Tom Wills

Doubtful. Should be SAE, but you never know. Certainly wouldn't be anything you couldn't get from a hardware store. I'd recommend a Nylock (or sometimes labeled just Nylon Locking) nut to replace the missing one - less chance of it falling off again in the future.

Saw this on ebay, might be of interest: http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.view&alt=web&id=251766208315

Not an arm, since my Pro Titan's about 2 months old at this point, but I do own a little piece of history. Got this gimbal on a sled that was an upgraded PRO 1, that had been rebuilt and upgraded quite a few times. It looked a bit odd to me (namely that it has no markings on it - I was a bit worried about whether or not it was a PRO gimbal after all!), so I asked Jack about it. Apparently, I stumbled upon owning one of the original PRO Gimbal prototypes! I've since mounted it up on one of the new quick-clamp handles, but I still have the original clamp, also anodized in that cool gold/gray anodize. Put in a new set of bearings late last year, and it's still carrying around my hodgepodge of a sled, with whatever I've been able to throw at it, smooth as the day it was built! Though there is a suspicious looking weld on the handle, which appears to have happened before the anodize. What I'd give to know that story! Fantastic to hear the stories of the old rigs here. Truly a testament to the engineering prowess of these companies.

Here's one of those silly little things that I happened to stumble across, and really like. I found a nifty little clamp on Amazon that'll hold onto the dovetail of a PRO FIZ plate, and has a 15mm clamp on it. $22.90. Originally designed to clamp onto a hot shoe, but for some reason, it's designed with a dovetail clamp on it. It's got enough room on the screw to easily clamp onto the PRO dovetail. I've found most of the clamps from SmallRig to be better than they have any right to be for the price. The knobs are a little cheap feeling, and the overall quality isn't what you'd expect from an American made product, but this comes in at the "cheap enough for me to toss into the kit and not worry if it gets lost" price point. My Preston rarely gets used off my rig, so for the few times it does, this'll provide a nice option, rather than just bongo ties. http://amzn.com/B009A8K0JO Just thought I'd share, in case anybody else would find it useful.

Purchase the book. It's a fantastic read, and you'll have a solid primer when going into the workshop. Then, after the workshop, read it again. And again. And again. Speaking of which, where'd I leave my copy?

I'll take them.

Looks like the difference is the WPA-1 for the Sony QR version (which has the back support point), and the BPA-3 for the lower profile one, without the rear point. That lower CG looks a lot nicer to me on the BPA-3.

Here you are: http://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/LEMO/FGG0B303CLAD52/?qs=sGAEpiMZZMtJvlLX7mFQSMQCKlX6Q4sC However, I would suggest that you make a 3 pin LEMO to Female P-Tap cable, rather than always having to have the 4 way P-Tap splitter on your rig. Not only can the 4-way splitter fail, requiring a re-solder job, but I've often found I only need to power one thing off of a P-Tap, and having that extra bulk of the 4-way isn't necessary all the time. Plus the splitter can go elsewhere on the rig/camera, if needed, not just where the 3 pin LEMO is.

Didn't look like MoVI to me, looked like Steadicam. Had a few of the little telltale things that look like Steadicam to me - like how it dealt with corners. I'd be very curious to know who it was as well. Love the opening shot, with the tilt straight down held very, very well, and gotten out of beautifully.

Bobby, Just to be clear, you are the one selling this, correct? Not just someone in your exact same town? Because if so, you need to pay for a premium membership to have access to posting in the for sale section on this forum, and posting it as "found a great deal on eBay" in the newbies section is pretty sketchy.

No, if it is a standard definition PRO sled (as in it does not have a second BNC connector labeled for HDSDI), then it is composite only. The PRO 2 monitor (as well as all other green screen monitors) are also composite only.

Joe, Is that $75 each? Or $75 for both?

Thanks Chris! I'm all set for now, but hopefully that link will help someone else!

Sold! Thanks for those who got in touch.

This was my primary wireless system for a over a year now, and I’m only getting rid of it since I upgraded to a Teradek Bolt. My market now requires multicast receivers, and SDI is much easier to handle on set than HDMI. But as recently as 2 weeks ago, this was still making me money on jobs. This would be a great wireless package for a new operator who's a bit cash-strapped (as I was when I bought it!). The transmitter is a “stick” type, and both it and the receiver are absolutely tiny and small. They weigh almost nothing. The TX doesn’t have a mounting point on it, but the RX has a 1/4”x20 in the back of it. I usually just end up bongo tie-ing the TX to some point on the camera. They're both scuffed up, as you'd expect from on set use, but still work fine! The RX has been modified slightly - I added the option to power it via the USB socket. The original tiny DC barrel was fine, but it got in the way on the handheld rig I was using it on, so I made up a custom right angle USB cable and added a few wires internally to allow you to use USB power. It still can use the barrel connector, however, for use with the supplied AC adapter. I am including 2 P-Tap to USB adapters I made myself, out of some high quality cigarette lighter USB chargers. They’re not as pretty as the Paralinx ones, but every bit as functional. Quite frankly, these are the one thing I’ll miss most about selling the kit - they come in so handy for all kinds of purposes on set. Both are rated for 3A total across the two ports, meaning you could charge your phone (or the director’s phone for some extra good karma) while powering the transmitter or receiver. If they ever give you any problems, ship them back to me, and I’ll work on ‘em (assuming they’re not beyond economical repair). Also included is an SDI to HDMI adapter. This was a cheap adapter I got off eBay, and it works decently. Haven’t tested it with every camera, but it works off my recorder playing back Alexa footage. Honestly never got a chance to use it on set. Only note would be that it seems to shift the gamma of the picture a little. Not an issue for a framing reference, but not to be trusted for lighting or exposure. It was so cheap, consider it thrown in for free. I’ve also added a pass-through power cable so one cable can power both the converter and the transmitter. It comes with 2 USB cables (one right angle for the receiver, one straight for the transmitter), the 2 P-Tap to USB converters, and the AC adapter. All of it is well-used, so expect it to look it. But it all works just as well as it did on day one. I can toss in some HDMI couplers and right angles for the right buyer and the right offer too. I’ve invested close to $400 in this, so make me a reasonable offer. First reasonable offer gets it. I’d love to get this out the door and in your hands soon, as I’m in the midst of making a ton of gear purchases, and my new Teradek Bolt is already starting to make me rentals.

I'm in the middle of putting money together for picking up a PRO arm myself. And I will just say this - the difference between 6 and 8 springs is $1600. Springs are over $3000 each separately. It's a jump, but I think it's foolhardy to not jump at the opportunity to be able to fly ANYTHING - and have full redundancy as well for most weight ranges. Just my thoughts. I think if you're gonna skip 2 canisters though, skip blacks. 4 blues is a sweet weight range, and 2 blues and 2 blacks will fly most everyday heavy packages.

I'm coming out to LA with a small commercial I'm working on, and I'm trying to save on space and weight, since I have to fly with my entire gear package, and the arm I'm flying right now needs a bigger case than it's worth. Would anyone have a PRO arm they can rent to me for those 2 days? I don't have a ton of budget, but it's worth me spending the money to have the right arm for the job, and not have to deal with my big arm case. Also might be interested in a rolling American stand if anyone has one free as well. Email me - willsvideo@gmail.com. Thanks!

Was thinking of picking up one of the new Teradek packages in the group buy, but if someone on here would like to sell me their old system, I'd be happy to save the money and let you upgrade to the new one! Looking for at least 2 receivers, and it must be the Pro model. Thanks!

My thought with used vehicles, as someone who drives used cars, has always driven used cars, and just got a new (to me) used car last year is this: buy bigger than you think you'd ever need. I had a Volvo station wagon, which I loved dearly, and which carried my rig around without complaint. However, when given the opportunity to trade it in at 220,000ish miles, I ended up going one step up, and getting the full-sized SUV model from Volvo, the XC90. I thought it was bigger than I ever would need, but lo and behold, as my car got bigger, I just got more stuff to put in it. Rickshaw pushed it to its limits. Routinely carrying full camera packages, or grip hardware I need. Often 2 (or more) Magliners. It never ends! So, basically, go bigger than you expect. You'll find a way to fill the room. For reference: my XC90, on a job I was DP on a while back. 2 camera package, 2 Magliners (one Senior, one Junior), 3 foot slider, 4 full and 4 half apples, 17" mointor, sticks, tripod dolly, 4 C stands, 2 4x4 Kinos, 4 300w Fresnels, and my full Steadicam package (Sled, Arm, Harness, AKS1, AKS2, PWR, and my stand). Doors would still close. Apparently the picture is short a few items (I can't see the Kinos, and they were usually sliding through the middle of my harness), but safe to say, that all got in there somehow. Most I ever carried was 2 Magliners, one Senior, one Junior, a full Red One package from Panavision with Primo Primes, a zoom, an OConnor Head, and 2 sets of Ronford sticks, a few Pelicans of accessories and monitors, and then my full Steadicam package. That one pushed the limits even a bit further. Now, on the thought of a Kia Soul, one of my exes had one, and while it was a decent enough car, I certainly wouldn't call it big. I don't know if it's long enough to easily slide in a Magliner, and it certainly isn't wide enough in the back for 2. It might work perfectly for you, but if you're like me and always tossing extra cases in the back of your vehicle, or bringing extra toys to set for regular operating, or turning your vehicle into the camera truck for a low budget job, it can be useful to go big. Oh, and get plenty of furniture pads. They'll save your interior (a lesson I learned far too late!)

No, the "P" series motors are analog and use a potentiometer to read out position data. The "E" series uses an encoder, and is digital. All Preston systems (save for the Micro Servo, a long long discontinued product) use digital motors.

I've had a bit of time between Steadicam jobs lately, doing a lot of conventional operating and handheld, which has given me some time to do some experimenting with my rig. Namely, I've gone on another never-ending quest to nail down vibrations, after having some very small ones in a music video a while back. A lot of that, it turned out, came from a few loose screws, but some of the vibration came from the monitor mounting. As anyone who's seen my obsession with monitor mounting knows, mounting a monitor solidly, with a tilting yoke that never needs to be re-tightened, without any vibrations seems to be my life's quest. (I've done quite a few modifications to how the Cinetronic yoke pivots already, and as most of you know, I used to make monitor yokes for Marshall monitors) So, I began on a journey. I've found one of the best ways of looking for vibration and lack of solidness in the monitor's mount is to look at the reflection of a light in the surface of the monitor. Then, tap the rig. Start on the batteries, tap the post, tap the monitor rods, tap the monitor housing, tap the camera, and go all around the rig. Try it while it's docked, try it while it's on the gimbal on the balancing stud. If you've got vibration in the monitor, the reflections in the monitor will tend to flutter and blur, and then come back to being clear. It's a real sure-fire way of seeing vibrations too small for you to visually detect them. So, a few rounds of tapping on my rig, and I found that there were indeed some significant vibrations coming from the monitor's mounting. No surprise, considering the number of parts involved, and the rather silly clamping block that I had already had to modify after it bent to the point of being unusable. I started removing parts, replacing parts, and eventually machining some replacement parts to see if I could fix it. At the end of it all, I decided to go as simple as possible, however, and just remove all of the mounting hardware between the rods and the yoke. It turns out that Cinetronic/Film Stuff did a smart thing when machining the rods and the yoke. The rods are the exact same distance, center-to-center, as two of the holes on the yoke's crossbar. All I needed to do was press in a couple of bushings on the crossbar to make the 3/8" holes go down to 1/4", and run to M6 bolts through to the holes in the rods. Suddenly, I have a solid mounting solution with no vibration. But, in the process, I lost my coplanar sled. With the yoke as it was originally set up, it was mounted in a clamp that had it sitting 45 degrees below where it sits now. In this setup, the monitor was low and coplanar. It was incredibly easy to DB. But, with the new mounting, I did end up finding some advantages. I had never tried flying the Cinetronic in a higher position, since the only position the clamping mechanism on the Gen1 provided was swept quite far up. But having the monitor almost flat to the rods, as it is in my current setup, feels like a nice medium point - I find my neck is no longer so bent over to see the screen, especially if I'm boomed far down (as a guy of my height often is). And, though it does take a few spins to balance, DB is still no problem, and with a marked sled, I can take it out of the case and get it into my usual flying setup in seconds. From there, I can make whatever changes to the inertial configuration of the sled, and they're just a few spins away from DB themselves. Overall, it's a nice change. I'd implore anyone with the original Gen1 mounting to try this. Perhaps it's just my setup, and perhaps it's my fussiness about having an absolutely vibration free sled, but it made a difference to me. And the bonuses of better visibility and less neck strain are pretty great too!

Yes, Brian, if the rig is wired as I suspect it is, the Cam P-Tap should be safe no matter what.

Brian, Bare with me if this takes a bit to explain - I'm on set right now sitting behind a 66x broadcast lens, waiting and playing on my phone. I'd be better at explaining this on a real keyboard! Yes, you can absolutely meter the proper 12v across that P-Tap, because the P-Tap is just connected to the positive and negative terminals of that one battery, and therefore only has 12v across it. The problem arises when you plug in a device to that P Tap that is connected to anything else. For example, a video transmitter. The camera has it's video output BNC shields sitting at ground. Ground for it is the negative terminal of the Camera battery. Ground for the video transmitter is the negative terminal of the Aux battery, which is shorted to the positive terminal of the Cam battery for use boosting to 24v. Connect the BNC connectors, and suddenly you're shorting negative to positive. I blew out a camera's whole video output board in a very similar way once! Now, if PRO told you otherwise, it's possible they've wired it all up differently, but I don't see how you could get 24v without putting the two batteries in series. If you want to test, put your multimeter in continuity mode, switch your rig into 24v, and see if you've got continuity between the negative terminal of the Aux P-Tap port and the Camera battery plate's positive terminal, or vice versa.

When you have the rig in 24v mode, the aux plate, any batteries on it, the P-Tap on the plate, and (though I do not have a Cine Live myself to test this last one) the aux P-Tap on the sled base are all sitting at 12v above ground. The way 24v works on the PRO, as well as most other rigs, is that the Cam battery is running as it always does, and the Aux battery is switched in such that it's negative pin is connected to the positive terminal of the Cam battery, and it's positive pin is connected to the 24v outputs on the sled. So, if the Aux P-Tap on the sled is wired in as I believe it is, you were quite possibly shorting out one of the batteries by plugging the transmitter into it. This is why there's a warning on most current Tiffen rigs to only put batteries on one of the battery plates in 24v mode - people were putting their transmitters on there between the battery and the rig, and frying them. I would make a note of it yourself - perhaps add some labeling to the rig to note that none of the Aux P-Tap connector on the sled (and perhaps even on the plate itself!) should be used in 24v mode. The Cam P-Tap connector should be safe to use in any mode though. Hope that helps.

Hey Rob, No rush. I'll be in touch soon!