Adrian, excellent points. Regarding portability, agreed - though, if you're going to give up that much stability for portability then you're cost point is critical. Ultimately I'm thinking of the mainstream indie filmmaker (like ourselves) - great shots and reasonable costs.

Steadicam's time is passing, period. Steadicam owners like to claim that they are substantially different from gimbals - ok, then, someone post a link to a test of their substantive differences. In reality they are very subtle differences that only very large productions will have the resources to utilize. Gimbals are a gift to the indie filmmaking community and I'm thankful for them. I remember the first time I watched this video thinking "this is better than any steadicam I've seen" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40gaqKnM-P8