William Demeritt

Thomas, why would they? The grey canisters work in the Titan arm, and they still drastically increase the lift capability while maintaining the same standards for performance. What could they do to better it that hasn't been considered and probably shot down in the last decade?

I have a 4:3 monitor. If I upgrade now, does that mean I have to get a 16:9? Or am I not eligible until the 4:3 gen 2 is announced?

Looking forward to seeing pictures!

Very cool. Early quick question: is the gen 1 monitor yoke compatible with the gen 2 monitor? Or do you get any kind of deal for returning the gen 1 yoke towards a gen 2 yoke?

Which arm do you fly with?

How about a segway? Top speed is 12.5mph (so says the Internet), but the danger goes from running over the extras to you tripping at doing a face plant.

Grip Trix is too big to get through people. That was our first choice.

Put a cow catcher on the front, and you can get through lots of people! Take 2 might have fewer capable extras, though...

I would be inclined to say FULL SPEED running isn't right for a rickshaw: getting up to speed, keeping it in the right direction, wobbly wheels could mean problems. For full speed running, I'd probably request a Griptrix: hard mount, speed adaptable, very reliable at those speeds. Also, you won't burn up the grips pushing the rickshaw at full sprint for a shot and then needing to slow something that massive down by hand.

EDIT: Sidenote, your website is offline right now because it's hosted on .Mac, and they closed it down last month. Just FYI.

Sigh. We all pretty much saw this coming, didn't we...

Finding our way into a single technical aspect of the original topic that reveals people's personal approaches to equipment? Yea, I logged in, so I knew what I was getting into...

"Reduced life" meaning what, exactly? 120 cycles instead of 150? 180? How greatly reduced?

In my opinion, the manuals reflect the engineer's specifications tempered with legal department's "we gotta protect ourselves against the warranty". As you quoted, the Anton Bauer manual says "recommended operation" is 15-50 watts. The 8A fuse protects against an overdraw of 115W, so why is the recommended operating range less than 50% of the fault protection? Probably because when they first started making Dionics, they don't want people calling, saying "These batteries suck: I ran a 90 watt load every day, and the batteries only lasted 110-130 cycles."

Mark, as you said: "Dionic 90's can run over the recommended current draw before popping the thermal fuse, but they do not recommend it. The reason they don't recommend it is that it reduces the overall service life of the battery."

OK, duly noted. If it's my batteries, I'll probably be more conservative with what they power and how I configure my setup. If the rental house rents me a camera that sucks down 85 watts (14.4V means 5.902777... amps) and sends Dionic 90's, then I'll defer to how they rent their camera package. However, I don't think I'll be too worried when the battery with an 8A fuse and recommended load of 15-50 watts has to run an 85 watt camera at 5.9-7.0 amps.

Perhaps it's just my approach to gear, but recommended is a safety net, maximum is a MAXIMUM, and if we're operating with some wiggle room, I'm not incredibly worried. As far as I can tell, "recommended" here is strictly regarding service life. If we had evidence the "recommended load" was because of discharge characteristics changing, overheating as amperage increased, etc., perhaps we should be worried.

As long as they make it through my shoot, I'll do as the rental house or camera provider wants. In the mean time, I own Dionic HC's and I love them. I'd ask for them, but we don't always get what we want.

Christopher: I'll admit that I attempted an HD upgrade last summer before shelling out the cash for the HD Upper, HD lower junction boxes and HD centerpost. I'd feel embarrassed to say just how far I went to attempt it, feel free to ask privately... but I will say this: I learned the inside and out of the PRO2 sled VERY well, and if you have the bayonet "quick release" PRO2 sled, then you're going to have to do the HD upgrade through them.

Assuming you have the quick-release style, if you wanted to do your own upgrade, you'd have to:

- Rewire the upper and lower junction boxes with the 19-pin (?) LEMO cable

- buy a new centerpost cable from PRO or XCS.

- Change out the centerpost cable in your centerpost (might not be wide enough inside to comfortably fit the new cable)

The rewiring is so daunting, I just decided the costs to rewire everything would probably cost as much as doing the HD upgrade, if not more considering potential for failure.

I've tried. It's not worth it.

Could you just use an HD Set-Top box as the receiver and plug it into any monitor?

I believe, if I'm getting this correctly, you should be able to use any device with an ATSC tuner for monitoring purposes. Newer HDTV's have built in ATSC tuners, so all you'd need is an antenna.

I don't know if "cut the price in half" is feasible, but I will say ATSC broadcast opens up the consumer market for use as monitors. Likewise, ATSC broadcast will allow for multicast out of the box: power up the transmitter, and any number of receivers will get the signal. Depending on the range, the 42" HDTV in the honeywagon could show a live feed from camera. Small, portable handheld HDTV's that received ATSC for the director, multiple monitors in village.

Just as the Modulus and Canatrans once made use of over-the-air broadcast that was received by anything in the spectrum, so too would this open up a lot of great opportunities. We'll see what price they're actually thinking, but it'll definitely make things interesting!

Wow, it broadcasts ATSC? That would be fantastic if true! Any rumors on the range, or do we have to wait?

So, I'm very new to this as well. My question is how do I set my rate in my area that has no Steadicam market? I am trying to create a market here, but I also don't want to set a rate so low that it is offending other operators and under cutting them. But I am certainly in danger of setting it to high and never getting a single gig. The producers and DP's haven't ever had a regular Steadicam operator in the area, so how do I get them to put me on a gig without scaring them off? I'm not so much asking about a price, more of how to market myself to show the value of the Steadicam shot? Thanks for the time and help.

First, I would suggest that you are in a Steadicam market. I can't think of any state, any area that has not been serviced by a Steadicam operator working as local in this day and age.

Beyond that, looking on the SOA website, 3 operators identify themselves as working as local in WI. Furthermore, you're 90 miles north of Chicago, IL, where 6 other operators work as local and are probably capable of driving up to WI for a gig (or maybe they're not).

I'd caution you not to think you're so isolated, because you're more likely to upset those 9 operators (and however many more aren't on the SOA website) than you are to price yourself out of work.

Furthermore, they may never have had a regular Steadicam operator in the area, but I'd be willing to bet some precedent for Steadicam exists. Perhaps reach out to the other operators who've worked in Milwaukee and ask their opinions on rates. What are the budgets? What are the rates you can get? What pays for your gear and lets you work and live?

I had the best luck building something for myself when creating a UHF handheld monitor. If I had it to do again, I'd get some affordable handles for a DSLR camera (I plan on doing an Ikan EV2 Dragonfly for $150), an analog NTSC tuner capable LCD TV (I got a 7" LCD TV that did NTSC for ~$70), and an Anton Bauer battery plate ($100 through Abel, BH, etc). Cheaper than a Camos.

http://www.ikancorp.com/productdetail.php?id=516

http://www.frys.com/product/6403952?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG (I couldn't find the Viore I bought, but this has NTSC)

http://www.abelcine.com/store/Anton-Bauer-QRC-Digital-3-Stud-Battery-Plate/

When you take a low rate with that employer, you will most likely never get more. Not saying you won't EVER, but unless you have fertile grounds to create a long-lasting relationship with them where you take care of each other, then your investment is a bad one.

Think of it this way: you walk into a barber shop, and the sign on the wall says "haircuts $30". You then start going to that barber for the next 2 years, and every time you pay $30. After 2 years of going, you'll never ever say to that barber: "You know what... you do such a good job cutting my hair... I'm going to pay for $45 from now on."

Now, within the same analogy, you get 5 years down the road paying the same barber $30 per haircut, and one day you walk in to see his rates are now "haircuts $50". You're might say, "Damn, but this guy is such a great barber, he's worth the extra money." However, you can bet a large amount of his clientele will say, "Nah, no thanks, I'll go find another $30 barber. You're the low cost barber, I don't see you as a $50 barber."

So logically, it makes sense to bring your rates into congruency with your peers as soon as possible. Otherwise, you're robbing them of work, you're lowering the bar, giving them the impression that lower cost work is out there (and somehow desireable), and worst of all: you'll NEVER get above it. Your clients think of you as "cheap" and your peers at the "next level" see you as a low-baller.

"No" is a powerful word. Take it out for a spin. Bad negotiators agree to the first thing on the table unless it's absolutely optimal and unprecedented at THAT level (not at YOUR level).

To attempt to add to what Eric is saying (hope this goes well): the more breaks you introduce in the chain between the HD-SDI coming out of the camera and reaching the monitor, the greater the chance of drop in fidelity.

HD-SDI isn't an analog signal like CVBS, so if the signal degrades beyond a point where the monitor can recreate the image, it fails. Doesn't get dim (resistance is too high), doesn't get snow, doesn't distort like bad reception. Goes out.

If the camera would otherwise just go camera HD-SDI out to monitor in, on our sled (2 connectors = 2 breaks), this happens:

Modular PRO/XCS sleds (removable centerpost):

Camera out (#1), Sled topstage in (#2), Centerpost top LEMO (#3), Centerpost bottom LEMO (#4), Sled bottom BNC out (#5), Monitor in (#6).

Tiffen sleds (to the best of my knowledge):

Camera out (#1), Sled topstage in (#2), sled bottom BNC out (#3), Monitor in (#4).

Like Eric says, you add in a 90' elbow, you just created 2 more breaks in your line (Tiffen jumps from 4 to 6, PRO/XCS jumps from 6 to 8). Even the best crimped connections will give some degradation. Using a reclocking amplifier will help improve the signal, but those breaks also introduce opportunities for interference.

Using a barrel creates 2 more breaks. Gotta run 150' cable? 3 50' cables with barrels connecting = 10 breaks. You get the picture? It quickly becomes "only strong as your weakest link".

Belden 9221 (the spaghetti wires Andrew makes uses this) is 30 AWG stranded copper, very thinly shielded. I think the optimal cable for HD-SDI is Belden 1694A (18 AWG, solid core).

Just wanted to relay a story about the customer service and support and generosity of the guys running GPI these days.

My gimbal developed a problem where, when sliding the gimbal down the centerpost while balancing, it would occasionally lock in place (as though something were jammed inside it). I noticed this only happened when moving down the post, not up it.

During some down time on set, I removed my Upper junction and DB3 and removed the gimbal (something not everyone's gear can do, takes less than 60 seconds). I think I'm fairly clever, but I couldn't tell what might cause it. I reassembled my sled and finished my day. Yesterday, I hopped in my car and drove up to GPI.

Thankfully, the sled wasn't like a bad car and actually displayed the problem on the workbench. Jack and Chad looked it over and noted to me that apparently my VZ was one of the earliest ones produced, so the guts were different. I was already uncertain of the cost to repair, what has to change, what was just wear and tear, but I definitely brought my checkbook.

"Congrats, you get a free upgrade!" And that was that. Chad spent 5-10 minutes swapping the necessary parts, reassembled the sled, and I was good to go!

Here's and instance where they manufactured something one way, realized a flaw, corrected it in future models and even repaired my gimbal (replacing the old parts) for free.

Equipment is great. Lots of great manufacturers out there, all with strengths and weaknesses. So, if all things are equal, you should go beyond the gear and consider who gives you the greatest amount of support. You will need service, you will need support, and you will need a vendor who's got your back and wants to see you succeed.

Meanwhile, I'll be saving to buy a second PRO rig down the road...

Feel free to share other stories?

Great looking kit. Someone is going to mention it, so I'll do it: you should change your forum username to your real name, especially so people will take this listing in confidence that you're legit.

Right now, you guys have a few dozen members Googling "PanaBar" to see if it's compatible with their Merlin / Flyer / Glidecam.

I use them strictly for tethering on my sled. I haven't had any issues with signal degradation or loss, and I've been operating with my 9221 spaghetti cables right out of camera followed by 100-200 feet of BNC. If attenuation exaggerated signal loss or signal interference, then I would think I might have seen something by now.

On the other hand, I don't think I would use these cables on my sled for the sake of protecting against any interference that might happen. On my sled, for cables that make connections that happen no matter what setup (sled to monitor, sled to camera), I use cables from Pacific Radio built from Belden 1694A, which are 18AWG solid core.

Just wanted to give a quick shout out to Andrew Ansnick, who made me a couple ultra-thin BNC pigtails (24 inches long each) for a great price. Belden 9221 cable, great for tethered scenarios with HD-SDI out of camera, good build quality and well crimped. If you're looking to buy a few, he's got the tools to make 'em!

Really? That's it!? Just as large as the batteries, but with a Dtap plug on top? I mean, that's good for hiding the voltage regulator, but I was hoping for something less bulky. Does it include a male-to-male Dtap?

These antennas will add gain for 2.4 and 5ghz, I've used them for wireless video applications.

http://www.fab-corp.com/product.php?productid=3141&cat=271&page=1

Frederic: when you say the HDMI connector is terrible, do you mean that the idea of using an HDMI connector is terrible, or the build quality on your Arrow is substandard or otherwise not robust?

As far as "hot", I suppose that's subjective. I've never picked up my Arrow after a day shooting on set, or touched it while powered on for a while, and felt in danger of burning myself or even feeling uncomfortable. Yes, it's notably WARM, but I was never concerned. I'm thinking of attaching a heatsink to try and dissipate the heat more aggressively.

The unit comes with 2 5V USB to PTAP power cables, that's how I've powered the transmitter on my sled. The receiver, I just attach to a cubetap, as is the power cable for the AJA HA5.

Honestly, I would place the overall pieces of the kit at a higher price: $500 for HD-SDI to HDMI, $500 for HDMI to HD-SDI, and $1200 for the Paralinx Arrow. So probably $2200 (plus tax)? I already owned the Decimator 2, so I considered that a second use of my gear.

I used it on a stage quite effectively, and in a small house in Pasadena a week ago, worked great for some room to room transmission. Maximum I think was just 50' with 2-3 walls and a refrigerator blocking. Never dropped out, no complains, no problems.

My plans include confining the receiver to a contained box that just receives AC power or battery power and has HD-SDI output (probably just a project box with all the connections made inside), just to simplify things.

Either way, I like it so far.

Ozzie: that's exactly why I invested in the Paralinx Arrow. Maybe the product isn't EXACTLY what we want right now, but they get the price and needs of our market and the camera market in general. I like my Arrow, but I also want Paralinx to succeed in bringing more powerful revisions to the market at the price segment you're alluding to.