John Saunders

But any contact between two conductors affects the overall resistance slightly. Again, it's just intuitive to think that a connection made by heat and melting metal would make for less resistance than a connection made by only pressure. Otherwise, why are so many other connections in electronics (wires, circuit boards, components) soldered rather than plugged or crimped? I actually don't solder the sleeve. I use epoxy and shrink tubing to hold things in place. If it works for you thats all that matters I guess. To each his own. Seems like more work than just crimping it, but the tooling can be a little bit of an investment at first.

Guess I'm just curious at this point. My background in engineering consists of a couple books on my shelf that I pretend to have read. Why is a mechanical connection better than one where the two conductors are, for lack of a better term, fused together with metal? It's just counter intuitive if that's the case. I'm not an engineer either although I have been making cable my whole life. The only thing I can think of about soldiering bncs is that it might change the resistance of the connection thus affecting the 75 ohm rating. Not sure though and I do know that a properly soldiered connection is normally stronger than a crimped on. I am not sure how you soldier the sleeve though seems like it would be tough. I do like soldiering me some cables though:) Heres the last big panel I worked on: 80 something pairs of audio 2 snakes 2 multipins 24 paralleled xlr connectors Loads of fun....

No I'm on the east coast in MD. If you want a couple feet of cable just let me know I can send you some, I know it can be a pain to get small quantities of it. I can also throw some bncs on it for a few bucks.

Oh and for small hd sdi cable we use 1855a. I think it is still a solid core but due to its smaller size it is pretty flexible. Also if you are going to solder it to a lemo it would be much easier than 1694F.

If you like 1694A they also make a flexible version that is really nice and has a stranded core. It's 1694F and is pretty pricey but great cable. I have a spool of it if anyone wants to try it or needs a cable made. It's pretty big cable though and may not be the best for a center post cable. We always crimp our cables for what it's worth. I think the main thing is that you make sure you are using 75 ohm connectors and cable that is rated for at least 1.5 ghz bandwidth. Hope it helps.

Thanks guys. Thats what I was thinking in terms of purchasing. Since I have use of the flyer I will focus any purchases I make to support equipment that is not rig specific. I will check out those shoes and plan to always have a pair (what ever I end up getting) to wear and a pair broken in ready to go. My wife is always complaining about how hard I am on my shoes... I'm sure she will love this even more :) I appreciate the exercise advice and I am sure my midrif could use some toning.

So I have been lurking here for a while now trying to pick up as much informations as possible and have now just joined. First off let me say that I have the upmost respect for all of the seasoned and experienced ops on here and hope to not ask any "newb" questions or waste anyones time. I am looking into really trying to take my very basic steadicam experience to the next level. I have flown a few times for personal projects and am determined to put in the time and effort into increase my performance and skill level. I know that it will not be easy and trying to find the time is an ongoing challenge with having a family and all that goes along with that. I am going to signup for the Tiffen 5 day workshop when they announce the next one. In the meantime I have the steadicam book and a friend is letting me hold on to and use his flyer LE to practice with. I have a few questions and hopefully they are not to basic: -I am planning on having a set or two of "steadicam shoes" are there any recommendations? I know that it is largely personal preference but if I got a starting place that would be awesome. Right now I wear keens which are super comfortable however they have a hardish sole and think that they might be to loud for steadicam work. -I am working on getting back in shape (not really all that out of shape but not at my peak) and are there any activities that would be beneficial to do? I would like to take road biking back up and am not a fan of running but will if it will help condition me. -Since I have use of a steadicam would you recommend focusing on purchasing the right aks or purchasing a bigger rig? I plan on starting with a wireless ff then wireless transmitter and going from there since even if the steadicam is unavailable I can rent on locally. Thanks for reading and any feedback you might provide. Again I hope to learn a lot more from the site and hopefully be able to contribute rather than just take.