Rich Cottrell

I went out to cinegear this year to look at what I am going to do about getting a new rig... While I had a big list of questions for each manufacturer there [Tiffen, Pro, MK-V and Sachtler], I was never able to get this question sufficiently answered. I was wondering if anyone out there has been using the Nexus Base from MK-V. My real questions revolve around: "Why is it so special?" I understand the Nexus was developed to work with the Alien Revolution, but because Howard was not at liberty to discus the AR with me, I still do not understand what makes this base so great. There are many pictures on the MK-V web site of different battery positions, but I do not understand why these configurations are beneficial. Many of these positions look like they compromise rigidity. And the swivel part that locks with Allen machine screws looks like it could be problematic. [The demo rig out at Cinegear showed wear at this friction point.] I am not trying to be critical of the MK-V [i actually really like their V2 gimbal], I just was not able to get this question sufficiently explained out in LA and was hoping to hook up with someone who has been using this system. Thanks, rich

Fred, i will be looking for you at Cinegear to check out your mini triax. Will you have your own booth? or are you sharing with another vendor? thanks rich

I disagree with the weight cage thing. When i first started a few years ago, i too bought a weight cage for $300+. I often think i could have been wiser with my money. In hindsight i should have just gotten a low mode cage, and some small wieght plates. That way you have a peice of equipment that can be used for real when its time to stop- practicing and start making money. Just my 10 cents rich

Brado, i might take that top stage. How can i contact you, and what more can you tell me about it... and why are you getting rid of it? thanks rich

But why does Tiffen still only have the Tiffen tilting top on the ultra only? Does Tiffen think this is their top feature so they will only put it on their top rig? Very disappointing in my opinion. But both the Clipper and the Vector are only 2.75 iches wide. I think that makes them thinnest rigs out there. rich

Benjamin, i talked with Marcel at Pro about getting a pin like this. He swayed me away because Pro would not write off on it... so "it could void my warrenty"... he wrote: "If the arm were to fail in this area, it might be determined that the modification was the cause of the failure" Any advice here, because i would like to put one of these pins in my Pro arm. It seems like an obvious thing to have, and these pins are available even cheeper from McMaster-Carr. (I never knew the correct size to get though, so i have yet to buy one.) I still do not understand why GPI does not offer these pins, nor have they done tests with these pins to determine if flex is an issue or not. rich Benjamin, when you get a chance could you measure that pin of yours for me... thanks

I too have been thinking about this... I have a Pro arm on my DSD vest. The top screw is always working its way out. There have been many times when i go to dock the sled, and when i go to take the arm off i realize that the top screw has worked itself out 1/2 way! I have been cranking down on the little fellas and praying i never loose my arm and rig. Now you got me worried about breaking the arms scoker block. Erin, Did Pro replace the socket block as part of the lifetime warranty? thanks, rich

Ok, how about some fun. Here are some of the features that the dream rig will have. What else should we add?????? Heated gimbal: With batteries on the rig, why can I not warm up the gimbal for those cold winter days? I have seen socks heated by ?D? batteries. We got at least 12volts right there. No more frozen hands? Electronic Tilting head: The Ultra has an electronic top stage and a manually tilting top as well, but what I want would be an electronic tilting stage. Then I could change the tilt while I am operating. It would be nice to have the Tiffen electronic top stage too... but an electronic tilt... while I am shooting... o?baby!... Electronic changing inertial control: As Jerry has taught us, dynamic Balance is a simple math equation. So why not have the ability to increase the distance of the monitor and batteries from the sleds post electronically? Now you could have a very inert rig, but right before that whip pan you could electronically skinny the rig up for a fast, easy pan, and then you could stretch the rig back out while you keep shooting. There would have to be a computer on the rig, but nowadays they put computers in toaster ovens? I think we could use the same computer to drive the electronic telescopic center post too... (Did i forget to mention that new feature for 2005?) Solar power: Have you seen the car battery trickle chargers that plug into your cigarette lighter? They claim to keep you car?s battery topped off. So why not some little solar panels on the flat surfaces of the rig? Could we now change the batteries less often on those daytime exteriors? And could we get more out of the batteries in the winter? Water Proof electronics: Nuf said? I dream on and on? Auto pilot: No Auto here -- I still want to keep a job! So what other colorful ideas are out there? Anything and everything goes... And what will we call this 100lb super rig? I like "The Widowmaker" rich

And the results of the big case too????/ ;) rich

I actually have been trying to get a data table together on all the current professional rigs on the market. It would be nice to get the "real" weights, not combined weights [motors and such]. So far i have very little info on weight for most of the rigs out there. I will try e-mailing the manufactures directly? but here is what I have so far. It would be nice to fill in the blanks. (For the rigs like the Pro, MK-V, Bar-bel and Ultimate? we should know which batteries are used in the weight calculation and the number of them used. Maybe we should standardize for comparison sake? say with two Performers???????) And as Jerry pointed out, we need to know which monitor is on the rig too! Tiffen Ultra sled only with 5" green screen apx 18lbs Tiffen Ultra sled only with Ultrabrite ????????lbs Tiffen Ultra sled with 24 volt battery [with greenscreen] apx 22.5lbs Ultimate with TB-6 ?????lbs Ultimate with batteries and TB-6 [?? Battery TYPE??] ??????lbs Pro 2 with Pro greenscreen 18.2lbs Pro 2 with batteries [?Battery TYPE???] ???????lbs MK-V rig only [standard base with Marell greenscreen] ????lbs MK-V rig [standard base with MK-V LCD without weight cage] ??????lbs MK-V rig only [Nexus base with Marell] ???????lbs MK-V with batteries [?battery type?] ??????lbs Ber-bel ?????lbs bar-bel with batteries [?type?] ??????lbs

Bryan, Thomson Grass Valley makes a great wireless camera system. Its camera is a LDK 200 with a Thomson "Digital Wireless Triax back". I flew this camera for Thanksgiving last year and it worked great and its video looked good too according to the video operator. Check out the archives from Nov. 2003 and you will see my original post on this wireless camera system. In brief... it was light, used low power... and yes, it had a Tally that worked great all day long. rich

i thought that Fujiko/ google thing might have been some sort of joke... it is clearly NOT. thanks for the info:) rich

while this old post was off topic..., it was once in the "OFF TOPIC" forum. Funny how i can now get to it from my past post history, but i can not find it in the forum or by "searching" so what gives... I just do not know... [bTW looks like Ikarman was right, the CBC messed this up... APS film is still being made by Kodak]

I know Jim Bartell mentioned a few years ago that the Coherent video sender, because it works on the 900mhz range, has caused problems when used with a BFDs. (I just looked through the archives and i thik it was 2001 or 2002.) I noticed that Coherent is having a good sale on their systems [from an ad on the top of this forum], and was thinking about them again; but i have a BFD and i will not be changing that. So the question is, are any of you BFD users also using a Coherent [or other 900mhz] video sender? And if you did get interference between the two, did you loose video or focus? or did you loose both? thanks, rich

Ron, Thanks for the tip on getting a little more post length out of the Model2. I have been thinking alot about turning this baby into a chopper, but then again i have been thinking about it for over a year and a half now. The idea of screwing with somthing that is working... i just do not like the idea. But i have this 7inch LCD all ready for the day this green screen goes off to steadicam heaven. I hear you on that extra mass from the long sled of the Model 2. I am a little fearfull about loosing it because most of my work has been on Triax gigs. That streched out mass really helps me out when i got that umbilical cord coming off the camera. But then it is "good luck kid" if i ever need to do a whip pan! So how long did it take you to forget all that extra mass in you operating? thanks again, rich

i have been dreaming of my new rig [i fly a CP Model 2 right now] and the ability to finally have a longer center post. Now i am wondering how long some of you normally have your center post for the majority of your operating. I will start this off with 21 inches because thats the apx. length of my fixed post and i can not change this without a trip to the machine shop. But how long is your rig's post normally? lets see how the numbers look... [i measured the rig's post only. I do not include the battery and electronics in this length] thanks, rich

Kodak to drop 35 mm format in North America Last Updated Wed, 14 Jan 2004 12:26:30 ROCHESTER, NY - The world's biggest photography company is getting out of the reloadable 35 mm camera business in North America and Western Europe. Eastman Kodak will also stop producing cameras that use Advanced Photo System film by the end of 2004. The company cites poor sales in that category. APS cameras were introduced in 1996 and were seen as the biggest breakthrough in consumer photography since 35mm technology emerged in 1926. But it never lived up to expectations. APS allows photographers to shoot a variety of picture sizes on the same roll of film. Kodak's decision to get out of the reloadable 35 mm camera business comes as sales of digital cameras in North America has surpassed sales of cameras that use film. But the company plans on expanding manufacturing in Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, where the 35mm market is still growing rapidly. Written by CBC News Online staff

First off, i am sorry to whine...but I think there are other people out there that do not like this new forum, so i am going to try the one new feature that I do like from this 2004 format. So here is the poll: "What do you think of the 2004 forum?" Personally I would like to see back: 1) the e-mailed daily digests 2) the ability to read ONLY the new posts Without these features, i would rather we go back to the old style in 2005. rich cottrell Philadelphia PA

So here is yet another raving review of the DSD back mounted carbon fiber vest. Daniel and Walter make a great product! I can not say enough about the quality and their support. I first got to try a back mounted vest at NAB this year [2003]. Daniel was there and I got to ask many questions about the vest and fly a MK-V rig with one. Before this point I thought the idea of a back mounted vest was obvious, but at $9000 I was a big skeptic. After playing in one, I realized how great the DSD vest really is, and I decided if I were ever to replace my vest I would seriously consider the DSD vest. But at $9000 I was just not too sure about it. But then I thought of the extra cost this way: If you buy a new DSD vest, we are talking $4-5 thousand more then a normal vest. At the time I was 27 and I had a previous back injury. I figured $5000 extra bucks? maybe 10 to 15 years steadicam?, that?s like $400-500 a year. That?s like 40 bucks a month. So the question became for me? "would I pay $40 bucks a month extra to have a back mount vest and maybe a longer career due to less back problems? Probably, but $9000 is a shit load of cash. More then I paid for my car at the time. Then Daniel Sauve Designs offered a $500 discount on their vest so I seriously started thinking about the thing again. And then I was able to work out an installment plan with Walter so I sent my deposit check and the rest is history. I now own vest #112 and do not regret it the decision at all. I will not bother to tell you about how great this vest works ? there have been many posts about this-- but I will tell you about the customer support I got from DSD and Walter Klassen. After getting my vest I had a nice multi day show in the studio. It?s a cooking show called Epicurious, and it is currently on the Travel Channel. We would tape two days and them take the rest of the week off, so I had a lot of time to play with the fit of the vest. I even had a few conversations with Walter during this time about how to get a better fit with the vest. At the end of the series, I decided something was just not right with my vest. The DSD vest fit better then my Model 2, but not as good as it did in Las Vegas at NAB. At time I was getting the infamous "numbness" at times when I had the rig on for a while. This was just no good. I had someone take a bunch of pictures of me in the vest with and without the rig on, and I emailed them to Walter that very night. The next morning [i think it was the very day after I sent the pics] I got a call from Walter. "Richard, its Walter here? I got your pictures. Thank you very much for sending them. Kornel and I have been looking over them and we have decided that vest is just too tall. What we are going to do is build you another harness? We think no matter what we try you will never get as good as a fit as you should with that vest, so we are going to make you another with a lower profile." I was floored. After going up to Toronto to pick up my original vest I got to see all the work that goes into this vest and that made it easier to understand why it costs so much money. But these crazy Canadians decided that the best thing to do to get me a proper fit was to build me an entire new vest from scratch! I kept the old DSD vest until I got the new vest a month later. It showed up one day before a huge live gig for me so I got to put the new DSD vest to the test the next two days covering ABC?s Thanksgiving Day Parade here in Philadelphia. It was great. Great! Great! And most importantly, no more numbness while I was in the stupid rig for hours. I mailed Walter the older DSD vest and the rest is history. I might have been one of the last people to buy a DSD/Klassen vest before the big breakup, but suffice to say I will never have a problem getting it survived. I do not know of many companies that would jump through fiery hoops to please their customers. From day one Daniel and Walter treated me with respect and care. Walter has never said this but I think his customer policy is to "Dazzle the customer." I do not know many companies that can say they do this? do you? rich

The best thing about the old forums of years past was i could get a daily e-mailed digest of all the previous day's posts. I now spend much more time on the internet. Thank god i have a high speed internet connection, but when i go on the road, i will no longer be able to visit the steadicam forum because i takes up too much time. I know someone has alreay cried this out, but too bad for 2004 we have to take a giant step back for the sake of a new improved look. now a moment of silence... for the steadicam forum digests. RIP 2000-2003 rich

I also have one of Peter's Tally systems. At that price you can not beat it, and it is no joke how bright that light really is. When i am shooting in a studio i put tape over the light so it is not so bright. When i am outside, its just perfect! rich cottrell philadelphia PA