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nealnorton

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Everything posted by nealnorton

  1. For Sale: Preston FIZ HU-3 G4 system. $15,000. SALE PENDING. Includes: HU-3 G4 Comfort handle Microforce V+F HU-3 to MF bracket MDR-2 G4 with Microwave transceiver MDR-2 mounting bracket DM-1x motor with integrated mount (2) DM-1 motors (4) Motor mounting arms (5) Focus rings (6) Bushings NP-71 battery (3) NP-50 batteries Sony dual charger (6) Motor cables (2) P-tap power cables (2) Arri power cables Arri on/off cable FIZ to MF cable - short FIZ to MF cable - long MDR power from Pro Sled Cinetape interface cable Panavision on/off cable Panavision power cable Custom case Email: neal@gulfcamera.com
  2. For sale: Arrihead Mk2 in very good condition. $29,000 This head is in great condition. Just serviced and ready to work. Contact: neal@gulfcamera.com
  3. Sequels are often pretty boring. . . I was not so eagerly waiting for "Alexa 2 - Triumph of the VFX Guy" You know - a long self indulgent production that is more about math than pictures. The younger audience would love it. Ha! Was I ever looking the wrong direction. So we have the Alexa XT camera that makes shooting features or commercials with Arriraw a joy. Anamorphic lenses on a great 4:3 camera a big plus. Big price / Big quality. Then produce an Alexa quality camera for the very large ProRes / TV / 16X9 market that is just plain well engineered. Brilliant. And 200FPS. And quality sound. And internal filters. And multiple lens mounts. And those fantastic sliding base and top handles. Here I was waiting for Arri to cave in to the clamor for 4K and SURPRISE! instead they build another great camera that looks to be fun to use. Bravo!
  4. I did a little review of the new HP-1007HD You can find it here: http://www.gulfcamera.com/?p=765 Neal Norton
  5. Thought I'd add a picture of the 2 alexa rig. Neal
  6. I used the Freestyle with 2 Alexas on a movie this year. With a pro arm and sled, the 4 black cans were wound up to max. Had to be very gentle with the freestyle to keep the cameras from coming out of calibration. All up with sled arm and vest is 100lbs. We used Ultraprimes instead of Masterprimess and one camera was powered from a cable that ran along with the 4 bnc cables over my shoulder. The biggest negative for me beside the weight was the big mirror box and constant flare issues. Neal Norton
  7. I am very grateful for all the support and brilliant products the 3 of you have provided for all these years. You never let me down. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You. And Jack, you'll be hearing from me soon! Neal Norton
  8. Well, I know I'm being a masochist but I am going to respectfully disagree here with Eric. Take a look at Jerry Holways' wonderfully put together "Dynamic Balance Primer" and you will quickly notice that the "Mickey/Eric" method fails to take into account the forces of inertia on the uneven monitor and battery configuration. As Jerry points out, if the monitor and battery block were of equal weight and equal distance from the post then with the camera placed in static balance the whole rig will be also in dynamic balance. In many cases, this is not what we are dealing with. Just to make sure I would not look dumber than normal I built a "mickey" and followed the directions. I am using a GPI Pro sled with Gen 3 battery hanger and an XCS monitor arm with a Nebtek monitor and Dionic 90's. The lower unit was very stable on the "Mickey" as per instructions. I then mounted a camera and found a static balance with a 3 sec drop. The rig exhibited a pronounced wobble when spun at any speed. Not horrific but not good either. So, I then followed the Jerry Holway empirical method of putting the camera on the top stage 3/4" behind the measured CG of the camera on the center line of the post. I then adjusted the battery block only to find static balance. Very close - nice flat spin. If I knew I were looking to do a whip pan I might spend a little more time tuning but not too bad. Regards, Neal
  9. For Sale: Pro SD Sled parts. J box and bottom end for SD Pro sled. In very good condition. All works fine. No Jumper blocks. $500 Neal Norton neal@24FPS.biz
  10. For Sale: Transvideo Cine 3A SB Works great $500 Neal Norton neal@24fps.biz
  11. I was cleaning out the closet. 1 MKV 3 pin lemo to Panavision power cable 1 MKV 3 pin lemo to Arri 2 pin lemo power cable $100 for both plus shipping Neal Norton neal@24FPS.biz
  12. I have not used the Cvolution. I have done a film where the Arri system was used. Compared to the Preston the Arri wireless was clumsy and prone to failure. I don't think many assistants who are used to working with a Preston would accept the Arri WRC for long. Neal
  13. Just wrapped a show today at Arri rental Berlin. Great people, huge inventory. Neal Norton
  14. Tomas: Really sorry to hear of your troubles. I'm not surprised. I have been there myself. Will, great post and a wonderful offer but I can't imagine Tomas will ever see a refund of any kind. No Way. Tomas my advice is to have Betz patch up your rig and write off the expense as a lesson learned. Next time buy a Pro or XCS. Even with a 20% tax premium it is well worth it. Really. Neal Norton
  15. Hi Anthony: My experience is this: If you really want to do this job, you will find a way. Nothing will stop you. Everyone does it a little differently but the people I've known who do succeed spend years (and sometimes many years) preparing for a chance - an opportunity. It takes time and a little bit of obsession. Many people discover that the price to make it is way too high and so move on. It seems to me, right now, that "the girl" you were competing with found a way to kick open the door. Don't complain about some one else finding a way in. . .find your own way in. And where did you come up with $30,000? Maybe you are not ready to be making a big pay check yet. Find out what your competition is making and then set realistic financial goals. Good luck, Neal Norton
  16. The shorter post length does help. I tried the Codex on the camera and had problems with power to the codex. The cable from the Alexa acc would not work with the power supplied from my sled. I am not sure what the exact reason it isn't working and I haven't pushed too hard to find out. The Codex seems to be finnicky about the power supply. The DIT hates not having the debayered image sent back to his tent city and badly wants to run fiber (cable) from the steadicam with the codex in the tent so there isn't a lot of support there. The Alexa does draw a lot of juice and I might need to change out batteries to HC's if the Codex were up top. HC's would probably be a good idea in any case and when I replace batteries that is a direction I'll go. It may well be better to mount the Codex on the back of the camera. There would be no cables running down the sled and the transmitter could be sent to the bottom of the sled. Right now I am working with all my A/B gold mount stuff on a V-lock show. Everything here is V-lock and it complicates trying out different configurations. Also, the camera does get pretty long. Mount a LW zoom and it gets real long. The Codex does mount nicely on the top of the Alexa. That also might be a way to go with low mode being an image flip instead of a camera flip (I am doing the image flip now and the Nebtek makes it very easy). Anyway, the Codex on the sled seemed like a good idea at the time and it may well be there are better solutions. Neal
  17. Hi all: The job is a film shooting in Germany. We have 7 Alexas and a 435 on 1st unit. 4 of the alexas are set up for 3D rigs and then 3 for 1st unit 2D. Almost everything we are using is Arriflex including the cinetape. It appears to be a cinetape re-housed by Arri but I'm not sure. The transvideo HD transmitter has been very good. We put it on a cablecam rig set up in a forest and it could not handle the >50 meter distance but for steadicam it has been good. The preston G4 I'm carrying has been flawless. . . the new DM1x motor is really fast. . . the 5 Arri wireless focus systems are pretty finnicky and the a/c's are constantly fiddling to keep them lined up. The Nebtek monitor is very good. I am waiting on the new digital level which is being installed on my 2nd monitor now. I used a Transvideo for a long time and it was bullet proof. . . but the Nebtek price/size/features pushed me to try it and I'm happy with the result. Nebtek service has been excellent. I am powering the Codex from a D-tap from the monitor mounted battery. The Codex will run/stop from a normal 3 pin acc cable plugged into the Alexa from the preston. The run command works through the video cables comming from rec out on the Alexa. Mark, the codex has 4 mounting holes that are used with the 'large' Alexa handle. I just took a regular A/B gold mount (not the slim) and the tech at Arri drilled holes to match the 4 Codex mounting points. It seems very strong and I think there is little likelyhood it will fail. The distribution of weight has been a challenge. I got caught in a middle of the night-run-from A camera to build-the-steadicam quick situation and ended up with a very long gimbal to camera distance, too much bottom weight and poor dynamic balance that resulted in embarrassingly bad steadicam during a fire/stunt sequence. Of course I spent some time re-thinking the setup and it is better now. . . but the relatively heavy bottom end and long gimbal to camera distance does amplify any crappy operating so I am having to really pay attention more than I normally would with the film cameras I'm used to. The dionics are working fine. . .and it has been cold. The battery running the monitor and codex seems to work fine, although we have had a take lost due to a codex shut-down when the battery dropped below the codex voltage limit. We now change out the codex/monitor battery when the battery shows '3' bars to prevent a repeat of that failure. The 2 camera batteries are running everything else and seem to work fine with the Alexa/Preston/HD Transmitter/cinetape requirements. I have been getting a reasonable amount of time >30 minutes? but I do shut down everything when I can to save the batts. As much as I disliked the F35/F23/Genesis cameras, I'm really surprised how much I like the Alexa. I do miss an optical viewfinder but I'm adjusting to the Alexa viewfinder. Hand-held is a joy much like a 235. 16 days into this film with 7 cameras and NO down time due to the cameras in rugged cold and wet conditions. I have seen the Arriraw taken through post and projected on a big screen and it is. . . really beautiful. Disclosure: I have bought 2 Alexa cameras so I'm not an impartial source. I bought the cameras because I like them but I guess I do sound a bit like a shill. My cameras are not rented on this film. Hope I've answered all the questions. Neal
  18. Here is what I'm doing with the Codex and Alexa on my current job. The 2 little video cables are not too bad. Neal
  19. Hi Guys: Well here is a pic of my first 3d experience. All black cans wound up 100%. Rats nest of cable including a special light power cable I had made up. Really heavy. Really.
  20. Wow, over 20 years later I learn a model 1 can be made to do lo-mode. I found a broken model 1 serial no. 006 in a closet at a TV station in Tampa Florida in 1985. The TV station had bought the rig thinking it would be perfect for helicopter work. The news photogs wanted nothing to do with the thing. I conned the management into having the sled repaired and spent a LOT of time trying to make it work. No training, no instructions. . . it was a lot of fun. It never occurred to me the thing could be flipped over. When I did a work shop in 1987 with G.B. there were no mod. 1's around and I had bought a model 2 with the Bob DeRose tail attached. Never really gave the model 1 a thought after that. . . I guess I was spending too much time with soldering irons and spare parts trying to keep the Model 2 and then model 3 from bursting into flames. Great pictures and information. Neal Norton
  21. Thank You much Lawrence! Another kind soul has offered to bail me out already. Really appreciate your generous offer. Sincerely, Neal
  22. Hi All: Any Ops that have switched out to the new HD pro rig have an old center post cable I could borrow? I am upgrading my pro rig to the HD version and I am waiting for the new cable that runs through the center post. My Main cable has developed a broken video lead (I was cleaning up the rig after a long job and I think I broke it) and I have a job in the next week. It would be a waste to buy a new cable to use for 2 weeks. Thanks! Neal Norton
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