Gimbal, you need to be
adjusting the perimeters,
the settings in order to get a faster or slower movement.
This is a little bit more kinetic, more fluid,
a little bit more natural in look.
Also, one of the really big advantages,
probably the biggest reason why I still use this Glidecam
is it's so easy to set up.
Once you have it balanced like this,
I just have this base plate on,
you can literally just snap it off
and you can snap it back on
and you're good to go.
No more balance needed like with a Gimbal.
It's ready to go.
I can just take it on and off just like that.
It's so important.
I cannot stress this enough.
Especially when I was filming weddings,
this was so good 'cause I could quickly take it off,
put it on a monopod, take it off,
put it back on the Glidecam.
I could just go back and forth all day long, super fast.
Whereas with a Gimbal, no chance.
It would take way too long to just set it up
and rebalance it and all that stuff.
One of the things I don't like about Steadycams
is that it's really hard to do low to the ground shots
because you have this long stick
you actually have to put the Glidecam upside down
and then I actually just kinda hold it
loosely from the top here.
You don't wanna hold it too tight
or else you're gonna get rotation as you walk.
But I can still get some pretty cool shots with this
but Gimbals are definitely way better for
low to the ground shots.
Which you guys know I like a lot, you know,
those feet walking shots.
I do a lot of those.
And then lastly one of the big things I like about
the Glidecam 2000 is that it can take a 1 DX Mark II easily,
no problems at all.
It's not crazy heavy
and I can still put on a heavy camera on there.
Whereas if I wanna do the same thing with a Gimbal
I'd probably have to gt a pretty big Gimbal
and then I don't wanna carry that around.
It's gonna slow me down.
I have yet to find a Gimbal that
I like way more than this Glidecam XR 2000,
four years old.
It's probably way older but I got this four years ago.
I like this thing.
I have not found a Gimbal that I like more, yet.
Hopefully it'll come soon because there are some downsides,
like I said, to this thing.
But not yet, I haven't found it.
So, there's some tips on how to use a Steadycam properly
to get some really nice shots.
And I guess also some reasons why I still choose
to use the Glidecam over any of the Gimbals
that I've tested out.
All right guys, thanks for watching.
Hit that Like button.
Subscribe to the channel.
I'd love for you to be a part of this community.
I think we're gonna hit 300K real soon.
Which is just insane.
And I love having all you guys be a part of this community.
Keep commenting down below.
I love hearing your guys' feedback
and just learning from each other
and I'm gonna try to keep answering
as many comments as I can.
All right, that's it for this episode.
Hope you enjoyed it.
(ambient music)
(water splashes)
And that's how we Steadycam.
- [Peter] Can you --
Oh my goodness, no.
That's terrible.
I can't believe you did that.
- And that's how the Finns do it (laughs)
- [Peter] Oh my good --
You are crazy!
Never. Never.