Benjamin Treplin

Thomas sent you a pm

Had huge trouble with my Samurai (losing input signal after playback, slightest vibration generating dozens of clips) It finally turned out to be a hardware failure. Sent it in and got the internals replaced free of charge. It works great so far.

Nikita, how do you hang your arm on the docking pin, socket block up or arm post up?

Amazing work! Dave I love you for putting this thread up. Here is one I did a few years ago. It got choped up by a crane shot but I thing they went for the 5th take we did. They wanted me to move underneath the wings and where quite surprised that bending over with a steadicam is not the best choice for the shot. I spotted an grip cart some in the hangar and we hard mounted to it. Had a very good dolly grip who saved my day.

After the drop test what direction does the rig go? Drop test with lens up -> rig: tilt up or tilt down or off level left or right?

Job it's not about passion or love, unfortunately it's about animosity. Lots of agendas, yes, and even more lots of egos. I don't care who it is. I don't care who is affiliated with whom. If folks have a problem and come here, then they have to fucking tell their whole story. Just ranting, bashing and bullying is not enough. If topics are too delicate to discuss here, then leave it outside, completely! Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean this is the wrong place to speak up against a vendor, make other aware of an issue. It's the wrong place for agendas and egos. Leave that to politicians they get payed for it. This behavior stimulates the worst in all of us. I have given in on this too. I don't like it. 'IMHO' was commonly used here. It reflects an attitude. A mind set of how people want be treated and in my humble opinion should be treated.

I'm all with you Brooks! Nobody judges a chef by the knifes he uses. All that matter is does it taste good. If I'm really eager to know more, I'm interested in how the food is made and not the tools used. I don't care what rig, camera etc. was used. Is the shot good! But please keep in mind for what it is made for - small youtube promo or big feature. It's a big difference if you buy a take away or sit in a restaurant. It has been suggested several times to get a thicker skin and move on. WFT? That is exactly what people do. They move on and it's a loss to this forum. I leave my thick skin at work! I visit this place in my off hours. I have no need to spend my leisure time with people just tossing a commonplace at everything - except for Ron - and that with a negative attitude. Seriously, what is the wealth of information in opinions like: buy this brand, set and forget, your work is shit, this vendor is shit or even highjacking classifieds. Facts get mixed up with or replaced by opinions and sold as wisdom. Brooks is right! This has to stop! It is far more interesting in how shots/scenes are achieved. How do we collaborate with others. How do we make things work on set. How can we can be better camera operators. Klemens Becker once said on a workshop: Lets not talk about how we get the f*cking level right, lets talk about the important stuff we have to handle every day as operators.

It's the same with divers. There are two kind, the one who pee in the wetsuit and the one who don't admit.

Super well designed and machined. I'm very happy with it.

Here is my take on the Mōvi, based on a very smart thing I read in Wired magazine http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/04/start/the-disruptor Steadicam is save at the high budget productions where reliability of the equipment and the know how and artistic skill of the operator is key. The very low end will get the full pressure right away. All those who can't afford a good Steadicam op and know a newbie may suck big time will go for Mōvi like devices (they grow like mushrooms) or production will buy it. The play ground for emerging Steadicam ops will dry out. With time the stabilized gimbals will become more sophisticated, robust, reliable, feature rich and expensive and will eat they way up into our sinecure. There is a good reason companies like Steadicam and now PRO are offering lower priced rigs. They want to survive as a company. The effects on our community are there. Rates go down as supply of rigs and operators go up. Steadicam won't die, but it will take a share out of the jobs that are there any given day. It will increase pressure on our rates.

Camera signal out -> Decimator loop-through -> XCS -> Samurai https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0gf2da7mgozabv/Foto%2009.09.13%2018%2032%2026.jpg https://www.dropbox.com/s/w9nrh3ezw4slf4v/Foto%2015.09.13%2015%2051%2052.jpg

Hi all, I have an annoying issue with my Samurai. When the HD feed runs through my XCS the recorder does not recognise the HD input feed after the Samurai is either switched on or coming back from playback. Replugging the BNC works some times. Rebooting my Decimator (loop-through) does work most of the times. Monitor or HD Tx is fine. Anyone else with similar experiences?

It's the Alexa sensor

Happiness here too. Lightweight and rocksolid.

A more serious input. A very interesting read, which is related to Steadicam vs. cheaper stabilized platforms. http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2013/04/start/the-disruptor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJNxj1FdKuo

reminds me off the good times with Phil Rhodes....

I can only second Osvaldo's praise! It's AMAZING indeed!!!!!!!!!!!! Super lightweight, rock solid, tool free. Set and forget friction at the tilt axis. A fair price IMHO.

Extremely well made monitor arm. The one on the non-breakdance pictures is mine and a great fit with my Cinetronic.

Hi Jerry, Point taken. Let me rephrase my statement. It is a feature if you like it. The few times I flown a G arm I didn't get used to it, found it rather annoying. At the end of the day it's personal preference, again. Oh yea cars, totally overrated

Hi Chris, I'm all with Twojay and Eric. No curve or chart will tell how an arm performs while you operate it. It just doesn't translate into a feeling. It's the same with lenses. No chart will tell you what the images looks like a zoom or prime lens will project onto film or the sensor. There are lenses that have terrible test chart results, bad resolution, chromatic aberration and utter torsion, but for all that just look gorgeous on the screen. To answer you question Jamie. Is that just something that you get used to? - Yes Does hitting the bottom every hurt/ruin your shot? - Depends Do any other operators share my preference resistance at the end of the boom range? - No, I don't. A feathered stop just reduces the useable boom range of the arm while in motion. It is not a feature, it's a bug!

http://flavorwire.com/405833/flavorwire-exclusive-netflix-studios-have-very-different-explanations-for-widescreen-cropping

Third man enters Chris, AFAIK the seperate video circuite was introduced by PRO for one reason only, to isolate the SD video feed from bad shilded camera motors. The XCS has done this shilding with proper electronics parts. I had zero problem with camera motor interference or FF and I have flown SR2 and Arri 3 cameras. To claim that having all on one circuit is a bad idea is just misleading. There is no danger to your equipment by doing this, put aside the chance that your SD video sucks if it is not done properly. With modern film cameras and HD camera these days that kind of issues are gone for good. Selling a monitor that back feeds to ops with all kinds of rigs without letting them know is a bad idea. My two cents on this.

The back feed over the Lemo was an idea PRO owners had. The battery from the "MON" plate goes to the Cinetronic and you still have power on the "MON" circuite via the monitor cable. This way you are bypassing the 5Amp breaker on your PRO, which IMHO is not a good thing. A bad transmitter cable or whatever you want power and fails could fry your monitor. My suggestion is to use the D-taps on the battery plates to feed power from the monitor to the sled. It's a proper sized cable and fused. If your not a PRO owner this back feeding can cause serious trouble. While upgrading my monitor with the heatsinks Chris will add a diode to the Lemo.

Peter, what works great is WD-40 or AFC 50 and the like. Basically any kind of oil works good on stickers or gaffer tape leftovers.