Done with PH - moving to Cinestar/Radian - Any advice?

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PondMedic

Member
Well, the title says it all...

I've stuck with photohigher for a year hoping they would come through on their Skyline, but I'm done waiting and tired of less than satisfactory results from their equipment. I'm not ready to wait for brushless gimbals on the high end side. So, I'm strongly considering moving to a Cinestar 2 or 3 axis gimbal with Radians. This is going on my Flexacopter - one of the most solid and reliable airframes I've flown in the last 18 months.

So my questions are...

1. Is the Cinestar gimbal and Radians a good choice? Those who are flying them, please - I want to hear real-world answers from you!
2. Sometimes I fly with a camera pilot, sometimes I don't. I honestly think I can achieve 80% of the shots without a camera guy. But, do you think the third axis is worth doing?
3. Where is the best place to buy (I'm in the US) the equipment? I've seen Quadrocopter sell pre-built CS gimbals with the Radians.

Thanks in advance to this awesome community of MR experts! I've been on this thread for about a year and have enjoyed the resource and authority on MR it has come to be!
 


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PondMedic

Member
Photohigher is out and in with the CS gimbal and Radian. As a result, I'm giving away my Photohigher 3 axis AV130 and Skyline RSGS. Here's a link to it...CLICKY
 


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ghaynes

Member
If you are in the US then the distributor/dealer is Quadrocopter.com. The CS gimbal and Radians are flying everything from small cameras like the Sony's NEX's to Red's and Sony FS700 size rigs. If you need to use a camera operator 20% of the time then buy the 3 axis and simply turn off the pan. Some folks also use a velcro strap to inhibit the gimbal from any rotational movement.
 

O

onlocation

Member
I think it would be unwise to invest in servo driven gimbal system right now. Brushless gimbals for big cameras are closer than you may think. This brushless technology has already evolved faster than most people could imagine. The CS/radian combo will no doubt work better than your current Photohigher setup, but in my opinion not by a large enough margin to justify the cost.

We now have a custom tube and clamp gimbal with 5208 motors carrying a 900g camera, it's not perfect yet, but it's already magnitudes better than any servo solution we've tested or even seen. As soon as we have access to controllers that can handle bigger loads and bigger motors then we are going to see an explosion of brushless options for big cameras, and that could happen any time now. Also since the designs are scaleable and mostly based on tube and clamp style setups, the cost will literally be a fraction of what we are used to paying for good servo driven gimbals. My $3000 Traix/Picloc/H6040 combo is sitting on the shelf right now and I doubt I will ever fly it for a professional job again, and the brushless gimbal that replaced it only cost about $800!
 

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