brett.mayfield

William is right about the G-Raid. Theyre reliable and I've found them to be really good at handling a lot of travel and constant plugging and unplugging. I've been teching for a few years now and do a significant amount of travel and have never had an issue with any G-Technology. I personally use a lot of Western Digital devices because ive found the price point to be good and the products havent ever failed me, though they do feel a bit cheap (but the drives themselves are great and i just upgraded my tower to all WD drives and built a whole slew of new portable drives out of just WD drives). Dont even consider Lacie. Drobo dies all the time, I would never put money into it. For a laptop, Id remove the hard drive and add an SSD, then remove the DVD drive and replace it with a 1TB (or larger) HDD. Its a very simple, inexpensive process. You can buy a little kit here: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/ This way you are runing your operating system on a separate (and faster) drive from where all your assets live. USB3, esata, Thunderbolt...you can even edit over fw800 if you have to. I dont rely much on thunderbolt, but you can find plenty of great express cards here: http://sonnettech.com/product/macbookaccessories/index.html anyways, these are different methods and devices ive used on a very regular and frequent basis in terms of your two choices, i think that the GRAID is probably more reliable for travel, though yes you do get less storage. if its just sitting on your desk, id say go for WD. That's what I would do if it were my cash and my workflow. To be honest, I really dont think you can go wrong with either.

dont forget your scripty, who should provide their own highlighters

he'd be gettin a steal for you to show up with that

Good deal yall. I havent had the fortune of trying out anything but Tiffen products, so I welcome the chance to try out the PRO system, but I havent found any information on upcoming workshops. I spose I should just contact them through their website, but does anyone know exactly who I should be in touch with? I also suppose that one of the best ways of tryin out the different rigs is to just make an appointment and go to the workshops to try them out, right? Ive been operating for a few years, but Ive been using the Archer-2 owned by the company at which I work. Ill be starting my freelancing career in the next week or so, and I am looking to have my own rig. I think that Ken's list is a great way to approach this. I'm in to any and all suggestions yall have about testing rigs, asking questions etc. have a rad one! brett.

hey yall i have been looking at both the SOA workshop in Pennsylvania and the Steadicam workshop in Lake Arrowhead. Are there really any differences in the instruction, rigs, time with rigs, instructors, operators nights...anything? Just wondering if anyone has attended both or either and can give their two cents. Im planning on going to the Steadicam workshop in March, but Garret Browns video on the SOA page makes me think I should go to Pennsylvania. I figure either is gunna be great. I just wonder if theres one or the other is more highly reputable or recommended Anyways, yalls thought are always appreciated. Have a rad one! brett.

thanks rick this is great. magnus at heden touched base with me to i may have them replace the heli coil. great ideas here!

hey yall i have a heden m21ve motor here, one of three in our cvolution kit. the bracket on it no longer tightens or loosens, the screwhead just spins tightly. i just called camadeus and they said that it would be sent to heden and that this bracket costs somewhere in the range of $480-500! i understand the cost of the motor, but the bracket seems a bit high. can anyone verify this? does anyone have a spare? just wonderin if theres any info out there about this trivial little piece.

did this ever take off? id love to see the results.

hey yall i have been playing around with the SoundDevices PIX240 transcoding monitor and it only records the live feed through hd-sdi and will output about a dozen different frame rates and resolutions, but they are pretty set in stone and standard. i am wondering if the ki pro (mini), gemini, nano flash, cinedeck or any other devices may record the cameras shooting speed, say 96fps, and output at something standard, say...23.98. this way i could drop a clip into fcp and see it playback at the recorded speed. I'm expecting that they don't, but just wondering. I've gone through some of the user manuals online and it doesn't seem to be a noted feature. brett.

hey yall i just sent in my archer 2 for a monitor replacement. I have loved the standard SD monitor, but the guys at Tiffen are suggesting an upgrade to the 7" Marshall. Im very familiar with it as I typically use it for remote follow focus. The dudes at Tiffen are telling me that they have some specific software/firmware upgrades that are Steadicam specific, and that the viewing angle has been changed. Has anyone opted for this Steadicam Marshall yet? Ive gone through the forum but no one has really noted the firmware changes other than here: http://www.steadicamforum.com/index.php?showtopic=14874&st=0&p=70266&hl=+marshall%20+firmware&fromsearch=1entry70266 what are the firmware changes? does the marshall monitor with which tiffen wants to provide me include a frame line generator or level indicator or will that all be external add ons? brett.

While I havent used the ARRI WCU I do fly an Archer 2 with the CVolution and a AJA downconverter for my on-board monitor. Try attaching your decimater to the bottom of the rig (make sure you place it such that your knees wont knock into protruding cables) and run it off of the sled dtap. I would put the ARRI UMC under the lens and power it through the lemo on the front of the sled. I fly it with the camwave sandwiched between the red brick and the battery plate. This way I have distance between anything thats transmitting or receiving signals. They only interruptions I have run into is some slight choppiness in my SD feed if Im being rough with the flying. Maybe youve already tried this strategy, but it seems to be working for my setups.

Hey yall I believe this is my first post, but I have been gleaning a lot of information from other contributors and I really value yalls input, especially when there is sometimes no other avenue for information. My company is in the process of purchasing a wireless follow focus unit. I have used a variety and have found the Cmotion and CVolution to be the most reliable and usable for our application. While I am pushing to purchase the CVolution (specific items listed below), others in the company are gunning for the ARRI WRS. There is little to no information on the ARRI WRS other than the ARRI website and theyre impossible to find in Los Angeles, whether to demo or rent. The ARRI sems to pretty much be working off of the technology built by CMotion. The engineer who built up CMotion apparently used to be the ARRI engineer then branched off, there was bad blood, and now ARRI is back in with him, which explains ARRI's new partnership with CMotion. The CVolution seems ever expandable and pretty much the only device present in the 3D world, compatible with many camera systems and motors, and will soon be adopting ARRIs White standard. To my knowledge the ARRI WRS is mostly proprietary (eg the WRS only works with ARRI motors) and while its modular, its not very fitted for the future. Does anyone have any information on the ARRI WRS? Id be purchasing the WCU-3, UMC-3A, 3xCLM-3, ZMU-3 and a bundle of cables, etc. For the CVolution Im interested in Camin 4M, hand unit, cvolution zoom, 3xM21, advanced knob, and cables. Does the ARRI draw more power than the CVolution? The Preston whipped through my batteries on the Archer 2 as itd only function in 24v mode. I want to make sure Im not getting into the same mess with the ARRI. And lastly will the Archer 2 power the ARRI UMC-3A through the 3-pin lemo on the front of the stage as it does the CVolution? I know that this is a question of cables, but again, theres just no info out there on the ARRI. The Sales rep said it would be at least a month before theyve got any to demo. Thanks for any help yall have. brett.