From the archives

Chris Haarhoff on the Vest:

As the vest is deeply personal it would be unrealistic for everyone to fall immediately in love with it, considering that most of us were still pining for our original model I and model II vests. However if one spends some time having the changes explained, you might find love once again. As the design of the vest took so long and we went down so many roads, it was easy to lose objectivity but what was finalized is to my mind fantastic.


Through one whole year of working on various concepts, including rear mounted (huh???), we resolved to focus on addressing the problems in the existing Steadicam vest, while keeping it within a familiar realm for the operator. One of the possible designs made perfect sense but would have had all the operators falling face first into the fruit bowl, if they didn’t relearn some of the basics first. Maybe there’s something else down the line, but if you are someone who is suspicious of strapping a flat metal girder to your chest with the subtlety of a ski boot then this could be for you. (Oops…sales pitch, ignore that!!). But seriously, some important things were learned in the process of design, and hopefully most of us will feel the difference. I know I have, and particularly on two consecutive days shooting “Fight Club” where Fincher would shoot 25 takes of a 2-3 minute shot. One day…old vest, second day….new vest. No comparison! I’m encouraged that I will subject my body to less abuse than before.


It’s hard to highlight the differences that the new vest brings without it in the hand, but I would point out a few key factors:



  • For the first time, the waist band takes into account the true shape of our waist, containing the hips and the sensitive muscle groups like a girdle. Under load it does not distort and collapse, and the weight of the rig is distributed in varying magnitudes along the full length of the band.

  • The front spar attempts to follow the contour of the body rather than assuming that we were all born with flat chests.

  • The cross piece on the chest is adjustable and wider to redirect the resultant force vector and relieving the compression of your chest. This reduces the tendency of the vest to fall forward under load

  • The back is supported in one continuous wide band that directs the outward forces across a wide area well below your shoulder blades.

  • The shoulder and chest straps are fully adjustable at their exit points to match your preference under load. The actual length of the shoulder straps are adjustable so that you can specify the ratio of vertical force shared between your waist and shoulders.

  • Getting in and out is simple with two beautiful over center levers replacing the velcro and off the shelf snow boot bindings of yore. It’s scary how cool this aspect of the design is. It’s as simple and as elegant as can be. Relaxing the pressure between takes is as easy as flipping two levers.

All in all the vest is light, quiet, has a better load distribution than anything else and is easy to get in and out of.


David Emmerichs on the Arm


As a completely unbiased and impartial observer I thought I’d post a note about the new arm. (Spot the fib in the above sentence and win a kewpie doll.)


Like all the products George has come out with it is simple in concept, graceful in execution, and very user friendly. The arm is not iso elastic yet it doesn’t require a lot of effort to boom up and down. Like the steering wheel in your car it will seek it’s optimum float point which will feel very familiar to users of the Model III Arm. However, it takes very little force to lift the arm or to boom it down, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 1/2 lbs. There is also far less friction than in the previous arm.


Visually the configuration is similar to the other arms in that there are two lifting parallelograms connected by a double hinged elbow. There the similarities end. There are no cables or pulleys in the arm. The work is done by up to four compression springs in easily removable canisters. The springs come in two strengths: light and heavy. They can be combined in various ways to lift anywhere from 13 to, heaven help us, 72 pounds. The lightest weight setting is achieved by only using one spring canister in each arm section. Using a spring combination of two heavys and two lights will give you a lifting range of 39 to 63 pounds, a good range for our everyday use.


I mustn’t forget to mention that each canister is individually adjustable using a good old gimbal wrench. If you are skeptical about the ease of changing springs around wait until you hear this. All four springs can be replaced in about two minutes, and that’s without rushing. It’s faster to lose the two light springs and operate a lightweight rig, using just the two heavy springs, than it is to crank down the weight of each individual spring.


Removing two spring canisters takes less than 30 seconds.


Great, it looks cool, comes apart easily for maintenance and is very sturdy, but does it work? After trying it for the first time I was thrilled. It’s unbelievably smooth, easy to operate and seems to have no bad habits. The arm won’t lock up at either end and it’s built so soundly that there is very little flex from the torque the rig is applying to it. It’s hard to describe but this seems to make the rig feel lighter. After playing with it for a while it feels perfectly natural. I was completely unprepared for how it would feel to go back to my old arm. I wanted to weep. My only problem with the new PRO arm is that I haven’t got it yet.


Ask any questions you want, you’ll get real answers from people who’ve tried it and from the people who make it.