Richard James Lewis

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I just got this bracket from Optical Support here in London. Nice and light. Totally solid with two screws at the front, and a tie down screw at the back. Plenty of holes along the full length, with room side to side. £395 + VAT I think. Not cheap, but I think this is the best option out there. Rick.

I wouldn't drill anything. I'd be worried that you were weakening the handle if the hole wasn't drilled in the right place. I had an mk-v gimbal for 4 years and never ever used a low mode bracket. You have enough clearance with a handle that long, so you aren't hitting the sled, so you do not need to invert the handle to remove the obstruction. Just pop your bracket in upside down and use a post collar to secure it in the arm. This will give you a few inches lower, but by then you are probably all contorted trying to get your grip that low on the post comfortably. Plus most mk-vs had a 4 stage post, so you don really need to get your hand that uncomfortably low anyway. Rick.

The Betz one was / is sold with the MK-V also. Howard at some point decided he wanted his own, and had the design copied with some subtle changes and did a run of them. The MK-V copy are all black, the genuine Betz ones are silver / black and have "Betz" on them. I'm fairly sure the copy went away and no more are being made. Rick.

Charles. I'm usually powering the Decimator off the P tap on the battery plate of which ever camera I am using with an onboard battery. I used to have an MK-V sled so was dubious about powering anything digital off the rig with my own batteries, this has changed since I switched to pro / xcs, but these issues occurred with the old sled. I'd occasionally power the decimator off the rig if for some reason no Power tap was available, or if it was being used for something else, but it wasn't under these circumstances that I had issues with my previous Decimators. As for cables I cut off the one from the power adaptor and re ended it with an XLR, and then i have an XLR to P tap connector, so the jack going into the downconverter is the factory connector. RJL

I'm now on my third Decimator. They all went gradually tho. I've spoken to many video assist who have had the same issue. Initially the power will become intermittent. You have to plug then unplug, hopefully it lights back up, then eventually it goes completely. I'm thinking of putting some kind of resistor in the cable incase its a voltage spike thing doing it. Doesn't mirror your problem, but just saying that there are issues with these things. RJL

I think any upgrades to the new arms for previous owners should be totally free. You've already spent the $17k on an arm that doesn't work properly. Do they really expect you to just write off your investment and buy a new one? Tiffen really confuse me sometimes, it's really not the way to treat customers with products of this nature. If it doesn't work properly then its not good enough to warrant the price tag. I heard the upgrades for the original G-70 ran at thousands. These arms cost a fraction of what they are sold for to produce, and you then to try and seemingly make a profit on an upgrade to fix a fault that is totally of their design. Madness. So glad I have a PRO arm thats design has remained unchanged in what 15 years? Still the best out there. Rick.

Lemo 1B308 1 12 Gnd 2 12v + 3 Vid 4 Vid Gnd 5 N/C 6 N/C 7 Level Signal 8 N/C

I use the attached sony style plate with the WA-1 adaptor. You can mount your XCS plates etc all along the length of it and put the camera wherever you need it. I know Arri Media supply an "Alexa Steadicam Plate" which looks similar, but slots directly into the channel on the base of the camera, meaning the WA-1 isn't needed. I don't know if they are selling these separately yet however, but as long as I get the WA-1 when I ask for it on the camera lists, or the other plate when the camera comes from Arri, then I'm covered. Rick.

Bought HD electronics from PRO, so I'm no longer looking. Thanks for the messages. Rick.

I just don't know how people could work without this trick. My monitor at the moment is quite light until I get the cinetronic, so as long as there aren't any issues I shall keep the ring locked on there. I was worried about putting pressure on the wrong parts, but if it was designed to dock on regularly then I shouldn't have any real reservations I guess. There are now two of us in the world doing this. Go team! RJL

Ello. I changed from my mk-v to a PRO HD / XCS 2" hybrid. I was immediately struck by the unusable distance from the docking ring to the camera. I then remembered that someone suggested clamping the 2" gorelock ring tightly around the j box ring. This has immediately recovered me quite a bit of post room, and I would like to keep it like this after initially immediately regretting going down the conversion route. Has anyone had any problems with this at all? Everything seems very tight. If it's a matter of just checking that nothing is coming loose every so often then I can live with that. Anyone? Rick.

Looks like a two-bit rental company that don't really take care or actually know anything about their equipment. These places do annoy me, but fortunately I don't ever have to deal with them. With regard to their seeming incompetence when it comes to the prep and maintenance then I wouldn't let them get away with supplying the equipment in that state, but then again being a Steadicam Operator I know about this equipment and how it should set up and operate safely. If you aren't in that position, then it's not as easy to fight your corner. Especially if you didn't properly prep the gear yourself. If you reported the broken screen to them as soon as it became obvious to you then I don't think you should be liable, but then again if it's the second days hire as far as they are concerned you could have been using it on the first date and broken it then. You have my sympathy, but you really should check these things before you sign them off. They are having a laugh with those proposed penalties tho. Good luck! RJL

Hello, PRO upper J Box in good condition anyone? Best, RJL

Scary! Take care! RJL

Very happy with my Betz stage. Rock solid, no vibration at all. Ample amount of travel. Lightweight. The plate just drops in and snaps shut, no messing with tools, quick and easy. I'd buy one again, and recommend you to do the same. RJL

Panavision London have made some Epic start / stop cables for the Preston. One end Preston, the other end is a BNC plug. They work. Rick. Given the aforementioned circumstances Chris, I find this a little hard to believe. Can you show some sort of working proof or photos of this alleged Epic run/stop cable of yours. If it works, I'll buy one. But given that the geniuses at Preston and C-motion can't devise a solution, please understand my skepticism. And an open message to the guys at Red: This is ridiculous! WTF!

Are the video lines still working? Check the post cable at both ends make sure it's still properly connected? Is the D Box still lighting up? There is nothing but "wires" in the J Box, nothing really to go wrong unless you've melted something. Good luck! Rick.

I tried the wheels Tiffen sell for the America stand, and used them for about 8 months. It was a novelty to wheel the thing around at first, and everything was fine on flat studio type floors, but go off road and you become a bit stuck. I switched to the 8" wheel set from Backstage and couldn't be happier. Just make sure to always push over a leg or the whole thing will go over! Rick.

But you must be able to see my point. When everything is cut up, there was no real evidence of AR use. The eye line to above eye line can be done with an am post for sure. Also noticed some vibration on the longer lens stuff, not your fault of course. No hatred, or disrespect, just my view on the AR. Rick.

Like with 98% of anything like this I see shot on an AR, there is nothing in that video that couldn't have been done better on a regular rig.

I recently got 2x 26VE's. They are small, quiet and light. I'm not sure the push to the 21 would be worth it for the potential short comings if you were to have a tricky lens one day. Especially if it were my primary focus motor I think the 21 is essentially an iris motor. They are around the same price from what I understand. Rick.

Someone PM'd me, so let me expand on that a little... Everyone I have ever known at Tiffen has been lovely. Whenever I have spoken to Garrett he has been wonderful, and naturally I have a lot of respect for him. There is however something about the internal structure in place at Tiffen which can make some issues that should be solved in days or hours take weeks to be resolved. It's just the way the company seems to be organised, many emails have to be sent back and forth and different people have to be copied in, darting all over the company, different departments etc. When you rely on your equipment for your work and you get paid the rates we do time is of the essence. Any issue or query you have about your investment needs to be addressed like it was yesterday, and it needs to be understood that anything no matter how small is of great importance to that customer. When I had issues with my G-70 all I wanted was initially was reassurance, a courtesy call from the factory maybe telling me that they were sorry I was having issues and that they were on the case. This never happened, instead I was left to chase up my problem for weeks, which turned into months. Tens of emails, and I was still chasing. It was only when I asked for a refund that anyone seemed to start to prioritise me. Every dealing I have had with PRO has been exceptional. If you get them when they are open you can expect an email reply within an hour, if not minutes. I had a small query with a canister and literally moments later the phone was ringing and Jack was talking me through what to do. Lots of communication and I felt really taken care of. They just understood. With regards to the arms. I had good operational performance with the G-70. It was very smooth no doubt. I pointed out some issues with the implementation of the renewed design which until me finding them had gone un noticed. I understand these points have now been addressed and anyone buying a G-70 as of maybe December / January has a great arm. I do however feel that you get a lot more for your money with the PRO. The standards of manufacture in my opinion are higher. The machining and the construction is a lot more solid and sound. I felt that the G-70 had been built very cost effectively and sold at a high price in order to fit into that part of the market. You can see where the expense comes with the PRO. Each bone is beautifully milled out of a single piece of aluminium, it's really a piece of art and you can see the cost involved. The canisters work beautifully and having seen one disassembled the engineering is fantastic. Potential reliability and problem solving in the field is also a concern of mine. With the PRO you are much more able to deal with issues that may crop up. There are noted advantages of using sealed compression springs versus exposed expansion springs. With the PRO and 8 canisters you essentially have a complete set of new springs. Should anything happen to a spring you simply unscrew a bolt, swap out the canister and keep on working. The lifetime guarantee on the arm chassis shows how confident they are in the build. Maybe if you were to have a G-70 spring issue by nature of the design you would be sending the whole arm back to the factory. I don't know. The post clamping mechanism on the G-70 also caused me issues. At the time it seemed to slip if you were constantly swapping out posts, the lever lost its ability to clamp tightly if you went from a differently machined post to another. Someone suggested that I should, and they had some clamp rings made up for the posts to stop them slipping, surely this is missing the point tho... Maybe this has changed now. PRO follow the convention of clamping and swapping out arm posts takes seconds now and they aren't going anywhere. I have no arguments with anyone at Tiffen, but at that time and with that experience I lost faith in the arm and thats why I changed to the PRO. Love all round. Rick.

I had my G-70 for about 2 months. Eventually sent it back to Tiffen and got a refund. Bought a PRO. Never looked back. Superior arm in every way. LOVE GPI and everyone there, such a different ethic with them. Super helpful, attentive, and very quick to respond. Lesson learnt. Rick.

Looks great, very clean. Well done! Rick.