Brad Hruboska

Matt you going to the mysterious east again to ply your trade.. good on you! send me some pics this time dude.... Merry Xmas and a hot new year! Brad Hruboska

For me it was an issue of already owning a gimbal, and wanting to keep compatability with the PRO gimbal I already owned, so I went with a standard 1.5 inch post. With the new donky box 3 and the XCS heavier mounting plate my shake issues have all but disappeared. I would be more concerned with gimbal feel at this point, but if this is a ne rig for you , you will probably learn into whatever gimbal you buy.. The bearing feel is very different in all of them. The Pro gimbal is very super slick, ( I actually got it off an op who felt it was too slick) the XCS less so, feels a bit dampened, Mk-v haven't seen. Sachtler atemis... felt a bit cheap, not even as nice as my old model 3 gimbal. But my gimnbal is a Pro with an ultimate ergo handle and Mk-V tols free handle ( purchaced just before George released the PRO post MK 2, which I saw in protoyping......it should be more ridgid....and the telescope should be a bit smoother..... My only beef with the pro is the fit between different posts, i have discovered a few thousanths of difference between the locking thread on the superpost and the standard post, ( build in different years ) which has resulted in some stripped thread issues, so I have been going to lengths to adjust the threaded insert in the lower post section to be a closer fit and have had a deeper locking collar fabricated to esure more thread engagement.....Again the problem of living away frm LA, the art may be affordable, but the shipping and or trip to the shop is a bit expensive....the lesson here is probably to buy your posts a t eh same time so George can check the fit before it leaves his shop. DU-OH :o

Regarding the issue of poor signal quality with the yagi antenna, I have in the past had situations where the best picture was obtained by throwing the antenna totally off axis. In close proximity sometimes a simple antenna works best. Also I read in the post regarding poor signal and boosting the power, as a transmissin faux pas....try going up form the lowest power setting, and often in an interior, close transmission distance 1/16 or 1/8 watt often works the best. I had been in many situations where we were fighting with modulus 300 transmitters as well to get a good signal. there a re many causes of poor signal. Often building structures have metal, which can reflect etc....I have on occasion used blackwrap shileds to suppress some antenna sensitivi ty..... the Canatrans is a very solid little unit, works properly on both 12 and 24V ( lots of modulus units shut down on me on 24v arri systemsn, and a few smoked in my hand.) I myself am incredibly happy with canatrans serial number 0002, and look forwad to years of service with it. Brad Hruboska. B)

try Derrick Whitehouse in Los Angeles. whitehouse AV. they have a website and Derrick is very knowlegeable. His back room is like a camera garage sale. Brad Whitlock has one of my old tripler assemblies in a box in Vancouver that I sold to him as spares. He's in 669, I don't have his number handy. :ph34r:

Yeah Ihad a weird situation with the Arri 3 and the Li-ion batteries this week, which I attributed to the cold weather we were shooting in. It would start up ok, and then one breaker would soft trip on the sled ( pro 2 ) , switching to the profpormer Nicads solved the problem. I agree, I have to keep a couple of Trimpacks for the older 435's just to deal with the amperage spike. We had problems way back when they were introduced with remote heads too, too much resistance in a line to pass the amperage....great camera, but power hungry to be sure..... :huh:

The Bracket is fine, you remove the handle entirely and secure the bracket in the four tapped holes. the JErry Hill Bracket ( now sadly out of production) was an L shaped piece but had issues with modifications to the SR on the side.....Worked great on Un modified cameras, but with the advent of many kinds of video split assists for the SR# was rendered unsusable..... the same bracket worked great for Arri 3's with steadimags. If the job is a video transfer and finish , I'd just shoot upside down and have the editor flip in post , saves tons of on set time, and you go home earlier...... Hate to say I just keep modifying the cage for those strange rig ups. heavier bars and structue do wonders for the bounciness.... The tapped hole on the handle is not adequate for low mode underslinging, the result is very bouncy and you ill get tremendous vibration.....maybe some small trunbuckles and clip rings could be employed to tension the back of the camera....hmmmmm. Brad. ;)

I had an experieince on a shoot on a riverbank trying to do a walk and talk with three actors years a go with a BL 4, and man I worked hard to get that shot to work, I look at it now and I couldn't even begin to think about including it on my reel, but at the time the director was very happy. I was however on the same shoot and I wound up refusing to do a shot from a cliff edge looking up at a crashed truck on the higher ledge and realized that the purchase was not good, very unstable , so I hiked back down the valley to the production fully expecting to be fired after a verbal tongue lashing on the walkie talkie. Was told to see the director in his trailer, walked in , he said sit down, poured me a scotch and asked if i was scared to do the shot, I told him I was afraid for my safety, he thanked me shook my hand and we went back to work, best of friends... Stress turns otherwise nice people into monsters sometimies..... Last night the key grip and I had to threaten a walkout on a music video job, due to wood smoke from fire barrels, looked great, but I can't take any kind of acrid smoke without getting really conjested, so we had a 15 minute clear out while the air vented...DP was upset at the time but by the end of the night was fine with the issue, calmer heads always prevail. Unfortunately , sometimes you have to be the grownup. I had another issue where I was talked into using the super post on a performance and realized in rehersal that it was just to long a pendulum to follow a dancer/singer in a tight shot 360 and keep any kind of frame, so I had to stop , convert back to regular mode and admit that I had been talked into a bad idea, but I had the solution, and everything was going to be fine....Yoou can see the fear , the meter is running and sometimes you just have to be the grownup, the firm, fair, calm adult who gets the fearful past their little moments of doubt. Don't be afraid to say what shots you think are beyond your ability, they will appreciate your candor, and find another amazing shot to do, you might go home early but with a better rep than struggling through . A Big D.P. once told me that what separates the pros from the wanna be is the ability to say I can do that shot well or not. Now on smaller jobs the disturbing trend is dolly OR steadicam so you become the tripod that bleeds . I do try and suggest studio mode conversion, and make sure your assistants know that we might be going to handheld or dolly and have a plan for conversion worked out. Who knows in a few years maybe you'll ace that shot. ;)

On my old harness, I usualy just cut new ones out of black nylon, seemed to be a liitle more durable... or you could have walter klassen make you some kevlar pieces ( pretty expensive)....I rebuilt my vests several times this way..... tip if you get a crack started, drill out the end of the crack it spreads the force a bit and slows the spread, good for those days away from a shop or any assistance.... :ph34r:

I did not find the camera was particularly heavy, seemed to weigh about as much as a 600....

ps. doing stop pulls is easily accomplished with a second bartech or relatiely ancient seitz, available cheap, and iris rings dont need monster torque.....at least in vidoe lenses.... for the gonzo system there is of course the FX preston wireless everything! Awesome expensive, etc....... :wacko:

Well for the SDI option what I did was have a 10 foot lightweight BNC cable made up which has very little influence on the rig, you also hav a breakaway point to unhook when you dock. You could make a bundle of lightweight BNC lines to take some of the resistance away when you work, ( from the cable , not the DOP)...If you were very industrios you could make a lemo hookup with six or eight connectors and make a breakaway in the bundle to be able to alk away.....I too have suffered through the dreaded tether, In my case it was due to early feedback problems with the evertz and unavaialbility of the miranda.....all ancient history now....... Hardwire is just something you have to deal with with a smile and don't complain too biterly about it or they will find wonderful new uses for the dolly.... just my two cents... B)

There is a large red plastic pot /knob inside the main housing near your tube... use a plastic tweaker or a sheilded screwdriver and adjust that pot until the image sharpens up..... I used to find that cold weather and dampness used to affect the focus of the monitor as well....... Hope this helps...

Oh and I though the vest needed a bit of reinforcing, like an EFP.......but again Im spoiled by Klassen/Sauve.... ;)

Boy I guess Im the bad guy here....I had a Artemis in Greece , I needed to do a few pick ups and it was not worth the hassle of trucking my PRO II package all the way over to Europe for the four small shots we had to match to a shoot in Egypt. Anyway the biggest problem is the docking bracket on the post, it does not sit high enough to allow the rig to balalnce and enter/exit the docking fork. This requires you to lengthen the post ot an absurd degree unless you load the bottom end up with big batteries, ( sadly none arrived from the rental, we also saw no sandbags or lamp scrims for the duration, but I digress.....) I found the arm was strong, but not particularly fluid, a bit too springy after a Pro arm, and the gimbal was not particularly friction free, kind of sluggish for my taste.....it's a good starter rig but i think with big 35mm camera, BL, 535, panavision, you will have some real problems, unless you like operating with a four foot post all the time.... :( Still Loving my Pro....and all its XCS tweeks.....

Charles...... call seitz or....... following my oldest diagrams here... model 2 era...... pin 1 All lemos is red... +12 v which feeds to D connector pin 7 use double gauge to connect to handle the amperage draw if you are making a cable of any length. Channel 1 lemo pin 2 feeds to pin 5 on D connector pin 3 feeds to pin 3 for ground . pin 4 NC Channel 2 lemo pin 2 feeds to pin 8 on D connector pin 3 feeds to pin 3 for ground pin 4 NC Channel 3 lemo pin 2 feeds to 9 on D connector pin 3 feeds to pin 3 for ground. contacts used for motor control on the "D" connector are, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 hope this helps. :blink:

Fear not the pitch on the ultra primes is the same old standard 32 pitch, it still has to work with the standard arri follow focus ff4 etc...... Pretty much all cine lenses work off of a 32 pitch Or very close metric equivalent....pana is a little different, slightly squarish in shape, but no big problem..... B) the 48 pitch is panavision zoom gear, and the 64 is panavison iris... every other lens manufacturer keeps it simple at 32 pitch on all the rings. 48 pitch is close to metric.6 module pitch which is canaon efp zoom lens focus gear, and the .5 is Fuginon pitch which isn't close to anything else I think..... :blink:

I have to second the rental house atmosphere. It is a great way to meet the people who you will eventually work for. Crane work, jib work etc etc. Film school does a very poor job of preparing new people for actually working in the film business. i went through my own frustrating growing pains to be sure, and budjets continue to get tighter as drama is scaled back more and more in the television arena. funding and distributing small films continues to be a chore so patieince is a virtue, and attitude it parqamount, you must put all the enthusiasm into the drudge jobs as well as the profile creative jobs to gain the trust of a very distrustful suspicious network of people. Money is always at a premium and the shots have to meet the satifaction of the director and the speed must meet the budjet that the producer can muster..... Trainee program is a great way to start, I havre a friend who quit a very lucrative position at a rental company doing field work as a computer op for 24 frame playback, and did the starving trainee thing for a year ( at 34 years of age) to learn about how a camera department worked. he was already competent in digital video and high def, and got an opportunity to key a job in south africa for almost a d.P. rate, so it can hppen, but aleays be traininng and don't lock into one thing. steaicam is now a fairly common tool, and the rateds are falling for the manpower and gear in the non union sector, as a result ( supply and demand) so it behooves you to develpoe all your camera skills, cuz you may have to work in video or documentary, or whatever, just keep shootin! Shoot all you can! I gotta go to work now. B)

I have also experienced a loosening of the screws, and on one occasion the male part of the socket was creeping out of the female part, I docked and fixed it immediately..But it is a concern, Its now part of the preflight check to make sure its all tight and ready, but I agree that a better solution is pending. <_< I have spoken to Walter about this issue and he agrees that it should be addressed..... BTW the lo profile arms for his harness are very nice.

The big improvement in my cage was increasing the riser rods diameter to 5/8 inch, and doubling up the thickness of the base and top, a bit more weight but much better results. I think the last time I used the cage per say was over five years ago...custom brackets are the way to go. and more and more cameras are having top handles made with steadicam mounting in mind, Eg SR3 AD solid no swivel handle and the heavy aluminum handle on the sony 900's is becoming a popular mod.... B)

Ray if you look through a scientiific catalogue like Edmund, you might find a lens you can drop on top of the the 1/3" chip that will make the russel tap think its a 1/2 inch big. I'm not hte expert but this was the scheme I used when 2/3 inch cameras went out of vogue. I've since gone to a 2/3 " camera and 1/2inch optics on the PCI tap and it covers the super 35 this way....well as good as a BL will cover super 35 in the eyepiece anyway which is something to be desired. B)

Funny that, I got one of those light weight ends form George at PRO when I go the new sled last year and I can remember thinking what the hell is this thing? But it works great, goes in smooth, and if that cable takes a hit there it means I need an ambulance anyway,,, just leave the camera and help me up. :P

They are expensive, and I really dont use mine all that often... If you weant to make one you start with a 24 mm C mount lens for a 35mm camera. Then yoou have a n extender made for the C mount to move the flange focal depth back to give you a macro effect on the tap camera.... the focus point for a eyepiece tap is inches from the form element, actully about 1 " so the only way to achieve that is to move the ccd array away from the lens. Then you have to have a gear machined to interface the thread of the eyepiece hook up on old arris it is a double helix, on the new arris it is a triple helix.. I have seen it done where guys just attach a couple of strips of aluminum toi the front of the lens like bunny ears and use a hose pipe clamp to secure the whole arrangement to the eyepiece assembly, this is with the eyecup optics removed... then you have to align it... look for a JAR tap optic, and try to modify that, they were built for 2/3 " cameras so you need ooptical adape5ter for 1/2 or 1/3" ccds..... hope this helps... I have a JAR tap you can look at if you are ever in Toronto, I have the PCI tap as well and its much better, but I seldom use either... Brad. <_<

If anyone wants to finish this sled off, I have a MK-V topstage avaialbe from my old rig that I could let go for 950.00, very little use, clean action...would drop right on top of a 3A style post. See, Now you have a sled! :rolleyes:

I would be very interested to hear what Walter has to say on this topic, As I own both a vest and Hardmount of the same configuration and a Pro Arm... Visions of cameras hitting the pavement at high speeds have that career ending twang that would make me leave the junk on the truck and drive directly to the nearest bar and start work on my food services resume...... :o