Colin Donahue

Thank you for all your replies. Here is a bit more information: My sled is the Tiffen Archer. I believe the cable I am using is good. I am connecting from the lemo on the sled to the 4 pin into the camera The battery setting in the menu of the camera is for "other battery (not sony) and or external power input", so I beieve I have the right setting on the camera, but I will check with Wexler engineers tomorrow. There is a page in the menu on battery voltage that does not exist in the manual. Voltage drop from the wiring through the sled? That was one of my first thoughts. I do not know the gauge of the wire going through my post. I did put a volt meter at the end of the 4 pin xlr cable that is connected to the lemo on my stage and got 15.5 volts .... the same as when I hooked the volt meter directly to the battery. Then I took a standard anton bauer plate to 4 pin adapter put the same battery on it and plugged the four pin into the camera. I got the same voltage in the viewfinder(14.4) as when it was powered off my sled... and the cable on the anton bauer to 4 pin plate was only 8 inches long. I do not know the gauge of that wire, but it was a pretty fat cable. So am thinking it is not a voltage loss through the sled. It is possible that the camera is getting the proper voltage but interpreting it lower rate. I never had the battery actually die, because I kept changing them when they got down to 13 or so volts. I will post more info after I talk to a few engineers Thanks again, colin

I have been using a Sony XD Cam with my archer on a show for the last month. I was using one dionic 90 on the camera and one on the sled. Since my Dionics all died I now use a hytron 140 at the bottom of the sled to power everyting. The power goes from my stage to the 4 pin on the back of the camera. I have noticed a significant voltage drop when powering the camera through the 4 pin verses the anton bauer plate on the back of the camera. It is about 1 volt. My hytron 140's fresh off the charger will read only 14.4 volts or so in the camera viewfinder when powered through the sled. If i take the same battery and snap it onto the back of the camera, it will read 15.5 in the view finder. There must be some circuitry that drops the voltage in the 4 pin connector. Has anyone noticed this with other video cameras? If you are shootng full size video cameras, what is your normal battery setup? colin donahue

[ quote name='Kurt Warner' date='Apr 20 2007, 10:23 AM' post='26953'] Colin know what you speak of my friend. My Archer monitors mirror fuction acts the same as yours. I first thought it was operator error but as you said the image is still flopped left/right. My answer was/is to remove the 2 screws and flip the monitor 180 degrees. The cables are long enough and it only takes a minute. Cheers [/quote] Kurt, Brant, thanks for the information. I finally figured it out. Then they cancelled the shot two minutes before I was supposed to shoot because of time! colin

I just got my new low mode bracket from Brant Fagen and it works great. My problem is that I cannot reverse my image. It flips upside down okay, but when I use the mirror function, the menu letters reverse, but the image does not. Am I doing something wrong, or do I have a bad monitor? This is the first time i have tried to use this function. I am using the 7 inch Panasonic lcd that comes with the Archer and I think it is the same one that is with the Flyer. I am shooting tomorrow, so any help would be appreciated. Colin Donahue

There is a company called Victory Cinevideo Battery Corp. in Chatsworth . It used to be Victory Battery run by a guy named Jerry and it was reliable and had reasonable prices. I think he has sold the company. I know the new owner has raised the prices. I cannot vouch for them being trustworthy. It might be tough to get a quick turn around during NAB week. Phone is 818-576-9600 Colin Donahue

I am shooting in Santa Fe New Mexico for the next few weeks and I just found out I need a vehicle mount for a gator. Does anybody know of one near by for rent or have one they could ship? colin donahue

Just had a custom battery plate added to my archer so that it will balance better. Thanks for your pics Lars, I pretty much copied yours, but without the 24volt. I mounted an anton bauer plated under the rods. My question is how to get power from the (new)second battery to the sled. The best configuration is a brick battery on the new mount under the post, and a dionic 90 or hytron 50 on the original battery mount. I could hardwire the new plate to the orignal battery plate or run some kind of connector from the original plate to the second battery plate, so that I could remove it if I wanted to . I talked to the people at anton bauer, and they said if you run two batteries at the same time, espcially a dionics and say a hytron 140, that the dionics will die first and then use the hytron to charge itself. They said it would still work, but maybe not as well as I would like. Has anybody run across this issue? Any suggestions? I have pictures but I cant remember how to post them. I will try later. colin

Dan, with the show I am currently shooting, almost everything I do is with out actors... point of view beauty shots of beautiful homes. I struggle with this problem as well. One thing that helps me it to take tiny steps and do a little heel to toe roll when I walk. It seems that lifting my feet is where I see my steps. I am fairly new at this so this is my no means "expert advice"... just something that has helped me. colin

Brian, Fed Ex has its problems as well. About a year ago I sent my Betacam in for repair and needed it back for a shoot. I kept checking the online tracking and it said it had been delivered. I called and they confirmed it had been delivered. But I did not have it! I checked the web site and the location where it had been delivered... turns out it was an office building about two miles from my house. I went there and it was just sitting in the back room. Fed Ex said oh gee... sorry.. Colin

Mikko, I purchased an Archer in Oct of last year. I had these weights made to help with the balance problem. They were just hunks of metal laying around the machine shop and I had the guy drill holes in them. They weigh about 2.5 lbs each. I use them with a dionic battery on the bottom. I mostly shoot with the Sony XD cam with a bartech/M1 iris setup and a microwave on the back and another dionics on the camera. It works really well, but your setup looks a bit more versatile. The weights are held onto the rods with plastic screws and they are just hand tightened. The weights do not move at all. Good luck with your archer! Colin Donahue

I would like to hear more about it. I am in Westlake Village. I used to own the predecessor of that camera, the DSR 500. I am just finishing up the last episode of the show I am working on Today. I should be available at that time. Colin Donahue

has aney one used a magi cam?? aprently it is used on "exstream home makeover" you can see from the show waht the shoots look like and that the color dose not match the tripod shots but heay its not a real rig... Jimbovision, I am an operator on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I have never seen a magicam on the show. I have used a masters series, EFP and Archer. The other op, Eric Cochran, uses a masters. I am not familiar with the magicam. As far as the color not matching... the show is shot on the Sony XDCAM, but the steadicam shots are done the day after the house is revealed and often at a different time of day than the shots of the family looking at the house. This may be the reason the color is off a bit. They do a color correction in post, but aparently not a good enough ..... Colin Donahue has aney one used a magi cam?? aprently it is used on "exstream home makeover" you can see from the show waht the shoots look like and that the color dose not match the tripod shots but heay its not a real rig... I try this again Jimbovision, I am an operator on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. I have never seen a magicam on the show. I have used a masters series, EFP and Archer. The other op, Eric Cochran, uses a masters. I am not familiar with the magicam. As far as the color not matching... the show is shot on the Sony XDCAM, but the steadicam shots are done the day after the house is revealed and often at a different time of day than the shots of the family looking at the house. This may be the reason the color is off a bit. They do a color correction in post, but aparently not a good enough ..... Colin Donahue

I know two camera operators that have this rig in LA and they both use it because they have back problems. They have never mentioned anything about its use as a steadicam. Colin Donahue

Thank you for all the advice. As it turns out, the wind died down in the afternoon and I didn't have any problems... but I had the garden screen standning by. Colin Donahue

I am currently on a shoot in the Texas plains and it is cold and windy. I have only been operating for 5 months. I was wondering if there are any special techiques for working in the wind, or if changing the drop time or length of post will help. I am shooting XDCAM on an Archer sled. Total rig weight is about 45lbs. Any advice would be greatly apreciated. Colin Donahue

Lars, Congratulations on your first rig. I have owned an archer for about two months. I agree with you that the vest might need more padding, but I found the problem around the hips. It does not seem to have enough velcro to hold the padding in place, and I find myself re-adjusting the padding once in a while. I am curious about the battery configuration on the rig you tested. Were you able to dynamically balcance the sled? I found I could not do a dynamic balance with a propac or Hytron 120, because the battery is too far from the post. I had some custom weights made for the base that slide onto the rods and I use a hytron 50 on the base. Now it balances no problem. Good luck. Colin Donahue

My name is Colin Donahue and I am new to this forum. I have been shooting video for 25 years and decided to learn steadicam in July of 2005. I am 48 years old! I took a private course from Paul Taylor at the Tiffen factory in Burbank. Paul is a great teacher and I speak with him often. I used the Clipper 2 for my class and the camera was a my own DXC D35 with PVW 3 dockable deck. The camera deck and lens weigh 20.5 lbs. ... no focus or iris controls attached. I had tried steadicam a few times in past years and it seemed extremely difficult. Using the Clipper 2 was a much more enjoyable experience. They had an archer, but I was told it was a prototype and not quite ready. Because I had the oportunity to do several episodes of a home remodeling show, I decided to purchase a rig and I chose the Archer. It is $10,000 cheaper than the Clipper and has the same arm and vest. It took over two months for them to finally manufacture and deliver it. They had agreed to loan me a masters until mine was delivered. That rig including camera, iris control, vest and arm, was 80 lbs, and it would really wear me out. When I finally recieved the archer, I had a hard time balancing it with the camera on the show.. a Sony XDCAM with Bartech Focus and a microwave and dionics 90 on the back to power the microwave. I left the viewfinder on because I dont completly trust the lcd monitor for exposure. The sled would not dynamic balance with a propac 14 or hytron 120. If I used a smaller battery, the sled would not drop, even with the post extended all the way. I ended up taping two anton bauer trimpacks to the battery rods and using a hytron 50 at the base battery mount in order to get it to drop with a short post and to dynamic balance. The max camera and accessories weight this sled will handle is 23 lbs and that is with the post extended all the way.... unless you add weight to the bottom. You cannot use propac 14s or hytron 120's and get it to dynamic balance. I have since had two custom weights made that slide onto the battery rods each weight weighs about 2lbs. The monitor for the Archer sticks out very far from the post. The distance from the back of the battey on the base of the sled to the front of the monitor is about 25". This makes it a little tough to pan in tight spaces, and it is almost impossible to see when doing a don juan. I am thinking about getting a different monitor mount. Despite all of these issues, I am glad I made this purchase. The clipper 2 is a beefier and more rugged sled, but for a few hundred dollars, I have made the Archer work for me. Colin Donahue