Brett Manyluk

Thanks for the post. Going to try it on my XCS gimbal. It's still practically winter here, so worth a shot.

We have a couple on set as director's monitors and the picture is fantastic. They've been bright enough to use in daylight with a bit of help from a towel or a flop. Again, not suitable for steadicam, but I was surprised at how visible the image was for director's use. The DP is using them for quick exposure when we don't have time to drag a tent around the village. They are set up in a cool custom over/under bracket that drops down on a c-stand. Quick and easy for the assistants to drag around set with a couple panavision RX onboard. Now the panavision TX/RX is another story entirely...

Fantastic! Thanks, Guys!

I've got the older version of the Bartech with slightly different proportions on the focus knob so that it can't take the drop-on rings that are currently for sale. Recently on a rental it was returned without my spare slotted marking rings. I can go back to the old tape-style, but was hoping someone out there has a handy home-built solution for slip-on rings that are solid and reliable. I can see many more years of use in my Bartech, and would love to find a solution to this. Any thoughts out there?

We had an RT system on a show in Calgary and the AC said it performed extremely well. The only complaint was a night out in cold weather with a significant wind chill (around -18 C plus wind. Probably -27 to -30C) and the system froze up and stopped working. I'm not sure whether this was a MK3 or MK3.1. As with all equipment up here, we need it to function in the extreme cold.

You could get away with an EFP arm and paint or anodize the covers black. Same as the 3a, just lighter springs. Do you have a source for the MG42? Deactivated, resin cast, or airsoft?

Slightly unrelated, but I know that a few friends of mine who are Jib owner/ops would be very interested to see a larger version of this screen with all of its viewing and exposure benefits made available for their use. I imagine you must have that in the back of your head too, Chris.

It was an honour to watch you work, Rob. Here's hoping I can do so again. Godspeed, Brett

If anybody has ever crossed paths with Michael Landon Jr, he has a total train-wreck of a steadicam/horse/hard mount story. It'll change your mind about ever considering this. I commend your horsemanship and skill, but I would never attempt this myself.

Wow. Okay. I was just curious if someone had worked up a mod to accommodate this. You never know what's getting cooked up in the minds of the operators on this forum. I agree wholeheartedly with the grooviness of the design, but you never know... Thanks for the replies. Wish I had phrased the query to sound a little less noobish. On the upside, I have plenty of leads on Kipp handles now.

Greetings all, Has anyone replaced their hex screw on their DB3 with a no tools kipp solution or something similar? And if so, can you link to where you bought the kipp from? Thanks!

Hiya, His rig should function fine in the cold, especially with the tube screen. LCD's don't do well in the extreme cold. The general rule with lenses is: warm to cold is fine, cold to warm takes time. If you do suddenly have to shoot in back in a warm room, put the lense in a plastic bag to minimize condensation and warm it with a hair drier (NOT a heat gun). Your Red and SI2K may need a light like a 1K or 2K shining on it to keep the body warm between shots (if it's below -10). Keep the cameras on all the time to help generate body heat. I don't know how the new Bomb EVF from Red is working in the cold yet (built in heater), but the old Red EVF will be useless below 0 degrees (no heater). Leave it in the box, it won't work at all. Typically, HD cameras with small tubes in the viewfinders (sony's, Panasonic's, etc) will run in the cold fine. We've run Red's down to about -50, but it wasn't pleasant. Keep your batteries in a cooler with an electric blanket wrapped around them to keep them warm until use. Or better yet, keep them outside the freezer in the warmth until needed. Ni-cad's are less affected by the cold than NiMetal and Li-ion, but if you have large Li-ion's (140, 160, 190) it may not matter so much. Make sure you have stronger FIZ motors available (Preston, M1) as lenses can become quite stiff in deep cold. Dress warmer than you think you need to be, because you stand around more than you move typically. Why does this freezer need to be -20? at -4 it will look plenty cold enough. I hope that helps.

Those look great on paper, but I also notice that same battery type and casing sold under different brand names. Any idea who the actual manufacturer is? And are they really are the same batteries, or are they are just raw parts assembled in different factories. AND if they really ARE all the same with different name plates, who has the cheapest deal going?

Say, anybody out there using Swits or Varizoom batteries (same batteries, different label)? Any thoughts on life, support, flakiness, chargers, etc? And which models are you using? Thanks.

So... the time is coming for me once again to replace a round of batteries. I've always used Anton Bauers and have enjoyed their performance. Buuuutttttt... It's worth opening a dialogue up to see what else is on the market, who's using it and what they think. In a world of big capacity needs and falling budgets, it's worth having a look around at the other options. I fully recognize that IDX and Pag build great battery systems as well and are comparable in price/performance (if not superior in some cases), but I'm mostly interested in hearing about the other brands. You know, the Swits, and Varizooms, and Switronix, and generic rebrand #42 etc, etc, etc. Who's using them, how have they been, how are the chargers, charging time, flakiness factor, capacity, price, performance, lifespan, did it burn your house down, are you on a no-fly list for too many made in china products in your possession, etc, etc, etc... Thoughts? Again, this thread already recognizes that Pag, Anton Bauer, and IDX/Tiffen are the cream of crop. Moving on to the wallmart section of B&H... Thanks!

I've used one of these arms since 2003 and I've only ever had to spend about 1-2 minutes per spring to change from light to heavy. I've found it to be a great workhorse and able to carry the heaviest of setups (panastar w/1000' mag, BL4 w/S4's, full Genesis w/VTR, etc) and quite smooth. Is it a Pro? Nope, but the price difference was quite significant at the time I purchased. I had previously used the 3a and found the smoothness, reach, and strength of the arm to be a great trade off to the "old-style" iso-elasticity of the 3a. Markus also seemed to over-engineer the amount of metal on the arm, something I was appreciating greatly after I foolishly agreed to hard mount to a very high horse-drawn wagon on a very rough road and had to operate at full extension to frame the shot. I think any other arm would've been taxed to stay in one piece based on the lateral torquing and twisting forces with a full panavision package on, but the baer-bel came through with only a spent bearing that was easily replaced. Of course I don't recommend pushing your arm to these kinds of limits, nor do I recommend letting your brain leave your body like mine did that day, but it was an "interesting" test nonetheless. If you find one at a reasonable price I would encourage you to pick it up. If I had to start all over again with the current crop of equipment, I would choose the G70 or Pro first, but would be perfectly happy to fly the Baer-Bel again if that's all my budget allowed. I would recommend the use of one light spring in the front bones for lighter cameras, but it shouldn't take more than a minute or two to change it. I think I can change mine in less than a minute now. Brett

I think it's $3600 for the Steadi version with moveable framelines, and another $400 for the digital level add-on (in a separate box). I've been demoing the Solar 7, daybright version, and I haven't found a situation where I can't see the screen clearly. I'm sure I'll be picking one of these up soon. It also comes with a false colour mode for exposure checks, which I've fallen in love with since using that function on the Red. I really prefer it to a waveform for a quick scan of the image.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to let the cat out of the bag up here in Western Canada, but you guys are frustrated... I'm quite sure Modular 51 is an intermediary. Many of us up here just make a direct call to the manufacturer. Some items are on the shelf ready to go, others are sewn up in batches as you order them. I don't think I've waited longer than 4 weeks, and most orders are only a week away. Textile Innovations (formerly Northwestern textiles) are also known for doing complete custom builds of ANYTHING you can imagine. Entire camera cart rain covers (brilliant!), Genesis VTR and toaster backpacks, custom sled covers, arms covers, pouches in all sorts of sizes, and more custom size bags (with custom pouch configurations, direction of orientation, and material) than you can shake a stick at. You won't find a camera crew from Vancouver to Winnipeg without a small fortune in their products because they are THAT GOOD. I once showed their full size ditty bag to a sizable military textile contractor I know, and he remarked about the quality and said there was no way he could make something similar for less than $450 and break even. I don't know how Colin does it, but I challenge anyone to compare their products to any other manufacturer (minus shipping to France...) keeping in mind that all their products are fully rain-sealed (including "Passchendaele"-intensity rain towers). I have no idea why shipping to France is so expensive. Perhaps the layover for Beaujolais Nouveau? Brett

Ooo! Lots of pictures please! Perhaps video for youtube of the angle of view and the sun in the monitor? Wish I could be there. Thanks Charles!

Okay... the rental house buys a camwave. We hook up the XDCAM 355, everything seems to be going swimmingly. Power good. Picture good. Or seemingly (I'm busy building and balancing while the tech is doing the work with the TX/RX). Show's about to go up and a closer look is taken at the camwave feed and it's flickering intermittently. Plus the occasional vertical lines running through it. So, we check all the cables, all is fine, still no change in the signal. We replace batteries, etc, still no change. Check the positioning of the receiver and it's fine - about 15 - 20 feet away. Use a portable monitor and confirm that the breakup is on the camwave output, not the cable. We also check the camera is stable, and of course, it is. So... I'm the only transmitter in the room for video. We're in a big 'ol NHL hockey rink (Rexall Place in Edmonton) with a large concert setup. it's possible there's audio RF in our world, but most instruments and mics look cabled to my eyes. We try changing frequencies to no avail, and try to move the receiver around with no change. Any thoughts on troubleshooting this? There's not much for options to adjust on the Camwave (hi/lo power, 4 channels, and the uni/multi switch). Any good hints or secrets? Thanks, Brett

Saaaaayyyy... Anybody know where to rent an IDX Camwave transmitter in Canada? Thanks! Brett

Hello all, I just wanted to see if we could share info on what was new and exciting in the world of monitors after NAB. I was hoping some of you will have the opportunity to field test some of the new stuff and generously report back to us (*ahem* Charles). So... Marshall has the new 7.6" OLED monitor that looks very promising. 10,000:1 contrast (but only 200 nits). I'd LOVE to know how this performs in bright sunlight. The case was metal and looked solid, and it was a fairly efficient use of space. It comes with HDSDI, Composite, and Component HD. It aslo has false colour mode, which I've really come to like for exposure use after Red introduced it. Nebtek has a high-brightness LCD at the polishing stages. It is very promising as well. It's around 1000 nits or so and also comes with false colour, HDSDI, Composite, and Component HD. The metal case, again, seems well manufactured. I'm not sure if it will need a heater in cold or extreme cold climates due to the heat from the bright backlight. Somebody should check this one out closely. ABC (Action Products) has a high brightness LCD in the prototype stage as well. It washed out outside when the sun hit straight in the screen, so I think this needs a little work, but could be promising. I didn't spend much time with it, so I don't have much for specs. Anyone? Tiffen has an OLED in the early prototype stage. They said it's a few months of development off. But again, very promising in concept. I wonder what they're aiming at for price? Hmmm... I also wonder if it's they're own screen or Marshall guts. Double Hmmm... Of course, there are the popular existing HD high brightness monitors: Transvideo, Tiffen UB, and Boland. Any other new products I missed out there? Feel free to add more info... Brett

House clearing? Machine Guns? Where do I sign up?! It's the steadicam get-together I've always dreamed of. Sigh...

Doesn't the Klassen harness have an add-on for handheld support? And if so, does anyone have an opinion of that? Brett

Nice work. Can you show some specs and the available options. And a guestimate of a price range? Thanks! Brett