all Just bought my first camcorder yesterday, Panasonic GS 35. One of the big considerations for me was the weight of the recorders. While 4 pounds may not seem like much to many, to someone like me, it's a ton! I don't suppose there are any other "wheelers" on this forum who might be able to help me figure a way to rig a tripod or stabilizer to my chairs arms or even from the footplate up? It's a power chair, as my arms left before the legs went south as well <G>, which explains the weight consideration of course.

Even someone not in a chair but perhaps with a great imagination could suggest possible options, promise not to hold you responsible for anything I ATTEMPT! (I've got one, imagination that is,but not when it comes to mechanical things unless it's body mechanics and I DO mean of the therapeutic type ONLY!) Yeah, ran into some... well gutter rats is the best I can call them on other boards, so just making sure ya'll know up front I'm not one of them nor do I tolerate them! Whew... glad to get that out of the way....hopefully you'll get to know me as I try to pick your brains in between reading all this information available onsite to learn how to properly use my new baby!

I hope to get some great video and audio (we'll see how the manufacturers claims about their "zoom mike" pan out... oh that's kind of a video pun isn't it? tee hee... and I wasn't even trying! I may get the hang of this stuff yet <G>... oh yeah I ramble too... sorry if it annoys you, skip my posts if it does, please. Anyway... video of my "other" babies, My Siamese and Siamese mix cats who are more vocal than my husband at times (but he works nights and takes care of us during the day...so we forgive him!).

ANYWAY... any and all suggestions will be appreciated and HI to everyone here and thanks for your previous posts, reading them has given me starting points as well as jumping off (figuratively of course) points.

ME and MYMEEZERS (slang for Sia..MEEZE) Alex, Zia, Einstein, Phantom and twins, Grayson and Gandolf (the gray and whites of course).

mymeezers, welcome to the CCi forums.

For your situation a tripod might be too much. You might want to give a monopod a try. You could tie it around some vertical support of your chair in a couple of places and get a reasonably stable platform. You can't go too high with the cam or it will wobble all over the place but I'd imagine at or slightly above your eye level would be OK.

I have a Velbon that has a ball head so the cam can move up and down without tilting the monopod itself. This kind of head would be essential if you tie the monopod to your chair. Here's the one I have but I think there might be similar models from other manufacturers.

It might be a problem reaching the record button in some situations but the remote will come in handy in these cases.

Good luck.

Dennis

This is too funny though! A wheeler friend of mine who also does camera work and lots of editing, finally wheeled out from under a mountain of tape and DVD's and said she thought I should start my search where? Exactly to the store you just sent me to <G>. Small world?

I was thinking about a monopod myself, I thought the tri=legs would be WAY too much to handle. I'm wondering if I can use a couple of super clamps to stabilize a mono-pod and I DO like the ball head of the one you suggested. Height would be an issue with a tri as well, which is why I was thinking of perhaps a tabletop tripod as I'm only 5"3 and that was way back when I could really STRETCH my neck during measurements <G>. But again, the arms on my new chair (IF IT EVER ARRIVES GRRRR! I'm not patient when it's important LOL!) are not that wide. So the mono and super clamps may be my best bet and with that price (comparatively speaking as oppossed to some of the tripods I've looked at) even if it didn't work, I wouldn't have a huge $$ investment in the setup and the super clamps could always be used for other aspects of my life I'm sure.

Thanks again Dennis and also... Thanks for the welcome.

LISA

Not surprising at all, really. B&H is a well known and highly reputable dealer in all things audio and video. Lots of folks here and on other sites mention them as a good place to shop for gear. I'm not surprised at all that someone else recommended them.Clamps should work. Just make sure they can be tightened so the 'pod doesn't jiggle. Bungees might work, too.

Just be aware that you may not get as smooth a pan with the relatively inexpensive heads on monopods as you would with a good fluid head on a tripod.

Good luck.

Dennis