(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. 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.
