Osvaldo Silvera SOC

Hi folks... on the top stage there is a little Red safety tab....where you almost need two hands in order to unlatch the plate. This is a part that I wish was on the wave as well but being that the wave latching mechanism is almost cradled inside of the two arcs I feel a little safer with that one and I was very happy to see the safety mechanism on the top stage when I got it. I'll send you guys short video clip of it tomorrow. I too had heard some folks saying it was vibration-free and other folks saying that there were vibrations and then I heard that they made some improvements to the bottom of the stage last year to address those concerns. The bottom of my top stage is just a little different than the bottom of others that I have seen for sale. I have used it for 6 days of operating since receiving it in the last 3 weeks and it's great. I have not done a running shot with it yet though and that's the true test for me. The rods that come with it are just a little bit long for me but the threading is very similar to other branded screw in rods so I will take it to a machinist for them to tell me the pitch and thread count to see if I can find a less expensive alternative to the rods so I can buy another set and chop them down to the right length. I would do it to the ones that I already have but I rather keep them as an alternative in case I need the length later on. I have a db2 and a db3 both with the optical support front rods and I'll keep at least one of those until I'm certain that I love it and until I have the modification done by David Hable..

I just found out there is a 7" Betz plate. if anyone has one stateside let me know, looking. Thanks. Also looking for the short rods for the Betz Top stage.

Hi. You touched on a few things I had not in my post. It took 30 minutes for me to put in the first contact and when it was time to take it out at night another 10-15 and each time my eye was sore and tired from the monumental effort. My wife helped several times, it was no fun. I explained it as having my eye have a mind of it's own and fighting tooth and nail the thought of something foreign touching it. I was told I could keep it on my eye a few days at a time but my body was making quite a bit of protein to ward off the contact and I would need to remove it each night to clean it. I did sleep with them a few times and it was great to see the phone clearly without having to grab the glasses. At night it was definitely worse. Even now as one would expect nigh time is a wee bit more difficult. My right eye which is my far seeing eye will benefit greatly from the Lasek in sharpening the far vision at night and increasing my depth of field closer to me a bit. The costs..... This Dr has his office in Miami Lakes, FL. The surgeries that this Doctor performs are only done at Bascom Palmer eye institute in the City of Miami. ( About 25 minutes away from his office) The Hospital charged me $750 when I got there for the Hospital fee, nothing else. The Dr himself charged me $950 per eye for the consultation and the surgery, ( only 1 eye for me so far) now when you think of the amount of times I saw him and the care he took to make sure everything was going smoothly it's a fantastic price. The prices on both the hospital and the procedure and care/consultation/office visits might have gone up slightly in the last year but probably not by much. the drops that I used and the restasys drops afterwards were all under $200. First consult was a very in depth eye test, then testing of a contact, then a few days later a phone call to see how it's going, at the 2 week mark an evaluation visit, in my case I wanted to change to a slighter lighter augmentation, so another 2 weeks till the next consulation, we decided on that level of correction. and a week later did the surgery on a Friday 8am, I had a protective bandage contact placed on my eye . Had a headache, an eye ache. just hung out at home. the next day on Saturday at 9am I was to be at his office, he inspected how things were healing, said my bandage contact would stay in until Monday. I went back on Monday, he sais he loved what he saw, and removed the contact bandage.... now at this point I'm still seeing blurry, but no longer taking tylenol for the discomfort. Just felt like I bumped my eye on the eyepiece during a jerky dolly move. All this time I'm on a strict regimen of eye drops. one drop 3x per day, another 2x per day, and everytime I would go see him, there would be tests, measurements and the frequency of drops and amounts would change. within 2 weeks I was off the drops and the surgery was "set". by that I mean complete. You see the completion of the siurgery was done with the drops. Your eyes tend to want to revert back to how they were before the laser changed things up in an effort to heal themselves from that trauma, so the drops help control the eyes natural tendency to do that and let the work heal and then the eye will not be able to revert back. not sure if that makes any sense, but the drops help SLOOOOOOWWWWW the healing so it sets in... So all in all I must have seen him 5-6 times in a 2 week time span from the date of the surgery and 3 times before the surgery.. I paid the Dr $950 and the hospital $750, when I get my right eye done it will probably be the same or a bit more since I guess it's gone up a bit. IF you have been wearing contacts for more than 2 weeks then you'd have to have them off for a solid 2 weeks before the first visit so that the curvature of your eye is back to normal for proper measurements.. It's really fascinating. The fact that we as operators understand lenses and curvature and light refraction, etc makes for a very interesting back and forth conversation with this Dr. and it also lets him know he can use the big words, hehehehe. After this pandemic is finally slowed down and over, Miami is a fun place to come get it done and recover, Ozzie

Hiya folks. Price is now $2950 shipped anywhere in the USA. best, Ozzie

Hi Geoff, I loved reading thru this thread. I'll tell you my story. Years ago...I turned 41 , Great year. My 1st child was born and during that year I noticed I was spinning the diopter on the Broadcast Eyepieces closer and closer to one side, effectively needing to increase the magnification in the eyepiece. My Far vision was impeccable at 20/10 both eyes. My close vision went from being able to focus on my thumbnail at 6" to having to hold it at the furthest extent of my arm. then even further. For steadicam this was still fine. since the monitor ( Always a Transvideo) was always between 2ft-4ft away. Then I started noticing that not EVERYTHING between the 1.5ft to 4ft was in focus, and the diopter was now ALL the way to one side. When much younger directors or DP's would look in my Tripod or Dolly mounted camera their first reaction was ("Oh shit, dude is this how you see!?")... I went to the eye Dr. my wife went to for years ( she started using glasses at like 13 years old) They said Yep, You need glasses but just barely. So I was precribed a set that was +.75 on one eye and +1.0 . I was officially Farsighted and my Near sight was starting to go.. My wife was -7.5 !, she could see with no contacts or glasses things 2" from her eyes, but at 5ft. she wouldn't know it was me. I wore the glasses for 2 years, then my vision went to needing 1.0 in one eye and 1.25 in the other. Also using the glasses while driving weakened my eyes. The DR always said to Only use them when I'm not driving or when I need to see something close up, but I was lazy , new to glasses and I liked to see my gauges in focus at night....so I left them on all the time....fast forward to 3 years ago when I went to the Dr again for a prescription evaluation and he said my prescription had not changed and I was a candidate for laser correction....I had heard about Lasik many times and at this office they always advertised LASEK?. My Dr. first explained that LASIK uses a technique where they cut and peel back the top clear layer of the eye, perform the laser adjustment and then the flap gets folded back over and it heals very quickly, I'm back to work the next day....BUT.... there were the semi common cases where the patient would experience a halo effect when in a room with many bulbs or light sources, even halos when looking at oncoming lights from a car in the night for instance... He further explained that it was like making a perfect cut in a round clear glass globe, then replacing the cut glass in the same space. there would now be several surfaces adjacent to each other where the light would refract and bounce around instead of going right thru smoothly. He went on to say that this would go away over several months to several years when the body completely regenerated that clear tissue...( time depended on each individuals own body and how it regenerates damaged tissue)......I was Absolutely NOT doing that. My luck I would be one of those seeing the Halo and get to a live award show and have 350 halos starring back at me from the lights in the grid and on stage... He then tells me about LASEK, and that the laser goes thru the front of the eye without the peel back of the top layer. He also tells me it has better results for near sighted folks than for far sighted ones and the recovery is quite a bit longer. He says that for Far sighted candidates he would do one eye one month and the other eye the following month, that there would be discomfort for several days and he suggested not working for 2-3 days after the surgery. There is a strict regimen of drops in the eye several times a day and several office visits for the first couple of weeks so see the advancement of the drops, etc.. BUT for near sighted folks, it would be one eye per week...... So.....I offer up my wife! He was very familiar with my wifes eyes and after some discussion and another eye test for her, he tells me she's a perfect candidate. She had the surgery on a Wednesday and her first eye was uncomfortable for a couple of days and she was seeing a bit blurry the first day and more and more clear each day after that, by the time the following week came around to do the other eye she could see perfectly Near and Far from the first eye. The second surgery was the same. and 2 weeks from the first surgery my wife for the first time since her early teens could see perfectly. I was excited.. He tells me that Far sighted folks would not achieve the perfect Near AND Far sight that Near sighted folks would. So we experimented. He gave me a single contact to wear on my left eye for 2 weeks and see how my brain did. It turns out it took about a day and a half for me to get really used to being able to see great closer up with my left and using my right to see distance. After a couple of those 2 week trials with different contacts we settled on a number and did the surgery only on my left eye. It took me 2 weeks to really settle my left eye after surgery. It's been great ever since. going on my 2nd year. Even though I only did my left eye, I have not used glasses since. I plan to get my right eye done this summer. The plan is to sharpen the distance while also getting a wee bit of closer focus capability in my right eye with that surgery. The surgeries were quite painless themselves and affordable from the comparison I did for months before hand. All his surgeries are done at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute in Miami. My wifes eyes are still great, no issues at all. My Dr tells me that at some point I will need some reading glasses only for very close up work like soldering, etc.. I kept my .75 glasses and those are perfect for working on small soldering jobs.. That's my story..... Osvaldo SIlvera s.o.c.

there was a dock mounted timer from CP.. dos anyone have a pic of this thing?

Hmmm, would like to see it at work connected to the unit. Is it a stiff cable?

Finally got the Betz Stage 2 weeks ago. Been working with it for the last 5 days. Great Top stage! Thinking about doing the Cramped Attic modification to lower the whole thing just a bit. Ozzie

Hi folks. Looking for a used Betz camera plate. I'm gonna cut one end of it shorter so it can be rough looking as long as it's still fully functional. DM me with details. Thanks. Ozzie Miami, FL

Hi folks. Looking for a lightly used LP4 charger. Just shopping around.. Funds are not as plentiful at the moment so looking for used. Best, Ozzie

The Optical Support Lever Latch system has been sold. What's left is the DB3 regular OEM and has the Optical Support 15mm rods. Price $3050 shipped anywhere in the Continental US. Email or text for pics. Ozzie

UPDATE: GPI Plate has been sold. Price is now $3500. After a few inquiries about the plate and OS parts, I'll return the DB3 to OEM with the regular latch and the Diving board up front, and have the OS parts available separately . Both the 15mm Rod upgrade for the front, and the Latching mechanism. They are pricey though. and the plate will be separately as well. Other prices for the OS parts will be coming in a few days if the Built stage doesn't sell. Ozzie

Hi folks, Selling my trusty DB3, I did the optical support lever upgrade as well as the 2-15 mm accesory support rods up front. It is used but in great working shape. On the non latching side you will see a square hole that is where the tension lever used to be and that is what you're left with when you do the optical support upgrade with tool less Latch. You might also notice some gray putty around a bracket that supports the right side fore aft inching knob, the DB was like that when I bought the donkey box over 7 years ago and that glue did come undone probably from a bump while being handled about a year or more later. I returned it to GPI for repair and was told that the thread for that screw was stripped and the only repair was to reglue it the same way since that bracket doesn't really hold any tension and it's been perfect ever since. Comes with a new GPI Pro plate. This was the same top stage that worked with me on Moonlight, The Florida Project, Waves, The Kid who only hit Homers and Dayplayed on Bad Boys 3, the upcoming Zola and Reminiscence. As well as 50 or so music videos... it's a great part. It had never let me down. I have a practically new DB2 in the meantime. I'm just working on doing some other modifications at the moment and this piece can go onto the next smoothoperator. The DB3 does have Silverafilm engraved on the forward lip, It's small and can't be seen unless you're looking under the camera plate . You can fill that in with a black grease pencil and then wipe it down and it would be almost imperceptible. I can sell it with the Optical support lever and rods or I can turn it back into a regular db3 and put in the GPI diving board up front. Price is the same. $3700. Price includes shipping anywhere in the United States. Zelle is prefered but if you'd like to use Paypal that's fine, just add the 3% paypal fee. If you'd like it shipped outside the US you decide what shipping service you want to use and pay for that service. Please don't ask me to put any other price other than the actual selling price on the Customs forms, this will keep both of us out of trouble. Thanks for taking a look. Pictures at the Google Link below. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1X4-fMuBDzCI07NaCUPm6LQc89h7jYG2k Price $3700.USD. Best, Ozzie

Hugo makes an awesome arm. Easy to service yourself. Highly recommend!!

Great deal!, WHoever buys them can send the one with the broken screen back to Ritter and they will fix that up quick and get it right back to you cheap.