Noel Sterrett

I've tried it and it can work until you hit a lens stop. The current at that point momentarily goes far above 1.8A and will blow the fuse. The fuse will reset once you cycle power.

It might help to parallel the two 1.8A circuits, but a far better solution is to use a D-Tap:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/894513-REG/idx_md_nbv_idx_multi_d_tap_adaptor_plate.html

Cheers.

I sometimes use a Portabrace pad attaches with velcro to rods or a dovetail:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/752114-REG/Porta_Brace_SP_3G_Universal_Shoulder_Pad.html

Cheers.

Thanks.

I have to find an arm first. Maybe next batch.

Cheers.

Could the HC3 be mounted under the arm?

Cheers.

Funny you mention this. I do both. Seriously.

 

I have spent a fair bit of time recently using my new BNC Crimp tool on the Zalex™ Tally HR lights I make and sell for rigs. There's a tiny hole in every center pin on a BNC crimp assembly. I strip, mount the pin and turn to have the hole facing up. I run a tiny bit of solder into the hole. Then I crimp.

Both is generally best.

For Lemo's, there are actually two versions: crimp and solder. I considered using crimp because the pins are so small they are nearly impossible to solder, but as I recall the crimp tool cost almost as much as my rig.

Cheers.

 

so as far as I understand and from experience the crimped joint is less prone to breakdown than solder.

 

I've been soldering coax since I was 10 (a very long time ago) and I must say my experience is the opposite. I've never felt comfortable with a crimp. With solder, you can see when you have a good, shiny (not cold) solder connection. With crimps, you have to pull hard to test them. When you do, they just pull out far too often.

Cheers.

I'll be there Sunday afternoon to Thursday.

Cheers.

I have a Zephyr that is only a few months old. It's like new and has never been out of my house. I bought it for a project which will now will not start until 2015, so there's no use having it sit in the living room.

Let me know if you're interested.

Cheers.

noel@admitonepictures.com

I would be more worried about the maximum weight on the arm (23 lb of camera weight)

Alexa ~ 15 lb

Lens ~ 4 lb

Wireless video ~ 1 lb

Wireless ff ~ 2.5 lb

wires ~ .5lb

matte box ~ 1 lb

=25 lb

That's without the codex (5.7 lb)

[Calculated form average weights found online]

 

The Epic's body being 5lb, it's still within the range, and even a bit of room for a battery (AB Dionic HC is 1.8 lb plus the battery plate) on it's back (solving the whole wiring issue)...

 

This is one of the reasons why I am looking into a larger rig soon.

The Alexa is 13.8 lb

The Alexa Plus is 15 lb, but has built in wireless video

There are many great lenses less than 4 lb

I'm not saying it's ideal, but just that it can be done with careful wiring and selection of accessories.

On the other hand, the Sony F5/55 ( 4.4 lb, 25W ) should be a cakewalk.

Cheers.

Where? It appears to share a common ground making it a single power path

There are four wires passing through the post (Red, White, Black, Orange). I'm not sure how they are currently wired, but that could be easily changed.

In any event, the Alexa draws 85W while recording to SxS. So like follow focus, it's not a continuous power draw. And as I pointed out, the wire capacities are calculated for continuous, not intermittent current.

I've done the math, and I'm comfortable I could rig and fly an Alexa on a Zephyr with necessary accessories.

I'm actually more concerned with my back holding up than the wiring.

Cheers.

Now add a follow focus and everything that you need to fly withan Alexa, you are over the power budget

As the charts above show, additional current results in higher heat. But the charts are for continuous current. A Bartech receiver, for example, takes up to 3A, but only when the motor is engaged. Otherwise, it takes only .05A.

In addition, the Zephyr sled has two power paths, effectively doubling its current capacity.

The Zephyr may be a stretch for an Alexa, but with careful setup, it seems quite doable.

Not so sure about an F65...

Cheers.

Don't forget the voltage drop due to cable length and remember that length is round trip so double the cable length 20 and 22AWG is not suitable for a RED or Alexa by any stretch of the imagination

The Alexa with viewfinder takes around 85W. At 24V that's around 3.5A (actuall less at 28.8 = 2 x 14.4). Shouldn't be a problem for the camera alone.

Cheers.

I don't get why they couldn't have two identical BNC jacks on the sled. Could someone chime in on this?

There is a Lemo which has power for the monitor and tally as well as monitor signal.

I power the monitor using a D-Tap on the V-Mount plate, so I think it may be possible to replace the Lemo with a BNC. I've ordered a Lemo connector and plan to see if it will pass HD-SDI, but I'm not a Lemo fan.

Cheers.

Did you try lowering the H Size and V Size in the OSD Options?

Cheers.

When you unscrew the screws on the underside of the topstage, the two halves of the plastic cover come apart like a clamshell. The BNC connectors just set into grooves in the plastic. There is enough cable to swap the positions of the SD and HD video cables. Piece of cake.

While there is enough wire to move the BNC and Lemo connectors on the front of the topstage, there isn't enough to move the rear BNC to the front on my Zephyr (I tried removing the tape and tugging gently on the wire, but it didn't budge). The rear Lemo clearly doesn't have enough wire to move at all. Perhaps your Zephyr was lucky and got a bit more.

In any event, I ordered a Hirose connector, and hopefully I can use it on the bottom for HD and avoid having to move the BNC's.

As for swiveling, I went to the hardware store and bought a rubber washer. A "star" lock washer would probably work fine, too.

Thanks, a rubber washer seems to work quite well.

Cheers.

 

I've gotten shit for this before, but I use the "SD" BNC port exclusively for HD... It's just easier, and I have no problems with it. And when I have to be tethered on a camera that doesn't have a redundant SDI out, I loop the signal out of my monitor back up the post to the HD-SDI on the top stage. Video village sees everything just fine. If I had to bet, I would say that Tiffen used the same cabling and connectors for both ports. I haven't taken it apart to verify, but it makes more sense to me that they wouldn't complicate things by having one port that is inferior to the other.

I have no doubt the SD wiring would work, but the output at the bottom of the stage for SDI/power is a 6 pin Hirose, the breakout cable for which Tiffen charges $470 (gouge). While it might still work, the Hirose does not include a coaxial connection, which is a bit odd since Hirose makes a similar connector which does.

In any event, I've given up and decided to leave things as they are and just rout the HD to the front.

Thanks for your help.

Cheers

As far as terminations are concerned, I use Kings brand BNC connectors which are also true 75ohm connectors, and are of the highest quality. I make sure to double strain relief all my cables to guard against years of abuse. I also label each cable's length for immediate identification and quicker access to the right cable.

I don't disagree with the excellent technical points made above, but my practical experience has been overwhelmingly clear. In the early days of HD, I had a fairly extensive rack mounted patch bay full of SDI monitors, HDCAM and DigiBeta decks. Everything was connected via BNC cables which were fabricated a decade earlier for a standard definition patch bay. It all worked quite well for nearly a dozen years.

While I've had a great number of problems with BNC cabling, it has always turned out to be because of either damaged (usually crushed) cables or connectors, improperly made cables, or both.

With properly made and impedance matched cables and connectors (I use King also), the signal loss (db) for a given cable at a particular frequency varies primary with cable length. On a long run, high quality low-loss cable could be quite important. But in the case of a Steadicam rig, the distances are fairly short. So I had no hesitation running an HD-SDI signal to a Marshall HD monitor through the post on a standard definition Scout. With one of my very old cables attached and feeding it to the post from the top, the monitor worked as expected and reported a signal strength of 95%.

So while I'm not offering any guarantees, I plan on using thin BNC cables whenever and wherever I can.

Cheers.

Are you upgrading from an SD version of the Zephyr? My Zephyr came with a 7" HD Marshall monitor, and it also came with a mount that allows it to work with the sled. Tiffen has all of the stuff that you need.

Yes, I'm upgrading. I bought one of Marshall's new modular monitors (V-LCD70MD), which has a built-in waveform monitor. I may try to fashion a small "L" bracket with pinholes to keep it from rotating.

Also, what do you mean when you say that you want to swap the BNC connectors.

I just need to swap the front and the back connector, so the HD BNC is on the back.

Cheers.

I just got a new Zephry (love it), and want to replace the monitor with a 7" Marshall HD monitor. There are two problems:

The monitor has a 1/4" on the bottom, but without any pin holes for the tiny allen screws on the mount, I have to remove them and the monitor swivels far too easily.

The other problem is that I would like to swap the BNC connectors on the top of the sled. I understand swapping the connectors is possible on the Zephyr but there is no information on how to do it in the manual. I'm not sure whether to start with the two screws on the dovetail or the four on the bottom.

Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.

Noel-

 

for a Mitchell mount (industry standard in USA) see http://www.tiffen.com/displayproduct.html?tablename=steadicam&itemnum=800-7900-01. Buy a spare socket block and you have a vehicle mount for bigger rigs. (Upgrade possibility!)

 

for a high hat version: http://www.tiffen.com/displayproduct.html?tablename=steadicam&itemnum=078-7410-03

 

Or you could have someone machine one up for you - you should be able to buy the Zephyr socket block from Tiffen; alas it is not on the website under accessories/socket block.

 

Jerry

Thanks Jerry.

I plan on using speed rail most of the time, and thought about trying to just get a socket block, but couldn't find it separately from Tiffen. It shouldn't be hard to fashion a plate for the block, and I would rather not spend $1k, but that may be the only way.

Cheers.

Hi,

Looking for a vehicle mount which will work with a Zephyr.

Cheers.

noel@admitonepictures.com

I'm using an OConnor Universal Baseplate. It's well made, and adapts to quite a wide range of cameras (you can even change rods if necessary).

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/818733-REG/OConnor_C1245_1001_C1245_1001_Universal_Baseplate.html

Cheers.

 

Gotchya! Here's a link to Lemo's product guide. It helps decipher their abstract product numbering.

Thanks! My Scout should be here tomorrow.

Cheers.

If you are replacing an existing battery mount, couldn't you reuse the cable and connectors from it?

Hopefully, yes. But I also need a LEMO for the top plate to power the camera/recorder/downconverter. Also, I need a LEMO to D-tap for the base to connect a special IDX V-mount that provides 12V regulated, since the Blackmagic miniconverter I'm using won't work at 14V.

Cheers.

 

Alright, well. It doesn't look like there are any cheap options on ebay unfortunately. But mouser has them: http://www.mouser.com/Search/Refine.aspx?Keyword=0b+303+fgg

Thanks for the link. There are 20 or so variations. I picked one and crossed my fingers.

Cheers.