Thomas English

So can one still feed an SD Signal in through the power lemo connector as I can on my TB6? Can I zoom shrink the image and place the bubble outside of the video space? Particularly relevant on 16:9 monitor with a 16:9 signal fed to it with no "look around". Is there an eta on the new housings for the 7inch ers?

thats interesting! I dunno, how heavy is the fly wheel in a SCSI drive? I don't think they'll be strong/heavy enough to help on Steadicam. Try it.. let us know! There does seem to be a bit of google food on this. It won't be for proper cameras but definitely worth keeping in mind for those crazy rigs with si-2k s and the like/

That seems really nice! Those drawers where manufactered by in inovativ as well? How heavy are they? Im currently on a mission to limit every case to 25kg max.

Hey Danny! I don't bother reducing the inertia of my sled but I do find having it in perfect DB helps a lot. I use full fist sometimes for hard whips. The secret is in that bit of letting go of the sled as you come to stop-it so it doesn't whiplash on itself a bit (i.e. stop and start going back the other way a little). Thats why I find a lot of surface area from full grip is much easier to get it bang-on whithout whiplash. Very interested by what others have to say here!

Wow 1st AC's get a bump for dealing with complicated kit? Nice... I think this is a really interesting question but really I would not consider a Spotter (Grip) or Focus puller (1st AC) as a Steadicam assistant. I define a steadicam assistant as: Someone that comes in and catches your rig (some grips moan about that but almost all will do it if they need to) Knows how to set up your wireless video link Humps your flight cases and magliner Finds out the costume and make-up girls name and finds out if they are single I think someone like James Puli that actually knows how to set up your rig properly and balance it would be defined as a super-assistant. I know the Mumbai guys all have super-assistants. They don't even balance their sleds; they just mooch in, do the shot and go and chill. There is also some Steadicam ops that recommend and get such regular 1st AC's, their focus pullers know their sleds backwards. These guys often give their focus pullers their first opportunities at operating Steadicam. I go through phases of if I see a good runner I bump them to Steadicam assist for that day and steal them from their menial production walkie talkie jobs and I'll try take them onto the more grueling jobs that come up. They make other contacts in the camera department and start getting work as a trainee or video village and I move on. I wouldn't pay a Steadicam assistant any more than a runners rate and I expect them to meet people, move on and find better work. Often I prefer to work alone and just have the DoP s choice of 1st AC and the grip spotting me.

That is nice. Is there a safety screw on that quick release? I use a similar thing all the time on the Alexa and it really is a great.

The 4 pin power out on the red is a tool of lasr resort. If your powering your LCS off the d tap from the red brick when u turn the motor your dropping the pwer to the camera and messing with the power to your decimator. I would be so immensely surprised if this was an rf issue i thought the c motion was interfering with my decimator as it turns out ive deceloped a dry joint on my decimator and now im onto the spare.

Hey Kapil! You ok? Yeah I often do open the post as much as I can (without using 4 stage) just for that bit of extra distance. 2 seconds is a very short drop time for regular mode. I tend to use 4 or 5 seconds. I will tweak my sled upside down with the gimble height so I have the same drop time in low mode. In superpost low mode (very long 4 stage) I tend to have up to an 8 second drop time but thats because the sled is so damned long. I always also move the batteries backwards and monitor forward to try and give more inertia in low-mode as it is trickier. Practice lots and practice with it balanced in high mode but operating in low mode. This is how I got confident in low mode. Practice also moving the camera around on the stage in low mode. Weight always wants to "go uphill" It gets confusing and embarrasing when you get it wrong.

I regularly zoom out my TB6 to make the image smaller so I have the whole image in my immediate scan. I always use it slightly zoomed small. 9 inch is way to big for my! How am I gonna see my bubble at the top whilst keeping her nipples in frame?

Larry McConkey did a great PDF about Gyro orientation a few years ago. As I understand it; the kenyon gyros can move a little bit independantly from their shell as this is how they work to pull the shell back to the plane they are spinning on. When there is a slight knock the gyros are off axis to the shell which can cause issues in other axis as the shell re-orientates itself to the plane.

What about Heden motors modified for C-Motion? Will they still work on an MDR2 or MDR1?

I followed Charles gradient calculation and had a wicked ramp made up for the end of the one shot commercial. The DoP was well chuffed with the rushes and said it looked better than it wouldve on a technocrane (the other option). I now have a massive articulated ramp in my basement. Intrigued Peter by your ramp. I wish you did have some photos! How wide is this ladder at the end and is it freestanding? Can you sketch a picture?

Is your decimator at the top or the bottom of your rig?

No-one should be checking lighting off a Steadicam monitor. a TB6 can make the most underexposed shot in the world look good.

Its probably not an interference line but a power issue. Power dropping off to your Decimator because the LCS is taking it all. Try running the LCS off the cameras D-Tap.

Thanks guys!

Silly question really as I think the answere is 30 degrees but.. What is a good but steep gradient for a ramp when operating steadicam on foot. I gotta request a ramp for this ad at the end of the week. Normally the chippy is there and you can look at it or show him. i gotta do this one blind... 30 degrees?

Wow, that Blackmagic Hyperdeck Shuttle looks nice. Can it take just a regular SD signal in or only SD SDI ?

Yeah, well done job.. for a concert thats gotta hurt. I did a Nintendo commercial that was really run and gun and whilst compared to two RED cameras it was better it still hurt. I had two Optimo zooms on and the heavy Panavision special base plate (Stereo tech insisted) they seem to have. What I've done though is drilled 1/4 inch clearance holes on the long slots on my XCS plates so now I can use my XCS plates straight into the bottom with two anchor points.

I'd like to second Kens comments. Oh, and the book is awesome by the way.

I use proper chunky and short HD cables when I place my decimator at the bottom of my sled. I had the same problem when I was using skinnies. I went to lenghs trying to fix it, tried chunkies and that seemed to work. I've now reverted anyway to putting the decimator at the top again. Chris, will your new monitor contain a re-clocker? This is essentially like a Time Base Corrector. Nice...

Thanks for that Jerry. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I find it really interesting the practical techniques used to measure stuff in machining. So do you just subtract 2x the diameter of the rods from your reading and then use the measurement at the top and the measurement at the bottom to calculate the gradient. Although are these two measurements ruined by whatever chamfer has been used (top/bottom). Also do we know that the rods are contacting at a horizontal tangent? Is this important. If this is an assumption then it gives us the width at a certain height without the "dovetail" gradient. Or is there already an assumption about this gradient I don't know? 45 degrees on the nose maybe?

I appreciate how fun it is to slag off business and IP practices, but that is going off topic to continue that on this thread any further than the comments already made. So Richard Lewis is right. The Marell dovetail grabber is only for tiny 32mm dovetails found at the bottom of a master sled. We are left with the Catgriller, a Tiffen battery unit and one that Brant Fagan may sell. I tried checking out the GPI Pro option.. modifying the Gyro dovetail grabber but my research stopped short at their dovetail grabber costing around $600. I am sure its very nice but I don't want to spend that much. Has anyone called Brant Fagan yet and found out for sure he'd sell you one and if so how much?

So in conclusion. This part is called a "Dovetail grabber" Marrel have one for sale, Steve Fracol uses one and Brant Fagan may be able to sell one. Will Tiffen be selling one too? and how soon? Will they have a battery module for sale as thats what I am looking for. I just have to re-jib its output cable for my MK-V Thanks

As far as I know all big rig dovetails are the same. I tried my XCS dovetail on an Ultra2 tiffen the other day and it fit fine. So MK-V, GPI PRO, XCS , BaerBell (CAM-TEC) and Tiffen are the same. Is Satchler? I wouldn't say it was really heavy and I'll pop it on some scales when I get back from tonights shoot. But relatively to most accessories it is heavy. Maybe 220g ? You could easily cut it down and make a few holes in it as well as it is well over engineered for your purpose. Yeah, its insane that no-one makes a bracket out there for this. I don't get it. All the tiffen rigs have this dovetail on their bases now... Why? Mind you... does that Manfrotto really fit? Is it the right width? I thought they were considerably narrower.... I make it only 44mm wide. http://www.tripodpartsnewrate.co.cc/information/manfrotto-357plv-rapid-connect-sliding-plate-with-B00131G90A