Keith Wood

That's about as useful a description as trying to explain the taste of salt in text messages. "Lots" as in how many? How long, how big? Are you talking about carrying them from place to place during a shoot, or hauling them from home to location, setting the carrier down and coming back to it when needed? Little ones? Try nylon binders, like loose-leaf organizers and notebooks go into, Bigger, or more of them? Briefcase. A lot or big ones? Luggage. Hit the swap meet or thrift shops, and you can set up your outfit on the tightest budget. Hang the cables inside the case with Velcro straps. A good source for these straps is also at thrift shops -- leg and ankle braces with Velcro closures. Carefully cut the threads holding them on, and you can find yourself with plenty of 2" x 20" straps for pennies each. Bind the cables with the straps, then hang the straps in the case or just lay them loose inside.

There is no shortage of good Sony ENG digital camcorders, CHEAP. Check Craigslist. Since you're practicing with it, you can get the DSR300 and be happy. I don't want to think about what these cost when they came out -- I've got a DSR300 on the market for $250 and a DSR500WS on the market for $500. You can probably find a similar deal in your area, walk up, talk him down, and wonder why you ever used consumer cams.

The scumbag probably just grabbed a target of opportunity that felt heavy enough to be valuable. Hope when he realizes how hard it will be to sell, that he just abandons it somewhere that it gets found.

My back hurts just looking at the pic. Have I mentioned lately that I LIKE my Pilot and the EX1R that rides it? ;)

Rental houses around here offer your choice. But remember, they carry what people ask for, it has nothing to do with relative quality (or videotape rental stores would have had Betacam rather than VHS). I have been using both for years. Neither has a clear advantage over the other, but AB has a certain amount of snob appeal, simply because consumer equipment never used anything that looked like it.

Is there any chance that the missing stuff will be found? If so, and if you're not in a hurry, then give it some time to see what happens. If not, but you're still not in a hurry, keep checking for replacements to show up for sale. If you're in a hurry, start over and get another complete rig. Time is the one thing that you can't buy.

Not enough of them.

I just had a fun experience -- we have winds currently 20 knots with gusts to 45, and _I_ had to dynamic balance and then shoot what might be a news segment in the near future, using an EX1R on a Pilot. I think my deadcat lost some of its fur. I felt like Mike Jittlov, when he says "Union animators the world around will wonder how we got so much MOTION!" ["The Wizard of Speed and Time" feature] None of the available windbreaks helped for balancing (I finally ducked into an airplane hangar), but if I have time later, I'll experiment to see the effects of short-sled v. long-sled in wind. On the one hand, a shorter sled has less surface for the wind to affect, while on the other hand, the longer sled is less responsive to the wind that hits it.

Nice "Making of" vid. That last couple of minutes isn't very long, except when you forget to breathe while watching!

Brooks mentioned a problem which came up when he was doing "Suicide Kings." The original gig was supposed to be several weeks, then it bounced back and forth until it finally was a three-day commitment from the production company. He set up another gig to immediately follow the three days, and everyone had heartburn over it when he left. I solved the early-go problem a few years back. When I start a time-limited project of any sort, I tell them up front that, since they are saying that I will be finished on a particular day, I will consider myself available for other work starting the day after -- then I offering the option of paying me a daily fee (and continued expenses) to hold off. They pay by the week at a time, with at least a week's notice. If they don't work me, I get a week off on partial pay. If they work me on any particular day, the fee for that day is rolled into the day's pay. If they want me onsite all day in case they need me, the fee is higher than if they just need me on call with an hour's notice, and that's higher than if I just have to check in to see if I'm needed the next day. Fees are negotiable, depending on location (if it was daily check-in someplace like Hawai'i, I'd just take room and board) and how much work was available. This makes everyone happy. They know at the outset that if they don't want to pay a "deposit," I may be unavailable for extra work. If they want flexibility, they can get it without breaking the bank. Yes, I could make more if I jumped right to the next job than if I just get the standby pay, but this depends on other factors -- I'll take the known money AND keeping the people who hire me happy. Just an idea, I dunno if it will work for anyone else but it's done fine for me for quite a while.

Nobody ever got fired for buying Pelican. However, I carry my whole Pilot rig (Sled, arm, vest, bttys n charger, knee armor, tape, tools etc) in a nothing-special rolling suitcase that cost $20 at a yard sale, doesn't weigh as much as the Pelican and looks a lot less like it's worth stealing.

Back when I was young, and dinosaurs ruled the Earth, God looked down and saw that all was good . . .except there was a need for TAPE. And not just ANY tape, it was needful that this tape have specific properties, because it was to be used for special ordinances to be performed by His anointed servants, those who OBEYED when He said "Let there be light!" And thus was created Gaffer's Tape, and it was Permacel, and it was Good. However, apostasy grew, and Permacel gave way to Shurexpensivetape, while many of the faithless arose, some crying "Lo (price), here!" and others "Lo (residue), there!" and promising the most cost effective form of Gaffer's Tape. Now, confusion reigns in the land, and this poor pilgrim traveling without scrip or purse -- or, not MUCH scrip or purse -- has a need for such a tape, but can't buy samples of every brand on the market. Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about the various brands out there?

Stabilization is all about ENERGY. You input it, and the rig has to attenuate it. One way to attenuate energy is to swamp it -- in the case of inertia, that means putting it into mass. More mass means that it takes more energy to get the same effect. In lightweight gear like you and I are using, that also means SKILL, learning to move while also putting less energy into the rig. This takes practice and a rig that is properly set up -- and lightweight rigs are more sensitive to balance and technique than one flying a 25-lb camera, just like it's harder to paint a portrait than to paint a house. Check YouTube for videos on the Pilot and the Merlin, and you'll see the difference in technique. They are subtle but definite, not a whole new song, but a "golden oldie" in a different accent. Watch Garrett Brown in this vid (flying an 8-lb cam), and compare to the technique you see in big-cam videos: Notice also that he has added weight to gain more stability, how little he had to add, and WHERE he has added that weight. This is the answer to your question. Now look at these guys. Everything they do can be done big-cam, but watching this, you can almost FEEL the feather-lightness. Kaze

I think this pretty much covers the "lack of support" question . . . ;) The couple of times I've called Tiffen, the support was above-and-beyond, even though it was for really cheap stuff.

You might get fabric or deadcat rings to go around the tires, with elastic to hold them in place. Slip on, slip off.

I want to see the vest you'd put on a Clydesdale! Seriously, it wouldn't be too hard to modify a saddle horn with a post for hard mounting.

I've got adapters to go from either to the other. More than once, that has saved me some serious problems in the field. If you can meet the weight range using the adapter, that's the way that I would go. Check Ebay.

Andrew, what is your use? Unless you are doing something where there isn't any kind of break to swap batteries, stacking isn't useful. If you are in a position to hang the weight of a battery stack, you should consider the full-house AB instead of the V, especially if you have the need for more battery time. While Brett hates the V, I have a love-hate relationship with AB, developed in the years since I was wearing a battery belt (and dinosaurs ruled the Earth). I currently have 2 cams and 3 field editing decks (all Sony) that take V, and one cam (Panasonic) that takes AB. It wasn't hard for me to go with the Pilot that takes V (which will also feed the cam that takes Sony packs, once I get the power cord built), and even after I sell off the Panasonic, I'll hang onto a couple of the AB batteries and the smart charger. BTW, Brett, I would point out that the AB is just about as easy to drop as the V -- apropos of nothing, I'll mention that there isn't much left of a battery pack that falls a couple of thousand feet after the gold mount release button bumps against the door frame of a Huey. And some people have asked me about the strip of gaffer's tape I sometimes wrap around whatever battery I'm hanging . . .

Quart size plastic bag, slid down over then held taut across the monitor face with gaffer's tape across the back.

Remember that the arm doesn't care WHERE the weight is, other than out at the end. You don't have to put it on the sled, you can hang it on the arm bones or the post. Depending on how much weight you need to add, you might even put a spare battery carrier there.

Try making a hood. If you still get too much glare, make the hood for all 4 sides, then put dark nylon stocking mesh across the front, and see if that helps. The best glarestopper I ever made was done like this, with one hood about 2" tall, the mesh across that, then ANOTHER 2" hood above that (to keep the mesh away from direct sunlight).

Always nice to know who gives good support, not just who doesn't.

It just struck me today that I have a perfectly good set of Sachtler sticks. Can anyone think of any reason mot to use a tripod instead of a stand?

Sounds like fun -- but my guess is that it will just make me wish that I could justify a bigger rig. ;) I might end up down there, you never know.

I'm a couple of thousand miles from Brooklyn, but thanks for the offer. Good luck!