JasonMcKelvey

Where can I get a good price on a new modulus transmitter? Thanks,

Please search the archives, there is a LOT of discussion about ProVid upgrading. The jist of it is, the ProVid sled and vest are also rated up to 26 lbs., so you could upgrade the arm to a IIIA or something, but you would put strain on the vest and sled. You can get a used EFP or IIIA package for about the same price as a ProVid if you are patient. J

Please don't buy any ABC product above what you have!!! I know a guy personally that bought the CN and it's awful. Of all the bad things about it, it is NOT Steadicam/PRO/Glidecam/MK-V compatible. Get a used IIIA, EFP, ProVid 2, Glidecam Gold or whatever, just not an ABC CN. Stay standard compatible. Happy flying. J

Well, I've been reading this forum for several years now, and finally got to operate on a real shoot. I've chosen to used the term "real shoot" only when I knew it was going to broadcast (straight to video or training video would have been fine too) and not just the few minutes operating here and there I've had so far. It wasn't much, but I think starting small is just fine with me... don't want to bite off too much. I've learned enough from my operator friends to feel confident in simple short moves, so I aranged to rent a Hollywood Lite from a guy I met recently for $150 for the day. He has a full time job and does "steadicam" on the side. It's rated to hold up to 25 pounds so I was OK with my Panasonic SDX900 with Canon 9x5.2. We shot in 50mbs mode in 16x9. The subject matter was all architectual, walking down a curved walkway with columns on both sides, then some roundyrounds around several different columns pointing up at the top. I'll try to post some footage for criticing. I just wanted to encourage all the other guys hoping to get into the field. This was a very short shoot, only about 1 hour total at this location with maybe 15 to 20 minutes of flying so fatigue wasn't a factor, and very simple walks so safety wasn't a great factor. And, it only cost us $150. If my church (my job) gets hooked on the look, I'll let them send me to a workshop. Keep your eyes peeled guys for oportunities like this where you can use a light-weight rig and get some experience. Heck, for $150, even if it was just for practice we could have got it, and, we got to keep it over the weekend even. On a technical note, the Hollywood Lite rig was very difficult to operate. It had dynamic balance capability, but that was about it. The arm location is all wrong... hard to explain, but just weird. And there was no pitch ajustment on the socket block so it constanly was swinging out away from me and no amount of posture adjustment helped. I see why they went belly up. Anyway, I made it work and it will only make operating a better rig that much easier. To the vets, thanks for all the tips and information over the years. Reading this board over the years truely truely made this small step possible and fruitful. PS get in shape before you operate. Sincerely,

What about getting a couple of 4 Gig cards ($500), then dumping them to a laptop every hour or so? I would think that since it holds 2 cards, you could keep recording on 1 while the other is uploaded to a laptop. Assuming you own a laptop, you could keep reusing the cards.

Didn't see any posts on this: Fast Forward Video (FFV) Mini DVR Pro and OEM Outrider DVR dual compact flash or 2.5" hard drives 5.7x3.5x8 inches user selectable compression 4 to 20 minutes per GB NTSC/PAL composite and YC in/out 7-25VDC www.ffv.com PDF http://www.ffv.com/documents/MiniDVRProDataSheet_000.pdf

I searched the archives, but didn't see any info on this. They are selling stuff on Ebay a lot. There website stinks. Anyone seen one in action? The seem to have a full system, rig, arm and vest. Cost? Useability? Reliability? Curious, Jason

Mr. Rush, www.tiffen.com sends me to to something called "Cobalt"... not Tiffen. Even the google link sends me to it. Jason

Benjamin wrote about microforce I've found that the rotating zoom control like on the newer canon and fuji lenses is nice because you can use the stationary part of the controller as a point of reference to the rotating ring by putting your thumb half on the zoom ring and half on the handle. Doing this, once you find the speed you like, you can squeeze it hard and the speed won't change no matter what manouvers you do. With the microforce, you can't feel very well how much force you are using... it's based soley on the pressure of your thumb with no point of reference. I would image that while trying to boom down, it would be difficult to keep from applying force to your thumb. Like someone else said, I have also found the front to back lens zoom style to have iffy response. My opinions, J

It could have been live, Letterman is shot early enough to still be daylight, but the big question for me is, if it was shot live, did they have a SERIOUSLY long triax cable, or a wireless triax system like the D-Cam or Link system. I doubt they used wireless, and I doubt they would risk cables... leaning me towards pre-recorded. My opinion, Jason

Watching movies over the years, I always look for the steadicam operator in windows and shiny cars. Some of the time when I see an operator (case in point last night on a big feature movie) I see he is wearing white shoes and white tube socks... pulled up all the way at that! I've heard people on the forum rightly criticize that Basson thingy for being yellow and chrome... is there a conscience decision made on what to wear on a job? Jason PS, yes i did consider putting this in the newbie forum... but thought it would get a wider response of operators in General Discussion. Sorry if I ticked anybody off.

The broadcast standard for video sets limits to how bright the brightest whites are and how black the blacks are. NTSC standards state that the blackest you want blacks to be on a waveform is 7.5 IRE. Japan uses 0 IRE for true black. So, with DV products coming out of Japan, it's no wonder that there are standards problems. I know for a fact that the dvx100 and the pd150 have the option to set setup to 0 or 7.5 IRE. It would make sense to me that if the picture looks dark, the camera is set to 0. If some has access to one of these cameras, you could hook it up to your rig and switch it back and forth to 0 and 7.5. Also check it on playback back and forth. As a side note, this will affect your editing system and final output. It might look good on your rig, but the final product might have double setup (15 IRE) and look washed out when recorded out of the NLE to another DV deck (which might boost the black yet again by another 7.5). I don't know if this is your problem though, usually it just looks really contrasty because the blacks are too low... not necessarily the whole picture looks dark. Hope this helps. Jason

Could it be that both DV camcorders were set to 0 setup intstead if 7.5 IRE setup? Jason

every time I log in, I have to do it twice before it recognizes me. Anybody know why? Jason

Can the ProVid be dynamically balanced? If not, are there any solutions? Jason