William Demeritt

I'm surprised and offended by your lack of reverence for the Flying Spaghetti Monster. :)

May his noodly appendage touch you this Winter season.

If its the 7ghz Link System, I believe they sometimes use an Anton Bauer battery onboard to power, since they're pretty power hungry.

You need to post more information, or get more information from the job, before we can really contribute something substantial.

The eyepiece currently set to ship with the F65 is not HD, which I thought was a bummer. Apparently they're working to introduce an HD eyepiece in 2012, but I don't recall a tentative release date on that.

I liked most everything I heard about the F65 except for the power consumption. I'm working with the SR-R1 on an F3 right now, and I feel like the current crop of CineAlta cameras are not friendly towards anything but studio mode (either the F3 or the SR-R1). Powering needs, operator versatility in functions, etc.

That looks exciting, glad to see the WHDI sticks hitting the market.

Wow, that's infuriating. The components cost MAYBE $22, but they know the cables are for RED One owners with the stupid DIN connectors, so the up charge is $10 more.

I'd like to know where you got the 90 degree din connectors too!

couple of points of interest:

visibility: I find the visibility incredibly good. I've operated in thick haze and still found the image clear and excellent.

brightness: I took a picture of my monitor, but it doesn't really do justice to the monitor's daylight brightness. However, let's just say I had my eye and the camera at direct angle of reflection to the sun (bright glint), and I could still see a fairly clear contour of the image it was showing. I'll attach the image in a moment if I can find it.

reflectivity: The screen is a bit reflective, but not so much that you catch lights or other glints and get confused. If anything, the reflectivity of the monitor only gets distracting when you see smudges or grime built up on the screen and then want to clean it.

weight and size: The old housing is big and cumbersome, and I cannot wait to upgrade to the new housing. However, even as big and bulky as it seems, it's still not terrifyingly wider than my sled base. It's not as narrow as my PRO gen 2 monitor was, but I hear the next housing will be. As far as weight, I wish it was a bit lighter. In my sled's current configuration, I have the monitor positioned to be coplanar with the batteries, and have the batteries and recorder set at a distance such that if you place it on the balancing post, it sits at perfect horizon. If the weight was a bit lighter, I could bring the battery module forward a bit more and make the self more compact at the base. It's not a featherweight.

viewing angles: No issues. I frequently operate off the monitor upside down (low mode), and don't have any viewing angle issues. For our discussion, let's imagine a straight line running from the bottom of the monitor (mount) to the top (vertical viewing angle). Bottom is 180 degrees and top is 0 degrees. Viewing perfectly dead on 90 degrees. Most of the time, I operate on the monitor from 90 to <180 degrees, and have never noticed a viewing angle issue. If memory serves, from 0 to 45 degrees has a few pockets where the image fails, but then significantly improves. The horizontal viewing angle is fantastic.

menu structure: I think it's a stock software, so it's fairly simple to navigate. Once they release the new housing and controller board, this whole conversation will change. However, if you're planning on operating the gen 1 for any period of time, then you it's worth mentioning that some options are not intuitively laid out in the menu, such as image rotation options. Also, many options have on screen indicators of level, such as if you go into the menu and see how far zoomed in the image is. However, the menu doesn't seem have any a section indicating percentage of LED Backlight currently on. If you turn the LED backlight down, the on screen display doesn't indicate a level of brightness currently displayed (as in a percentage or a series of columns indicating max brightness or OFF). I certainly hope the next LCD controller takes this into account.

lack of frame-lines: Hasn't really chaffed me so far, most of the cameras I use have built in frame lines, be it a ground glass or HD camera that draws on frame lines for me. I usually just make sure the camera is set up properly before I fly it.

16:9 or 4:3: I went with the 4:3 primarily because I came from operating on a PRO 2 green screen, so I was used to a 4:3 screen with a 16:9 (black spaces on top and bottom) image inside. Also, with the on screen digital level and frame line generator coming with the next gen housing and controller, I figure those black spaces are where the level will go and won't interfere with my frame.

how was the change-over from a TB-6: I had a PRO 2 green screen, but I still enjoy the upgrade. Composite analog video still comes in from the LEMO power cable to the Cinetronic monitor, for CVBS i didn't need to change or add any cables on my lower junction box.

Thanks for your time...

After operating off a PRO green screen monitor, I went with the 4:3 monitor for the brightness but also the comfort. I'm sure we've discussed it to death, but I just feel like having a smaller image to operate from helps me compose the total image, corners and all.

Likewise, I was expecting the 4:3 monitor to display the 16:9 image with space on top and bottom later to be used by the bubble level's integration. Sounds like this is the case, in which I am pleased.

This ought to pull the proverbial fence post out of their butts!

Happy Birthday Amando!!

Hi everybody,

On the prowl for a PRO vest. I suppose I could go up and have Jack fit me for a new one but I am ashamed of my love handles. If any of y'all back-mounted diehards have a PRO hanging out in the garage taking up space and causing domestic problems I would be happy to take it off your hands.

 

Dave

I've got some old gym socks for sale for ya buddy! ;)

And get rid of that underscore in your name... AND SHAVE! AND CLEAN UP YOUR HAIR!

Hell no! If you'll be using a black metal band, use Dimmu Borgir.

 

Be careful though. Most of their lyrics are based on Satanic verses...

Dimmu Borgir is like the Limp Bizkit of norwegian metal. BJ is right, call Mayhem... although you may regret it later. Varg is out of jail now, so he may keep you warm with some church burnings.

Rules are made to be broken. If you achieve your shot by doing that then I'd say that you're probably fine. It may not be the solution for every time, but if it was the solution for this time then it's probably cool.

We've all performed shots with our rigs in configurations we may not be proud of or want photographed, but sometimes that's what you need to do to get the job done.

Somewhat off your topic but still on the topic of the Shuttle, do you guys just carry a couple of SSD drives, or do you have a quick way to format them on set if/when you run out of space?

In working with plenty of student films, or productions unfamiliar with Steadicam, I find myself explaining what we do moreso through analogy. One analogy in particular helped me verbalize how we progress from newbie Steadicam operators into Operators:

Steadicam operation is like playing ice hockey. When someone decides they want to play ice hockey, they learn they first have to know how to skate. You must become so good at skating that when playing hockey you're not thinking about skating; you're thinking about the puck, the players, offsides, who to pass it to, when to take the shot, etc.

You look back at when you first put on skates: you were wobbly, hockey stops took a measured effort and forethought, foot positioning for a snapshot required planning, etc. Now, you don't even think about your feet; you hockey stop instinctively, with a split second reflex. You're always ready to take the shot or pass it. However, when you practice, you still go back to basics: step and slides, rapid slapshots, suicides up and down the ice.

Same goes for Steadicam. Eventually, your foot positioning for a lock-off becomes second nature. You're no longer thinking about how to keep the rig level; you're thinking about the best composition, watching eyelines, bogeys in your shot, etc. You're "playing the game".

For people who've never played hockey, perhaps there's a sport you can think of where you learn the complexities of the game's foundation, and then play the game itself.

Anyone else have a good analogy for how Steadicam works? Or how do you best explain things when people ask about Steadicam?

As someone who thought he was smart enough to export an HD video, embed it in his website and also have a seamless iOS version available, I can say that Vimeo is probably WAY easier and smarter than me (which isn't saying much, but oh well).

Count me in on an Australia visit!

Rusty: would you consider selling the Stanton on the side? If you get a buyer for the whole package, no worries, but if you consider splitting it up, please keep me in mind?

I broke my modulus antenna recently and I'm not sure where to get a new one. Anyone know who sells them? I'm in LA but will order it from wherever I need to.

Thanks.

I buy spare antennas at Fry's, they have UHF antennas cut for our channel range for about $16. They aren't the thick, 90 deg angling antennas, but I find they work well enough.

Just looked at the date of the original post, guess you've done the shot by now, how did you get on?

Phil,

Alas, I never had a chance to perform the shot. Turns out, due to a number of issues, they had to refigure our day so that shot (in that form) had to die. I was a bit disappointed, but I think everyone realized the story didn't need that particular shot.

Oh well, I'm sure I'll have a chance to do something like that again sometime soon.

So that's what Charles meant the other day when he said he had to go "butter some buns."

They've essentially booked you for 3 days. You cannot book any other work for those days. I would charge accordingly, offering whatever deal I felt was reasonable.

Agreed.

Someone has one for sale in the main section of the marketplace. Granted, for a PRO arm, it's probably sold by now, but still.

Smooth move.

Hi Stuart, welcome to the forum!

Well, if you were to call me about the job, I'd obviously ask for some details before I could tell you specifically if Steadicam was possible. Obviously, the more demands on the shot, the more challenging it becomes with Steadicam, especially if there's a better tool for the job.

If the camera you're working with is not a hulking behemoth of a camera, I would say so long as the width of the aisle is such that I can walk chest forward, straight down the aisle, then the shot is "possible". The orientation of the operator's body would be somewhat uncomfortable as the weight goes up, but that then comes down to the duration of the shot, what we're shooting, and for how long.

For your scout, I would say if you cannot walk down the aisle of the passenger section, back straight and chest/hips forward at all times, without bumping arm rests or seat backs, then the operator will not be able to either.

Can you describe the shot you may have in mind? That'll help with this hypothesis.