The Benefits Of Gimbal Stabilisation, Pt. 1

As part of BeyondHD's specialism in camera stabilisation and our 'cameras in motion' tagline, it was obvious that we would have to be part of the handheld gimbal revolution...

Since FreeFly brilliantly marketed the idea by putting handles on a drone gimbal, pretty much every drone manufacturers and even hobbyist have gone on to build a gyro stabilised gimbal, copying the basic design of that very first 'market leader'. So why then, with the whole world copying the basic design of the first one, should a 20-year-established film and broadcast manufacturer like Letus decide to release yet another one?

Well, not insignificantly, they 
are one of the first manufacturers from the film and TV industry to design and manufacture their
 own solution. Pretty much all the
 others have come from drone manufacturers, who in fairness had little experience of the demands and expectations
 of high-end film and TV productions and what would be required to make a good shot great. Whilst the uptake of this style of shooting has been nothing less than incredible, the design of these suspended gimbals have 
all inherited the same design limitations, with their well-discussed problems.

Eye Height shooting resolved by Helix

Primarily, when holding these types of gimbals, it's extremely difficult and very tiring to try and get the lens to a normal eye height level. Also, balancing cameras is a comparatively long process and unfortunately even just changing 
a lens, becomes pretty much as complex as balancing a completely new camera and brings fear and dread to many an operator when they hear the words, 'Can we have a different lens for this shot?'

During the early adoption of this kit, directors and DOPs had to live with the response of either 'no' or 'yes, but give me 30 minutes to rebalance'. Letus is changing all this by looking at the requirements of a cameraman and the shots they want from the cameras/lens/monitoring they need and solving it with a radically different design approach to their Helix Camera Stabilisation platform. While Letus might be considered by some to be the new players in this gimbal revolution, their debut single axis, stabilised gimbal was actually released over four years ago as a horizon stabilisation (roll axis) option for Steadicam systems. After three further years of intensive design and development Letus released their game changing 3 Axis Gimbal, which was conceived from the ground
up specifically for handheld use. As a result, it uses a revolutionary new design, which literally turns the gimbal world on its head.

Alternative angle

Critically, the unique inverted design means that the lens is automatically brought to eye height, when holding the handles at chest height, thereby allowing a much more comfortable user experience. Other benefits of the Helix design are that it uses a unique optically centered stabilisation method, employing small counterbalance bars, to ensure that the camera can be balanced with the lens perfectly centered around its optical center and aligned with the center of the roll axis. The benefits of doing this are many fold, as it is by far the fastest way to balance, with new camera setups possible in just a few minutes. Perhaps more importantly, lens changes can be made in less than a minute, as only the camera has to be slid back or forth on the camera plate to rebalance for a lens change, whereas all other non-optically centered systems need all three axes to be completely rebalanced to effect even the smallest change to the camera/lens configuration.

Another benefit is that it greatly assists in the mechanical and electronic stabilisation, meaning the motors have less to do. Therefore they can take greater payloads, up to and including cameras such as the RED Epic or Dragon, Sony F55 and Canon C300 to name
but a few, all armed with compact broadcast and cine lenses, lens motors, monitors and all the rest of it. Furthermore, creative rolls can be done with the camera rotating around its optical center, which is a unique feature from its origins as a horizon system for Steadicams. This means that high to low modes can be obtained in a single move, without any elliptical effects of the lens whilst rotating through 90 or more degrees.

The article is also available to read at BFV online.

(JP)