Richard James Lewis

You won't hear from mk-v as they have no one to send them to anymore. Do as I did, throw that unreliable piece of crap in the bin and buy a vertical Heden or an M One. That FMG pissed me around for years, potentiometer problems, gearbox problems, wish I'd never bought it. You are alone if you have an FMG 6 problem. Sorry, Rick.

Why is everyone constantly dynamically balancing? Sled stays the same for 90% of work, dynamically balance it once, remember where things go, sorted. Same applies for the occasion where you expand things out. I don't think I'd go out of my way to buy a gadget for it, it definitely isn't something that I spend a lot of time doing daily on set. Rick.

Magnus got back to me, panic over, they were at NAB. New motor heading out soon. Great service from Heden as usual. Rick.

I urgently need a new lens motor, and I have been trying to contact Magnus at Heden by email and phone. Does anyone have and information as to why I can't seem to get through to them? Rick.

Looking at where your dovetail plate is, I would have thought they should reach. Remembering that as freakishly long as these lenses are, you will have to offset the weight by mounting the camera plate further forward, so there should usually not be a reach issue. The only concern is if you can physically get a screw into the XCS plate far enough back without using the sliding base plate t give you the extra distance, but for the weight saved you could add something to the back of the camera and still end up lighter than when you started off. If I wasn't working you could have borrowed mine, maybe next time if you haven't bought something already...

Nice to see a plan come together...

Confirmed. It has nothing to do with him. Rick.

Hey Jamie, we will try and sort you out as soon as possible. Peter is at BVE this week, so things wont be moving until after that I suspect. We will be in touch. Cheers! Rick.

The machine shop already had a surplus of Titanium going for a reasonable cost so it seems, and I had no good founded objection to the proposal, and for this application and at that thickness, it's more than adequate, and if anything only has advantages in terms of weight saved. The bars are still aluminium. Rick. Why would you use a spring metal when 7075 or even 6061 T6 AL is fine?

You will be fine powering the camera off the sled, and you will have other things sapping power too, follow focus, video sender etc. I'd personally keep the battery on tho, the G-50 will be fine, and the extra weight is only an advantage. Rick.

I'm speaking to someone about this now and hopefully we can go ahead and have a production run of these brackets made at a reasonable cost very shortly. I'll keep this thread alive. until very soon... Rick.

3B at both ends now, as opposed to 3B at the base, and 2B at the J box with the V2. I've been told by someone that the gauge is improved slightly, but still not 14AWG. I'm interested to know too. Rick.

Minor correction, the 1B's aren't any different than the 1S, XCS are 2B :) rick.

I might have a solution, just give me a day or so to explore it. Rick.

Nope, sent him numerous emails, never got a reply,.. which I thought unusual. If Jerry Hill or anyone wants to make them or anyone else, I'd love to hear. I still use my bracket weekly and it's been a life saver so many times. Rick.

If it gets to the stage of renting, wouldn't it just be as easy in this instance to make one up yourself? The connectors are only £20's worth and a bit of cable. Order all the bits today and they will be with you tomorrow or saturday, make it up over the weekend. Pin outs are readily available for the connectors. R

Agreed Eric, and I tend to fly with one battery out back, so I can crush everything completley inward, or pull everything outward to it's maximum depending on the type of shot I'm doing, or how I need the sled to behave. If not in a tight set and doing a simple solid walk and talk I'd personally tend to increase my pan inertia by getting the monitor and batteries out that far while still keeping good DB. Just saying it's good to have that flexibility, and this can only really be achieved with the lighter LCD's this way, other than adding additional excess weight, or a battery onto the back. Rick. WOW, now try navigating a tight set and turning some corners I'd NEVER want my monitor that far out in front.

Good stuff Dave. I've found the same, and I have about 14" of outward travel with my monitor bracket too. Good if using a lighter LCD, and easier to keep the sled in DB while expanding the masses especially if you fly with two batteries toward the back. Excellent. Rick. Rick: Monitor rods are 14", black nickel plated at L&L Anodizing up in Sunland. Greg cut them that length for me. I like my monitor out in the next county. Keeps my chin off my chest and, consequently, my shoulders back. - Dave

Dave, I like what you have had done with the what look to be carbon fibre rods and the XCS monitor bracket. Is this something Greg did? How is it working out for you? Best, Rick.

It's good to know the police already have you on file should they need to run those prints!

I agree with the post diameter changing influence depending on the nature of the rig, but I wouldn't agree that an operators use of fingertip control changes, and I wouldn't say any unlearning would occur switching between smaller and bigger rigs. My fingertip control is just as delicate switching between my 2" post and the time I tried a pilot. Rick

Hey William, I added a foam rubber grip to my gimbal handle. Makes a massive difference, no more freezing shoots with a cold metal gimbal, and no more slipping hand! I did wrap tennis grip tape around it initially, which was very comfortable, but looked a tad shite, and I'd imagine would fail quicker than my eventual solution. I found a company that made up components for tripods amongst other things. Handles for brooms, mops, handlebars etc and they sent me a sample, which , being a cheap kinda person, and not willing to have a run of 200 done, kept and installed! The reason why it's a tad short, but my hand never ventures up that far. Regarding the wrap grip, i'd imagine if you find an engineer, and took them a picture of something similar to the PRO wrap grip, they could make something up for you, cant imagine it would be dirt cheap, but if it's CNC etc, and you can draw something up... Rick.

I've heard this has been going around again. I even had queried to me by another op. Didn't realise what it was at the time, but they weren't paying anywhere near enough to even catch my attention. Someone took it, I think they were paying a couple of hundred quid for a few hours work, with a few more days in the pipeline. It's a shame people are prepared to work for this kind of money... Rick.

Wow, I remember when that job was going around! I was contacted again a few months back when they were doing pickups, as my name had been given to them by another operator at the other end of the country. I guess they really did try every operator in the UK. Funny! R

Bridge plate, base plate, extension viewfinder... Clip on matte box tho, got to save the weight! ;) R