Richard James Lewis

My gimbal isn't shimmed, I've seen it dismantled, but that's beside the point. Shimmed or not shimmed should make no difference to the final products performance or have any real impact on the longevity of its alignment. Anyone have any input regarding this? Cheers, Rick.

Sure, it's harder, but I've worked with plenty of focus pullers who haven't had issues regardless. Pulling off a monitor is more reactive, as opposed to predictive, the shot has to go soft before it goes sharp... R I discover that shooting HD makes it even harder for an focuspuller to do without a proper HD monitor. Am i right on that?

The Lemo plug (off the top of my head) is FGG.1B.303.CLAD.62Z or 52Z depending on the thickness of the cable you use. You could also go from the 4 way power / vid which is a ermmm... FGG.0B.304.CLAD52Z Unit price £8.79 direct from Lemo UK minimum £35 order I think. Ask for Silla. Rick "should be making cables for a living" Lewis

Just a quickie… I’ve noticed recently that there have been a few people who are having issues with their V2 gimbal alignment. I can understand a gimbal needing a service now and again, change the bearings etc, but should gimbals like this be going off axis? I can understand heavy use and an occasional whack could take its toll, but I have heard a few people on the forum, and probably 5 or so individual operators I know describe problems after a few years of use. Would a service of anther manufacturers gimbal include the need to re align? Is this just the nature of the beast? I've had mine in its current form for about 6 months now, no issues so far. I just don’t like the prospect of having to have it all re aligned in the not too distant future. I only worry as I’ve not really heard of problems from users with other manufacturers gimbals. Possibly because these issues are quickly dealt with quickly by PRO, XCS etc and no one says anymore? I'd like to hear from any V2 owners who have had their gimbals for a few years, and see if they are having issues with 180 static balance. Looking forward to hearing responses, and not a possible mk-v slanging match. Best, Rick.

What Ron said, and what Lawrence concurred…

That's what I had for mine, before it was broken off...

The AV500 Rick.

I was using the travel adaptor until a grip caught the side of the connector off his leg and twisted the pole, and destroyed the socket on the recorder, after having to buy a scrap one off ebay, and swapping the connector on the board out, me and a friend of mine took apart the DVR station, figured the pin outs, and made up a little junction box. Now it's not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does the job just fine. Gives me input, and output. There is now no real worry of anything getting snagged. Attached is a very quick, bad, camera phone picture. Gives you an idea tho... Rick.

1.5"

It's a standard 8 way 1B Lemo with PRO Monitor pin out, just to clarify. Best. Rick. Hi Matteo, The issue with that is that the multipin (I think it's a 6 pin Lemo) that goes into the back of the Archer standard monitor carries 12V power, video signal and the tally light signal. So in order for it to show any video at all, that connector has to be in (for ages I thought the single BNC on its own was the video input but in fact that's wired to the 4 pin Hirose on the stage for use with video transmistters). The monitor does have a XLR4 that can be used to power the monitor, but if we were to make a cable that ran from the new battery plate to the XLR4 input, you would still need the 6 pin Lemo connected as well for video, so you'd effectively be paralleling the two batteries together again anyway. If you were absolutely sure that you never wanted to be able to power the monitor from the normal sled power though, you could do a little simple surgery in the back of the monitor and snip out the 12V from the incoming 6 pin Lemo. However as that's not something you could change back in a hurry, it could lead to unforeseen irritations in the future! E

Don't feel like you have to. It worked fine, nice and solid. If it does the job... R

Before it was anodised...

Hey Pete, I'm good thanks. That's bizarrely exactly the same design as we came up with for the one Alan now has. There were 2 tiny springs under the clamping section to push it back up when the thumb screw was un tightened. Might be worth adding. Great minds ehh! Rick.

I have an Archer base if you want to keep it as a test unit for any batches etc... Could be that I measured mine wrongly, infact, I think the engineer who made mine did something similar for someone else shortly after, and he measured it with a greater accuracy. The one Alan had off me took a bit of effort to get on the rods, but it didn't phase me as it lived on there... Make me an offer if you want, it's just sitting here doing nothing. Rick.

Looks like a nice sled, big improvement over the old one. I especially like the base, very neat. Not sure if I'm thrown with the idea of a G-40 tho. I would be hesitant to be restricted to a 40lb lift if were to buy a new rig in that category. I’m sure most G-50 owners push their arm to the max most of the time. That sled with the G-50 again, sorted... Can’t cost much less to produce, and only chains in the customer to have to totally upgrade everything again and spend extra cash. What’s this fascination with making everything fold up and pull apart, it all goes into a big box anyway. It’s not like you are traveling from job to job on the bus… Rick.

Like Lars says, It's the nature of the beast... Rick.

http://photos.mikkowilson.com/F-Bracket.jpg Should look like this. The hole is where the pinky is. If not, undo the two grub screws, pull out the pin, slide it in the other way, tighten...done. Rick. Photo by Mikko Wilson.

Dear Mr English. How formal of you. Hope you are well. Kind regards, Richard James Lewis

Hey lads and lasses! I got this email today, and I just wondered who else found it in their Inbox. I'm not expressing any opinion on the job at all, or its "rates" but I'm just curious who else got it. Put your hand up and be counted. I’m pretty sure I haven’t worked for the chap before. Just curious... Rick. BIG CATS!!!! I have BCC all of you, i hope you dont mind but sending a mail out one at a time would take a while and hopefully one of you will be interested THE GOOD BITS..... A five week feature film to be shot in and around Pinewood. We are looking for a Steadicam Operator with gear to also be a regular Camera Op. We are using only the one Camera, so we would need you to be the Op when it is on sticks and dolly, and then be able to steadicam on shots needed. We are shooting on the RED Camera. We will not have you on set doing nothing inbetween steadicam shots. We are shooting 5day weeks, 10hour days. We have full rain cover days for the whole shoot, and have gotten quite a good cast as well as very experienced Uber Budget Crew (a few guys are from Wanted, Alexander, Prince of Persia, Wolfman) etc etc Our shoot dates are from 4th May 2009 to 5th June 2009, but we will need you for one week of preproduction to check out the locations. We have secured a good cast as well, Phil Jupitus, Sean Lock, James King, Kayleigh Pearson, Louise Cliffe and many more "Recognized" cameo roles with more to be comfirned The script is very funny, it is a slasher comedy, in the same style as Severance, violent and unPC humour. We have secured the talent and the crew on the script. We have a Pending Theatrical release distribution deal with Revolver just from them reading the script. WHAT WE ARE OFFERING. We can pay £300 per week as crew and £1200 per week to hire out the equipment. I know this is Low, incredibly low for a steadicam operator and rig. Unfortunaley, our budget is only £250 000 and we are making it stretch far and further everyday. We are doing a "FAVOURED NATIONS" deal where crew are on the same wage plus profit share We are hoping that being a camera Op as well as doing the steadicam will sway you I know this is really low budget, i have been on the steadicam froums and read what you guys have to sy to dodgy producer and bad offers so i thought i would be upfront about who we are and what we plan on doing We have a should have a potential slate confirmed for TV and film in the next couple weeks and so hope to take the crew onto bigger and better productions I have attached the Synopsis for your guys to go through please have a read and if this suits you then give me a call -- Richard Kerrigan 07525635781 richardjkerrigan@annix.com

Amando, You can claw back a few years! The 435 wasn't around until 1995. You are younger than you give yourself credit for! Rick.

Hey Nick, the dovetail slot you see is for the transmitter bracket. It locks in there and keeps the transmitter at the highest point possible (if you have your second plate on top of the camera) Rick.

Thanks for the reply Erwin, much appreciated. I do understand, and agree with your points. Don't we think that if the screw head size was set (which it pretty much is), and the plate was a bit thicker and had a recess, you could still have the side-to-side slots, and the plate would still line up perfectly? Similar to the holes on the PRO or Betz plates... It would just be an elongated hole... Or you could have a collar for the 3/8" screw that set the size of the neck to the size of the slot? Rick

OK So I have my lovely XCS plates, and have been using them for a month or so now. I also got a few extra camera screws at the time. The plates are great, very sturdy, and Greg was a pleasure to deal with. My only beef with them is that I have to work pretty hard to make sure that they are on straight and aligned with the camera. On my old Betz plates, the holes were all set up to accept the camera screws, and there was no guessing as the holes were recessed to the head of the camera screw. Everything just seems a bit sloppier with these plates as there is so much room for the screws to move about and for the plates to be twisted about in relation to the camera when attaching them. I waste enough time making sure my post and monitor arm are aligned without having to worry about the camera being on the piss too. Is this just the nature of the design, or am I missing something here? Cheers in advance. Rick.

Have you got anything a little more obscure? ;) Here we go...