Photo Higher HERO series camera gimbals

mitmit

Member
As long as this products stays as niche, the prices will continue to stay high. Otherwise, the company wouldn't survive.

But to be honest, I really find the 2500-3000 USD level quite high for hobbiest.

agree, but i dont think this is hobby niche, so it will be strange to expect that some "pro" quality product will cost same as hobby analogue..
its like someone shooting usual family crap with 550d on weekends will said that 1ds4 price is too high for him)
 

tstrike

pendejo grande
I'm uploading a little informal interview from Kimberly at his booth and he shows me the Hero series gimbals (they are pro all the way)
 


I just tried looking at Photo Highers web site and it is down. What's up? Is it because NAB?

Last time I looked a few days ago it was down too. I suspect they're in the process of upgrading it as that's what I was told would be happening soon by Sue Beatty, their office manager, in a recent email exchange I had with her.

Cheers
Jesse
 


I confirm this is an update of the website. I talked with Sue two days ago about this but it seems that there is a problem because the update shouldn't have taken so long...
 

mily

Member
You mentioned about ec45 flat dc motors few posts before. Do you have any experience with using them? As I can see they have encoder included and must be controlled somehow ( ESCON 36/2 DC ?).
I'm curious if they can have better peroformace than high speed SAVOX....
 


Droider

Drone Enthusiast
I confirm this is an update of the website. I talked with Sue two days ago about this but it seems that there is a problem because the update shouldn't have taken so long...

I did to.. apparently its not only women that press the wrong button!.. aye Kim!.. expect a update as soon as Kimberley decides to stop dinking beer in Vagas!

Dave
 





anaka

Member
I agree with redridinghood...

before mikrokopoter there was the draganfly...well done and nice looking but really expensive...26.000$ for a six engines with a poor gimbal system, ridiculous payload and no way to buy spare components from other dealer and assemble your own...basicly incredibly high price for very low performances...really simple firmweare and so on, MK revolutioned everithing and without them this forum today probably wouldn't exist...all this not becouse MK is better or worst than others, it's just set to a really affordable price

regarding developers, i can say that they should admit that in most of the cases they declare bull sheets just to sell theyr hardware, how many times you read the word "professional" for a gimbal or some other hardware?!?!? this word is so implemented that has lost the original meaning...

and once you buy, if you have a problem or you just discover that your new harware is far to be really "professional" or simply doesent do waht it was supposed to do you can only hope that the developer is serious and helps you in some way

so basicly developers do research and development on our shoulders, using our money and assuming zero risks!!! becouse if you have a problem they can even ignore you, probably they are in the other side of the planet and the local reseller can ever say "sorry I can only give you the mail of the developer" and that's it!
there are people that try to justify this becouse of the costs for be an official developer, but i'd like to know where is the big expense for them...the shipment costs are payed by client, the development costs are needed once per model and they sell the model as much as possible, they buy big number of components so they get better price, they optimize the materials they use for the hardware, they produce a serie of parts so they optimize even more and so on...

just if some of you don't remember....we are in 2012 and exists computers with 3D softwares, CNC hadware and all the thechnology necessary at a really cheap price...where are the huge costs? people has these elements at home in some cases...

tuosands of dollars just for a gimbal that is not sure it has the performances they say!
i've seen some videos of the new zenmuse, the performances are not balanced with the price...and it is damned heavy and has space for a NEX7!!! so even less flight times!!! shorter battery and engines life...how can they justify this?
 
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yeehaanow

Member
@ Anaka and Redridinghood.

I think you guys are way off base.
If it's so easy and cheap to produce these things, why don't you DO IT? If you're so sure the price is out of line with the costs then there must be a lot of money to be made, yes?

I think if you had any experience creating molds for carbon fiber parts, and making them, experience in a machine shop, and any experience designing custom electronics and programming at this level to do what the zenmuse and hero gimbals are attempting to do, you would probably wonder why it doesn't cost MORE. This is ignoring the design stage, which is critical, and time-consuming. Smart people cost money. A business needs to make money to stay in business, so OF COURSE they pass that cost onto the customers!

If you want to have a faster sports car that handles better, you would expect to pay more for it than a 4-door sedan, yes?
Why wouldn't you expect to pay more for a gimbal that stabilizes much better than the average?
This is uncharted territory for commercial RC gimbals. They are slowly honing in on cineflex-like quality, where the prices get close to a million $

Also, you can't assume how the gimbal will work until it is released and considered Done. They are both in the testing phase now.

This is not coming from a fanboy of either of these companies or gimbals, but someone who has done enough designing, building, machining, and molding of carbon fiber to know that it's a lot harder than it looks.
I won't be buying one anytime soon, but I think those that do will have a big leg up. Do I wish they were cheaper? Yes, but knowing what I know, I think it's a pretty fair price.
 

anaka

Member
Hi Tim, basing on what you and other people say a Panasonic GH2 is a kind of miracle! with the price of one of these gimbals you can buy almost 3 bodyes with lumixG14-140 optics....

you could say, yes but panasonic is a big company and does wide scale production and so on...ok but can you compare the complexity in hardware software and all the experience they have to produce a camera like that with the very simple complexity of these gimbals? and the GH2 body still costs 700$

DJi is not so small company and can do the same..but theyr prices are high also for all the other stuf that they produce, the compnents and the development they are doing doesen't justify that price especially becouse doesent give the desired results, there are already videos on youtube of the Z15, it's not better that a cinestar gimbal in terms of stabilization and can only carry on a small cam....and you want to talk about cineflex-like??!?!

they are not producing really special tools...it's just a gimbal with direct drive engines in the place of servos and more cool arms in the place of the CF tubes or aluminum CNC frames....where is the complexity?!?

there is a lot of people that clones these tools just watching them, these developers clone old ideas at the same time! this is just basic mechanics! the most clever system at the moment remains the cinestar gimbal, that is fully customizable and based mainly on components that already exist on the market and it's so easy to produce it that they sell it at an affordable price, it can carry until a RED EPIC and they don't ask tousand of dollars!

i follow the gimbals market by years, before the systems start to be based on trex electric with photoship one gimbals, and we are still talking of affordable systems that need a very good pilot to drive them, you talk abouth electronics and software development, i've seen pictures of this new photohigher stabilizer electronics...honestly is far far away to be complex development in electronics, the same is for Z15, today you can buy spare parts, an arduino board, download software and toolsn that make you life really easy and build a 3D printer hand made!!! for a really cheap price! we are no more in the 1999...

there are old gimbals systems that are incredibly more complex in terms of development and materials used and still remains cheaper!
3000$ for a gimbal that carries only a nex7 and weights a lot is a teeft!

there is a UK developer that does CF gimbals, really complex and well developed, in a different logic than the others, and they cost less than 1000$ !!!
there are guys on ebay that do more or less the same and sell for cheaper than MK ones, i personally built 3 gimbals before to buy the Mk one, after that I bought one more prodessional gimbal from another developer, i beleved in the performances declared, I preordered it, and once it was in my hands I only was deluded, it was really far away by the declared performances!
i had to spend so much time and money to make it work good, i invented the solution and it works great now, and could buy directly a cinestar and still save money! but wasent' on market yet..
i don't want to say the model and the producer of this gimbal but the price was around 1000$ so not talking about toy gimbals and the producer is one that you all retain serious, I still waith the upgrade that they promised to send me, and i waith by 2 years!!


and basing on what you say, what about MK products? they keep on release new frimwares, for freeeeeeee!!!! and every time they introduce really innovative features! and the starting price is really cheap if you consider the level of electronics complexity and software developemt....are maybe them stupids? don't you think that they have to pay taxes too and respect all the rules of the market? don't you tink that probably also them are not just 2 persons but much more? and what to say about quadcopter?
 
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Stacky

Member
Lots of people in the RC hobby side of things that I see via forums have never been self employed or owned and run a company.
 



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