Peter Abraham

Do you really want to do this? Okay. First of all, I'm not worried. I've been a working Steadicam Operator for 28 years. I've provided a series of small and relatively inexpensive accessories through the years. What do my colleagues know? That the Zalex RetroVest Upgrade came with a lifetime warranty. ( Check with Brant Fagan to see how long my workmanship lasts... ) The plastics cracked without being drilled or cut? You got a new part for free, shipping at my expense. Worldwide. You buy a Zalex Tally from me and there's a problem? I send you another. Shipping at my cost. And so on. You buy a Zalex Longplate from me? You keep getting the most recent accessories I come up with. For free. I consider improvements in a mechanical design like the Longplate to be a part of what people pay for when they do business with me. In fact, everyone who has bought a Longplate so far is about to get the newest accessories from me in the coming week or so. Shipping at my expense. So I spend an extra coupla dollars on shipping per customer to keep their use of the Longplate at a high level of satisfaction and creativity. Kind of the only way to support my fellows. I rely on colleagues who are also vendors to provide the same level of support. It's just that simple. I've been suckered a few times and am aware enough now to listen to the feedback provided by those who have suffered inappropriate business practices. You betcha I'm always glad to chime in. And no, I won't be putting one thin dime into your pocket. You can rail on us and get defensive all you want but when highly respected Operators such as Afton are willing to put their financial records online in this Forum by way of proving their point, I think that it is incumbent upon all of us to pay very very careful attention. As we all know, you can't drop-ship Respect. You have to earn it.

Always glad to hear things directly from the person being discussed by respected members of our community. Thank you, Mr. Bangma, for writing your post. I now know where I will not be spending my money for a new monitor for my Steadicam. Best to all, Peter Abraham, S.O.C.

Just placed an order with him.

Been using the Mogami 2964 for 20 years. Neoprene jacket. It's okay but I seek a thinner and more flexible full-band HDSDI cable. What are people using these days, who is the vendor, part #, etc ?? To be clear, it's not for wiring down a centerpost. It's for jumping from camera body to vest back. Many thanks !! Peter Abraham, S.O.C.

" Palmolive ??" " You bet, Will ! The sled's soaking in it !"

Ted's manual. A brilliant tome. Home maintenance. Yeah. Not regularly. I do wash the pads, man they get gormy. When working near dust or sand I take a high-powered shop vac or automotive vacuum and cleanse the entire rig as best as I can. ESPECIALLY suck out each and every connector not used on the day. Dirt and dust can get into the female pin receivers and wreak havoc down the road. A side note about using canned air/ air compressers. Everyone has their ways of doing things. I was instructed very early on NEVER to blow air against something where moving dust would create a potential problem. Obviously, as a film A.C. I learned to use canned air judiciously. But when it comes to connectors and the seals around a monitor and whatnot, the harder you blow air at something, the more likley you are to force particulate INTO connectors, cracks, gaps and seals. Using a high-powered vacuum and a narrow nozelled brush end removes that potential and in fact can pull deeply-seated bits of dust, dirt and sand. The gimbal. Ahhhh. Matthew Fleischmann and I had some fun a year or so ago. I devised a method of cleaning- deep cleaning- the bearings of a gimbal without removing it from the centerpost. Worked like a charm, took about 20 minutes and he reported a clear difference in the feel of his gimbal post-cleansing. ( Pun intended ). We agreed we shoulda shot video of it somehow. I think he kept the little custom-cut item we used. If he did, I'll get with him soon and we'll shoot photos or a video. I'd never tried it before and it worked very nicely. Cables? They get dirty, are hard to clean. Swill a BNC end in denatured alcohol, it gets the grit off of the gold-plated pin. I've only had to wash my cases once. About a year in, with my Model I and the infamous set of blue cases, I went down into the Lackawanna Coal Mine to shoot some political commercials. This was in 1987, and we were not in the area open to tours. It was quite safe. My first and last time down a mine. There was cold air moving briskly through the shafts and water drizzling along the walls and floors here and there. The cases all got coated in black gritty mud, coal dust and water. We laid out garbage bags to keep my minivan clean, went to a local do it yourself car wash with the high-powered spray gun and power-washed the cases. That was a mess...

From "Standard Features" on that link: º Removable Hood and Removable Coyote Fur Trim

This is entirely accurate, Afton. The children's book "The Runaway Bunny" is the story- diluted down for younger more tender minds- of one such rabbit who, realizing his entire family was on the chopping block, hiked the hell outda Dodge for parts unknown. Ron, I will try that coat on OVER my Exovest. I'm a big fan of being able to zip very tautly over my vest. A sexy long zipper from right socket area to bottom will allow me to get in and out rapidement !

Must say, I bought one of the first ones Afton sold of the last batch. I get nothing but admiring remarks from people on set... " You have a frontbox for your Steadicam ??! " and so on. It is endlessly useful to me. I fly it very high up, around back from the centerpost. The arm lays on the knob to one side, the box in the back. it's glorious. It holds everything I need moment to moment. Now, I don't use any kind of cart at all. Never have. I carry a 4 foot folding table for build and to have in the corner for studio shoots. Otherwise, it's always been build, close cases back onto Magliner, then have stand and a Portabrace set bag. This frontbox makes life a lot easier. Love it ! Incredibly fine workmanship. Frankly, worth more. No, Afton's not paying me 5% to say that. The craft and care and clean lines, the usefulness and good look. Superb. Were I ever to get a cart, I'd still ride this on my docking stand. Best to all, Peter Abraham, S.O.C.

The Opening Ceremonies of the Atlanta Centennial Olympics. 1996. For all of the reasons one might suspect. World stage. 1.2 billion viewers. Exciting stuff to shoot. On the field IN the middle of it all for hours. Tons of fun shots. Walked President Clinton out onto the field, etc. Quite a handful of the folks here have done Opening Ceremonies, some more than one Olympics. For me, it was a huge day at work. And.....running with the Olympic Torch as Evander Holyfield trotted around the track. It is such a cliché moment- and yet one that I hold dear. Over 300 tally light hits in the 3 hours + of the show. All went well. An exhiliarating evening all around ! :)

I use Seton labels. Works for me Plenty of sources out there to pick from.

" Herr Mozart, the human ear can only hear so many notes in one evening" . ~~~ " Amadeus "

Anodized aluminum is extremely dry. This is something that people have experienced over the years with this adjustable vest. It is likely that it is the outer center spar grinding against the inner center spar. Chafing slightly. The pressure of one spar against another is accentuated when you push the rig away from your body. The two spars want to flex slightly. Remove the two spars, put some Chapstick on your finger and rub it in the dovetail grooves on both sides. And put it back together. That should stop the sound. Unlike oil, Chapstik is a dry wax and will not stain your clothing. It also takes a very long time to dry out. Strange as it may sound, this technique has been successful with this problem in the past. ;)

Took the Longplate down to Abelcine in NYC. Attached should be photos of it mounted to both the Amira and the bottom of your basic Sony broadcast camera. The footprint is identical, so it was no surprise that it worked.

Hi Geoff, Terrific question, that. To answer it, I'm going to head into Abelcine in NYC this morning after a meeting. Will grab any Sony body and take the machine screws and make it happen. Will shoot photos. Will post here. :) The goal is zero blocks of any brand. Just using the holes in the bottom of the V Foot bolted into the front bottom of the Sony, or Arri, body. And using the threaded washer gag at the back. The goal is lowering the c.g. and reducing weight, and for some of us who don't own their own Sony and Ikegami plates, the goal is also reducing the vibration ( sometimes quite severe ) that comes with using a rental house Sony plate. I take PayPal. Also ca$h, if you happen to be in New York City. More on this later today !!

Ha ! -Blushing- Yeah, that does sound like me... See, I was all hot on the Mogami 2964 which is still available and in my kit. It's a neoprene-jacketed coax. I use it with the Kings connectors when permitted. Great stuff, even in the cold. So there I was, all high and mighty about my Mogami and you came in and slayed me with that silicone-jacketed Triax. Done deal. You remember correctly. My ONLY mistake was in not buying two of them. January 6, 1996. The Great Blizzard. The day I made a handshake deal to buy my Master Series Elite rig. I wandered the floor until I knew it was time to go up to the suite that C.P. had rented. When I entered the hotel the sky was that delightful leaden gray, but not a flake to be seen. In the intervening 3 or 4 hours until I got to their suite, all hell had broken loose. I looked out the huge picture windows to see....nothing. The snow was blowing so heavily that you couldn't see the building across the side street from the hotel. I made my deal. Was handed a teal colored T Shirt with the new "Steadicam" logo on the front and " The Master Series" on the back. Jim remarked to me, " Congratulations, Peter. You just paid $ 42,000 for a t shirt ! " and off I went to get my car. The drive from NYC to Monroe NY with normal traffic would have taken me 60-70 minutes. It took over 4 hours to get home that day. Charles, thanks for at least telling me where it is. When I am next in L.A., may I have a visitation with it?

I scored two precious 1510 cases, wish I'd bought three !! Amazing pricing. Thanks for this head's up !!!!!

Trying to imagine you less nice is a little bit like trying to imagine Ron less sexy. C'est impossible. Seriously? I've really battled with Engineers about the use of the adaptors. I almost always won. To be clear for those not overly familiar, the concern on the part of Engineering is this. There's 165 VDC running down that Triax. Enough amps to fire the camera body, output power for accessories and so on. When you use thin jumpers, you do risk having a crack appear in the cable between the inner core and shield. The inner core runs the 165V +. The shield runs the ground and camera telemetry. If a crack occurs, you risk being shocked. Killed? No. Getting a nice zotz? Yeah you bet. No biggie. But in this highly litigious environment, some house guys refuse to allow rather than risk a freelancer get a shock. My gear, my cables, my body. Therefore, my call. What is most fascinating about the response and safety concerns is that now that fiber cabled cameras are mostly the norm, and all of us carry fiber jumpers, those denials of use of our jumpers has just about disappeared. Those jumpers are professionally made and tested and are entirely safe. But fair to say, they're mighty thin !! Similarly to the old style Triax jumper cables, I trust these fiber jumpers day to day and never give the voltage a second thought. Jim? You nailed the design, as usual. That silicone cable was an incredible gift to those of us struggling with old-school Triax. Stranded cadmium? Remarkable.

The core issues I wished to address when I went to work were eliminating vibration and lowering c.g. effect by accessories by lowering mount points. Regard this photo below from a shoot I did this week. I used my Longplate just because it would allow me to mount my Ikegami plate using the holes on the underside that are at the far ends. It also allowed me to have the plate 100% supported by the Longplate. Both in the service of reducing/ eliminating potential vibration. As is the case with every new bit that emerges, Operators who are using the Longplate are bringing ideas and companion bits to the picture. This is just what I had hoped for ! Here's a great example. Kat Kallergis uses a lot of these small clamps and brackets. I obtained a selection of these "SmallClamp" brackets. One or two are just perfect for use with the Longplate. Here's the page for all of the 15mm Rod clamps and brackets. Cool Rig Clamps Page. The single most useful bits involve being able to bolt a clamp to the Longplate with a 1/4-20 and then have a 15mm rod hole available for use. In this manner, I mounted a spare V Mount Battery plate quickly and with zero vibration behind a camera. Here's that one part. 15mm 90º Two Holes Clamp. When you sit with the Longplate and look at the build on set or on a prep day in a rental house, you realize you've got more room. In front and behind the camera body. If the plate itself covers ff rods that are native to your stage, you can easily mount rods onto the plate itself. Things can be moved from arms, brackets and bits that mount TO the camera body. They can live behind the camera, lowering the c.g. of the camera mass as a unit, and eliminating vibration potentials. If I encounter the need for a solid HD video D/A, I'd take one of these Wooden Camera C-Box Mounts and mount it to a V Mount on an angled mount plate. This would let me use the features of the C-Box, while hard-mounting the battery and plates to the Longplate, many inches lower than the camera body. Just one example of what one can do to lower c.g. and keep elements attached with vibration-free bolt-to-plate or bolt-to-clamp assembly.

Mark- Of course ! I'm nothing if not obsessive about my inventions. I considered the Medium Tiffen stage when designing the Longplate. I thought the Facebook page makes it clear that it can be used with Zephyr/ Archer stages. There are two threaded 1/4-20 holes in the Longplate. If a customer ( such as your fine self ) specifies that they have one of the Medium Tiffen stages, they will get a set of 4 black Delrin spacers. These are used between your plate and the Longplate, and are compressed into place when the two plates are mated. Screwing the two plates directly against each other prevents the Zephyr/ Archer plate from locking into the stage. The accessory kit would include: º 5 Custom cut washers to allow use of 1/4-20 screws º 4 Delrin spacers º 1 3/8-16 set screw. This is used to hold one of the spacers into place. Wanna try one, lemme know.

Here is how you get it: Email to: orders@tiffen.com Part# 601-7412 $ 350.00 + Shipping. They have TWO LEFT. :) Seriously- the gear rack is no longer used much, so they have these two right now. Just got off of the phone with the Gods of Parts. Best, Peter

This latest bit I've started using myself and selling to others has proved to be quite useful. It is not meant ONLY for the Alexa- it is used with every camera body and configuration out there. Howeer, the most recent iteration of Longplate build involves an Arri Alexa. Here's The Facebook Page detailing the Longplate. Here's the video that Chris Fawcett did last year Not only can you grab the bottom of the body at two points, but the Longplate allows you to also mount Transmitters or other accessories behind the body and/or follow focus rods and brackets up beneath the lens, or a ringlight. Many options, limited only by the Operator's imagination. The Longplate fits the following stages: Steadicam, GPI/PRO, XCS, Sachtler and Betz. Contact me by email with any questions not addressed on the Facebook page. The production run was of 60, 12 are already sold and in use. The Longplate is $ 300.00 and comes with custom cut washers to allow the use of 1/4-20 machine screws as well as 3/8-16 machine screws. Best to all, Peter Abraham, S.O.C.

Victor- the Flyer rigs also make use of the gear rack. Checking to see if Tiffen has them in stock. Indeed, the SK and ProVid used the narrower plate identical to that used on the Flyer and Zephyr. Unsure if that gear rack plate is still in stock, since most of the new stages have moved on from the gear rack/ wheel bit for fore/aft. Will post in here when I find out price and part # and availablity ! Best to all, Peter Abraham, S.O.C.

Yeah I tried that Janice. No dice. Weird- I used to have an Excel spreadsheet that listed stuff I'd loaned out or borrowed, to whom, etc. That speadsheet is gone. I blame space aliens. Anyway, the search continues... Alec, thank you so much for the offer- and thanks to Claus who offered the same kit with light cables to connect through ! I've got those Kings Triax to Coax barrels, but some Engineers in some studios refuse to allow the use of them. Hence the desire to get ahold of that genuine Triax cable. Back in the day, Cinema Products paid for a one-off run of this. When the spool was finally used up, the decision was made not to have another done. There is zero identifiers of any kind on this cable ( on purpose, I think that C.P. wanted to keep the monopoly on it ). Pity. It's sheathed in thin silicone and is quite the limp light thing.

This one's already gone. Best, Peter