Peter Abraham

Thanks. I'll wait a week or so before contacting him. Appreciate the info. Peter

I need a number for Terry. Anyone have it? Thanks Peter Abraham New York Philly Elgin Atlanta L.A. Toledo Lexington Boulder Points West.

I know you were there, I was out of town a bunch of times and other times sadly, I was not put on the schedule. That'd have been FUN, man. :)

I'm a big fan of the Mugami 2964 HD CoAx cable. Plenty of copper down the middle ( after all, we are running 165 volts down there... ) and- the big selling point for me- a neoprene jacketing. Visually it may be thicker than some other cables, but I used it for 20 years doing tri ax to co ax jobs, as well as using it for off-rig hardwire situations like the one faced by our OP'er and nary an issue. Bi-Tronics and Markertek both sell it. I own a crimper- DONT buy the crimp tool. I'll be glad to loan it around. Even in bitter cold, the neoprene jacketing does not stiffen up as badly as vinyl. My two cents. Peter Abraham New York

The next time you're stepping into Pier 61, look to the left. See the guy in the "Steadicam" jacket? I'll give you a wave. I spend an obscene amount of time on the other side of the wall, at CSTV. :D

I needed a laugh. I really did. THIS is brilliant. The Muse spoke to the Creator as he gazed out idly at a covered bridge somewhere in Ohio. The Muse spoke...... I do love this. A lot. I might need to print out that guy's photo....... I teach a lot of Steadicam Workshops. I can hold up a huge laminated image of this and say, " See this? DON'T DO THIS". Peter " My Rig Does Not Appear To Be Designed After A Covered Bridge" Abraham New York

That's a great starting point, but it would take 25 calls in NYC to find what - given a full list of gear- would take one, maybe two calls. Location ( location, location :P ) and gear info as far as folks wish to provide.

I did not think of that angle- that a search for ,say, TB-6 would yield ALL results on that search word. Not what I was thinking of. Tim, is there a way to allow Profile Search only, to facilitate the amazing chance of finding gear in an emergency ? Or, create a listing under our Profiles that say " Gear List" or somesuch, that can be hit upon discretely in Search?

Thank you so much, I'll investigate in the coming days. ( In studio today... ) Peter

Hey cool ! I hadn't seen his before. Excellent.

Jerry Holway has an amazing story about Jon Cassar. Lemme link this over to him, maybe he'll share it. It is about how Jon first got started in Steadicam- Jerry shares this at ever workshop, it's brilliant. Peter Abraham New York

Great, I will look into that and let you know. Very cool- for a variety of services I enjoy providing to my fellows. ( that sounds vaguely...... seamy, but it's noble in intent ! :blink:

Always a nice thing to help out my fellows. Charles has returned the kindness many times over in different ways, and besides- the look on his face when I pulled out my Frankenstein Follow Focus, with it's hand-hacksawed dogbones and frightening gear rings was well worth the drive into Harlem. :) ( It did work fine, though it was hardwired. ) I've told this tale before. My first IIIA arm snapped in NYC once, just as I started to tape a show. I called every name I could think of. On that Friday evening around 6:00 pm, only our dear Ted Churchill answered. Without hesitation, he handed over an arm that was one of ten on the planet ( at the time ). He insisted I go and get it, and return it myself. It was modified with a titanium socket block/ arm socket end. He, Steve St. John and a buncha other folks went in on a run of ten of the sets. Ted barely recognized my face, didn't know me well- but handed me the arm without hesitation. It is what we do. :) Because it is so apropos, might I ask any of you reading this to click on this link, to a thread in another forum of our boards, and chime in one way or the other. It is a great idea that Ian has had, and well worth discussing in depth. Relevant Forum Link My best to all, Peter " I See Charles As A Giant Amongst Ops, Dave !!! " Abraham New York

With all due respect to our esteemed Moderators, I agree completely with Ian's idea. Making a Sig become a laundry list of gear is a bad idea. It clogs down the servers, which have to load up a long list instead of a small quote or short sig line every time you post. On the other hand, it IS awfully helpful to know who has what. See, if we could list our gear in our Profiles, and Profiles were included in a Website Search, then we would achieve what Janice Arthur worked so very hard for so long to try to organize on paper- a really good list of where we are, and what we have and what we are willing to loan/rent a the drop of a dime. This refers very directly to an upbeat thread in General Topics about how we help one another, even if we don't know eachother first. If I found myself in Johannesburg and my BFD died or I was in Bangcock and my monitor crapped, it'd be dandy to be able to Search our Profiles and find the right person with the right goodies who may save the day. My two cents. So, the question- if I do a Search, does that function scan Profiles? If not, could the software be tweaked to include it? Then, only those members who chose to can list gear, etc. Best to all, Peter Abraham New York

This is for Tim. And, anyone else who may know about the Ads by Gooooogle vertical banner on the right side of The Steadicam Forum. Anyone know how to contact them, take out an ad that is targeted to the Forum community, and so on? I see DP websites, Basson system ads and so on. Anyone know the real deal? Best to all, Peter Abraham

Hey Stephen, long haul there !!! What rig was that- I've never seen an arm like that before.

Get 8 other guys into the mix, and I'll fly to Vancouver. :)

Hi, I owned a Master Series Elite rig, from early in 1996 till summer of 2002. I did indeed fly a 535B several times. I do not recall flying a 535. I do specifically recall flying an Arri BL IV ( " La Boat Anchor " ) a few times. The arm was astonishingly strong. I don't have the specs before me, but it's upper range was daunting. On the lower end, I could fly a Sony 400 BetaCam with a brick battery and it balanced out just fine. Quite a rig. In another thread about MS rigs and vibration, I saw some very helpful comments. Might I add a few in this regard? The linear bearings in the early MS rigs were harder to keep tightened down- they did a lovely adjust to the internal design in the top stage, and the issues were resolved. Check to make sure that the small screws in the stage that keep the internal plates, and linear bearings in place are tightened appropriate. Or, if you can spare it, take off the top stage and send it to Tiffen to be serviced, tightened, lubed, etc. Yes, you can remove the top stage of a Master Series rig in the field. Ya just gotta know what NOT to yank. :blink: I did it twice, to have it worked on. Much lighter than shipping the entire sled. Then again, I'm one of those folks who have alwas been very fond of taking my gear apart. A lot. :) Heck, the day Kenn Ferro took delivery on his IIIA arm ( one of the first ones built by C.P. ), he and I were teaching at Malibu under Bob Crone. We laid the brand new arm down on a towel, before a nice roaring fire in the gray house, and took it apart rather completely. No problem. -cackle- but we DID have one small piece left over when we put it back together..... Peter Abraham New York

Hi Kundaal ( how you signed your post- your member name ID is actually spelled differently. Which is correct, please? ) I'm teaching a two-day Steadicam Flyer Workshop in mid-December in L.A. at the Tiffen facility in Glendale. For info on that program, as Wil Arnot so generously mentioned up there, visit The Steadicam Workshops home page. Hope to see you there !! Best Peter Abraham New York

You mis-understood him. He meant, " I thought it made the camera waitless " Those are the guys who you strap into the rig, so they can feel our pain. Peter Abraham New York

It isn't plate length, it's bottom-of-camera interface. For the various different makers out there, Tiffen would have to make a matching dovetail plate precision-fit to each camera. We have the Universal dovetail plate- as do the other players in the field. If one owns a camera, one could remove the triangular dove-tail feet that lock into the mating touch-and-go camera plate, and instead machine a very small and solid interface that could be screwed in from below, underneath a Steadicam plate. Hmm. Uh. That's a cool thought. :D

Would that come with garlic bread or oyster crackers? And why is there no oyster in oyster crackers ?

When discussing the Steadicam Flyer, the 5 to 15 pounds range addresses the mass bolted to the Flyer Plate. Nothing about the sled weight is a part of this calculation. There is little if any margin for over-weighting a Flyer. I met a fellow who flew a 22 pound camera on his Flyer. It did not do so well. It is true enough that you could put 22 pounds on, and two huge Anton Bauer bricks, or stack up IDX 10S batteries so that you could do the balancing act top-to-bottom that we all do to build and balance our rigs. The entire machine is not designed to support this. In no particular order of events, you will over-stress the gimbal bearing races, the arm bearings and arm dogbones and the vest spar. One needs to adhere to those weight guidelines pretty darned closely. Can you fly a camera that you've stripped of battery, eyepiece and mike and comes in at 15 pounds 9 ounces? Sure. Will it fly a bit low perhaps, with a very very slow drop rate? Yeah. Will it wreck your rig in the first hour? Absolutely not- that's not what I mean by the statements above. The rig flies perfectly, when operated within the tolerances it is built to measure up to. Like any rig, made by any manufacturer. ( lest we get into a land war over whose brand rig can handle excessive masses opposed to someone else's brand rig ). For those folks using a larger camera that comes in very close to and just a bit over 15 pounds, there are folks who have ditched the factory mount plate made by the camera manufacturer. ( You know the Ikegami or Sony or Hitachi bridging plate that locks into and releases from the feet under the camera body ). They are usually quite heavy, and given a bit of machining folks have made good solid bridging plates that weigh a lot less than stock plates, and keep the "camera mass" at or under 15 pounds. My two cents. Peter Abraham New York

Mark is right, however it comes with a huge caveat in most cases- nowadays you must provide a real credential showing that you are working on a major broadcast MEDIA production. Cases with stickers all over no longer cut it, sadly. For most if not all live t.v. events, you get credentialled once you arrive at the venue- so that only will work on the flight home. I used to get the company hiring me ( ABC, etc. ) to write a letter on letterhead, naming me, dates of flight, job, etc. That worked wonders. Just a thought. Peter Abraham New York

Anyone got contact on Terry West? I need to give him a call. Help ? Peter Abraham New York