Steadicam Zephyr Camera Stabilizer with 7' HD Monitor, Compact Vest & V-Mount Plate

For the most part super happy with this new rig. I had a pilot for 5 years and have been waiting to upgrade. Pretty pleased with the zepher and also happy to find out about the 1k rebate. If your thinking about getting one great time to buy before rebate ends.

This is a great upgrade from a pilot or a flyer... The vest is amazing and the kit comes with everything you need to fly cameras. Even a DVD's to watch how to balance and fly cameras. I recommend the kit...

I operated Steadicam back in the days of ARRI IIIs and similar behemoths. The sleds back them were heavy, required a bag of tools for set-up and were absolutely worth the effort involved as they were instrumental in makinig great images. I researched the current crop of Steadicams and settled on this one because of the excellent vest, upgraded arm and the ability to fly a medium weight camera. (See note below regarding really light cameras) First impressions are very good. The build quality is excellent, and the ease of adjustment, now essentially tool free, is impressive. The vest is easily adjustable and comfortble. The ratchet buckles allow you to quickly loosen the vest during breaks, and have it back in shooting form with a simple snap. The padding seems ample, and the range of adjustment is impressive. The arm is very easily adjusted and reminds me of the arms of the old, top end, units. It seems to me they spent a few years cutting back on the quality of the arm to meet a price point, and there is none of that in evidence here. This is beautifully engineered. The sled is fairly compact. I'm not sure how tough the carbon tubes will be over time, especially where the sled docks just under the stage. Monditor and battery adjustments are simple, though you often need to fully unscrew the locking pins when packing and unapacking the unit from the case. The SD and HD composite inputs are workable, but require converters when working with smaller camcorders or DSLRs. Case and aks are nicely fitted and the wheels/handle on the hard case function smoothly. A few caveats: I bought the version with the SD monitor, and it has no frame-line generator, a feature I took for granted on a Steadicam. There is also no spirit level. Light cameras present a bit of a challenge for this unit as the beefier arm can have too much lift for a small camcorder. With a light camera, the sled will balance, but the gimbal is, of neccesity, towards the center of the vertical shaft, not my favorite place to operate. I built a steel baseplate for my lighter camera, adding about three pounds (9 pounds total weight) and this took care of most of the issues. Overall, I'm deeply impressed with this unit, but would suggest one of the other models is you consistently fly light camcorders/DSLRs and don't need the extra capacity. Don't forget that, for full Steadicam functionality you may find yourself adding remote focus/zoom and wireless video transmission, tricks that will roughly double the cost of the unit.

I decided to go with the Zephyr instead of the cheaper steadicam system, and I do not regret it. This is a very nice product.

I have owned the Zephyr for roughly 8 years, it has been fantastic and versatile for most professional work. Have flown Arri Alexa mini, URSA mini G2 and all sorts of Red cams all rigged with cine glass, wireless ff and video transmitters.