Jess Haas SOC

For set screws and all sorts of other hardware: http://www.mcmaster.com/ If you are close to one of their locations you can order it will call and pick it up their so that you don't have to pay shipping. ~Jess

They had both steel and aluminum ones. They also have scales handy. I saw them at the Sun Valley location but would guess that they have similar stuff in the show rooms of their other locations as well.

Last time I was at industrial metal supply they had a number of precut round pieces of metal that would probably work well for this. No center holes but if you need a hand with the holes I can drill a 15mm hole in them for you and could drill and tap a set screw or some sort of clamping mechanism as well. ~Jess

The other one used a clamping mechanism and not screw in rods. Could have been made by the same people of course. Of course as soon as these pieces start being available for the new cameras they will most likely go and announce the next round of cameras..... ~Jess

As far as lens height goes a lot of the time you are going to want the camera a little higher and tilted down instead of low and looking straight forward. Being closer to eye level just seems to look more natural for many shots and keeps you from seeing too much ceiling which is often very important as those pesky grips love to rig lights in the ceiling for steadicam shots(and we love them for it). I don't know where you need the socket block to achieve this but it is something to keep in mind. ~Jess

Another company makes a very similar bracket. Looked a little more refined(black anodized) but i have no clue who it was. I believe to install both of them you have to remove the screws on the front that hold the camera together. Probably not a huge deal but might get some weird looks from all the owners out there when you show up on set and start dismantling their camera. Also with the screw in rods if not using a matte box that mounts to them you may want to add a dog bone or something in order to keep them from being able to loosen when just a motor is attached. ~Jess

I just got a couple of these in the mail. They are nice and small, weigh nothing and don't draw much power. Depending on what you want to do with them the threaded stud on the back will either be a good thing or a bad one. For anyone else looking for them it looks like they are imported from a UK company and their part number is lascar emv 1200-40. Looks like a couple of places have them for a few bucks cheaper and if you are on the other side of the pond you can probably order them directly. http://www.lascarelectronics.com/temperatu...?datalogger=117 ~Jess

Ummmm I like to Party. Does that make me a wannabe? Just saying. Yes. In order to decrease the shame and humiliation I will gladly take all of your gear off your hands so that you no longer even have to think about this awful part of your life. ~Jess p.s. You in town or are you away working on some big movie like always? We should grab a drink sometime.

Just for the record believing anything I say is a recipe for disaster :-)

Looks like a bit of an optical illusion to me. You can see at the bottom where the angled face flattens out and there is a flat strip where the lights are. You can also see the curved top edge. That is exactly like mine which indeed has an angled face. My lifesaver Q2 anc CPS-2 chargers on the other hand are plain old boxes with a flat face. On another note does anyone know which serial number Lifesaver Dual chargers can be updated to charge which batteries? Mine doesn't even want to charge new digital trim packs. It does old nicads just fine though. ~Jess

As long as we are venting. I recently got undercut by a guy who is working for free on the film because it is shooting out of the country and they are paying for the trip. I think he is getting like $14/day in perdiem as well... Of course he doesn't own wireless follow focus or wireless video so they have to rent those. Also doesn't have a downconverter, or any sort of real battery setup for his rig.... I don't normally wish for people to fail but sometimes you just have to hope they get what they pay for. ~Jess

I just wanted to second this recommendation as you are very quickly going to realize that in addition to the camera you are going to need to power accessories as well(such as the follow focus you mention). The multitap will give you 4 power connectors. You should be able to velcro it to your sled somewhere. ~Jess

The distance to the manufacturer makes getting service a pain.

Thanks everyone for the info. Going with the Pilot from Birns. How much does the Nimmblecam rent for? Might want to play with it sometime in the future. ~Jess

My monitor is a bit far out too which I haven't found to be much of a problem with navigating but it does really suck for Don Juan. ~Jess

Flying on puddle jumpers to remote locations and lugging gear around said remote locations without much of a crew . A rig that can fit in a backpack just seems like the way to go. Taking my rig is an option, just doesn't seem ideal given the circumstances. ~Jess

I have an out of town gig where I need a rig that I can easily fly with. Camera is an EX1 so I am thinking Steadicam pilot. Anyone have one they are willing to rent? I would be willing to do a trade for rental of my wireless follow focus and/or video if anyone is more interested in that than money. ~Jess

I just saw today that Canon now has a wireless interface for their camera control. I believe it uses 802.11 and software on a laptop. ~Jess

My directors monitor got dropped on set today and is now toast. Looking to get production to replace it quick. Anyone know a place in town that sells them? Thanks, Jess

Never flown the Elaine but in general film cameras are much easier to work with than HD. A lot less ghetto rigging required. Is this by any chance the thing I sent your way? I sent two different people your way in the past week or so. Not sure if they ended up contacting you. ~Jess

Why go in the bathroom when you can find him at the bar?

Around town I actually use cheapo aluminum tool cases similar to this: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_0...amp;origin=prod They are light and small and fit a lot of batteries. They also fit perfectly in my trunk with my other cases where if I used something beefier that would definitely not be the case. For shipping I use something beefier but for around town I like staying small and light. I have noticed a large range of quality in these cases and some seem to actually be a lot sturdier than others. My sturdier ones are the older ones so not sure if they are still easy to find but if so it makes a difference. ~Jess

Ive never had a problem with this since the arm easily detaches from the vest you simply leave the arm with the sled when you dock. I actually find it kind of nice because you can dock for a moment and not have to worry about the arm still being attached to your vest. You do have to be careful about hitting the top of the boom range because it is very noticeable but I am not quite sure what you mean about the weight then being in your hands. By raising the socket block when necessary I find it is actually rather simple to keep the arm from topping out. I also find that with a little practice you start to feel when it gets close to the top end and it really becomes a non issue. Because of the design on the low end it never hits a stop in the same way it just takes increasingly more force to push down once you get to a certain point. ~Jess

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My rig is an older actioncam rig. I think it is the first model they made. When I got it the greenscreen was toast so I made the monitor arm and mounted the LCD that is in the picture. On the monitor arm I mounted a video distribution amplifier, a 5v voltage regulator to power my archos and a plate to mount the archos. In addition to the two battery mounts in the picture I made up another plate with two that mounts on the same rods in front of the post. This way I can run anywhere from 1 to 4 batteries. The ones in front attach to the ones in back using P-tap connectors. In 12v mode I can do either separate aux and camera power or put them in parallel. For 24v two batteries are put in series and one of them is also tapped for 12v. If running 3 batteries the third is paralleled with the one tapped for 12v and for 4 the other is paralleled with the other battery. I plan on adding diodes shortly so that I can mix chemistries as well as hot swap batteries with the red. Tomorrow I will be adding an HD-SDI line up the post and setting up power so that I can mount my decimator downconverter on the monitor arm. The current video line will be used to send an output from the video distribution amplifier to the top stage for my modulus. I also have two voltage displays that should be coming in the mail any day now which I am going to add I think on the top of the battery mounting plate. That is the arm hanging from the gimbal. I spent a good number of days hardmounted on an ATV driving around a rock quarry and on dirt roads at high speed with explosions going off on either side of me in Iowa and didn't have any problems so I guess it works well in extreme conditions. There is one major design defect in the pin that attaches the arm to the vest that I hope to fix in the near future by machining a replacement part for it. The arm is a totally different design than the traditional steadicam parallelogram approach but actually works rather well. It can easily adjust from almost zero weight to its maximum capacity (origionalyl 70 pounds, now I think more like 65). It isn't as isoelestatic and doesn't have as much boom range as a g series arm or a pro arm but it does work remarkably well all considering. It also weighs almost nothing. As far as I know they don't make an arm like it anymore and instead have moved to the more familiar parallelogram design. Its gimbal and vest attachment are non standard but are very functional. ~Jess