Mitch Gross

In the last five to eight years there's been a number of copycat companies that have manufactured designs that simply borrowed on past concepts without particularly advancing them. Otherwise, pretty much EVERYBODY involved with Steadicam type stabilizers is and was an innovator!

Charles-- I think the DVX100A is superior to the XL2 even for 16x9 finish, and I really don't think much of the Sony HDV camera, especially when using its quasi (read: bullshit) 24p mode. motion and interlace artifacts aplenty, and a lens that is visibly inferior to the chips' resolving power. But that's just me... The Pro35 is a very nice piece of gear, certainly more refined than the Mini35. The groundglass is far superior as it would need to be and the device runs quieter than the Mini, although I understand that the later generations of the Mini35 ran a bit quieter than the first models. Nothing against the Mini35, just that the Pro35 is a nicer bit of engineering. 3x the price nicer? Not my call.

Don't ever power a promter (LCD or not) off a video camera's 4-pin Hirose as it will sure blow the internal fuse. Way too much of a current draw. If the camera has a 2-pin Anton/Bauer style powertap on the battery mount then you can safely power from that. Some battery brands even include a 2-pin powertap on the bricks themselves. And if the camera includes on of the 6-pin Hirose multiconnectors then you can get 12v out of that (don't recall which pins) but this is again not sufficient for an LCD. As for transmitting the video signal, some telepromters use computer screens instead of video screens, which means that the component signals cannot be transmitted with a Modulus. There are workarounds, but one would have to work it all out with the teleprompter operator beforehand. It has been my experience that the teleprompter ops are stunningly unknowledgeable about the technical aspects of their tools, and are thus utterly useless when it comes to such matters.

The batteries are okay, but understand that they are not particularly powerful. Those are only about 40w bricks, so you will need to get a few because they'll only last just so long before needing a recharge. And speaking of that--you'll need to buy a charger as well. These will run you several hundred dollars. A number of manufacturers offer package kits of a couple of batteires and a basic charger for less than the cost of buying them individually. I know Switronix and Frezzi do this, and I believe IDX and others offer this as well. The battery box is okay, just make sure you can mount it properly to your sled. I'd suggest waiting until you have the sled in hand before ordering anything. Doesmn't the manufacturer provide or at least suggest anything? I've never heard of a stabilizer that doesn't come with a battery mount already, if not the batteries themselves. It's like buying half a piece of equipment. That monitor isn't very good for off-axis viewing (looking at it from an angle), which is something you'll need to do constantly. The 400 NITS rating isn't actually that bad, but for the best value in this type of monitor, look into the Panasonic 7" LCD. I can't recall the model number but it's very popular in pro video applications such as this and generally sells for under $500US. A worthy investment. There are great industrial video stores that sell this stuff and can help you pick out what's best for you. In the US there's B&H Photo in NYC and Samy's in LA, and plenty of other outlets as well. Perhaps you can ask around to find out what the equivalent would be in Australia.

Ah I was hopin to here something like that. Any ideas on film stock ? cheers matt <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Kodak's two B&W negative stocks are Plus-X 5231 and Double-X 5222. Plus-X is around ISO 100 (more or less depending on the color temp of the light as it is blue-sensitive) and Double-X is ISO 250. Many DPs (myself included) find Double-X a bit course and overly contrasty, and prefer the look of Plus-X pushed one stop. I would suggest shooting a test. Being in the UK, you do have some other options available to you. Look into Ilford's film stocks, although I think their brief experiment with cutting them for motion picture work is over. There's also Orwo from the former Communist Bloc. But my experience has led me to return to tried and true Kodak. You could also consider shooting color neg. for B&W finish. There's been an interesting thread on the CML about this lately (cinematography.org). Thought this was a Steadicam forum. ;-)

I love 35mm B&W! The image can be so thick and rich, and it's something no one really sees much anymore so it has an instant artifice that really sets it apart in a wonderful way. You can get away with some fairly extreme stylistic lighting and the audience will go with it. Pity we rarely get to play with it anymore. There was a time when there were two cinematography awards at the Oscars each year, one for B&W and one for color. Oh well.

No way, that's a separate count. After a few years you should have a tin full of several handfuls of adapters.

Thomas officially needs to go on a date, get drunk and get some therapy (not necessarilly in that order) before it's too late and he begins hunting humans.

This begs for a poll: How many different cables do you have in your kit? I'm betting there are at least a few members of this forum with more than 100. I'm talking EVERY cable in the kit. I bet Larry has more than 1000!

I think the new Tiffen Flyer might fit that bill. Financially, where does one peg the dollar amount for "bargain" stabilizers? By the way, Hollywood Lite the COMPANY is gone, but not their products. Varizoom bought out the product line and continues to sell it.

You can use the higher voltage batteies no problem, but understand that the XL-1 is a 7.2v camera so you will need a voltage converter of some sort to deal with this. A simple thing but make sure you know what you're doing or you could fry your toys. There are many brands of battery makers out there, especially in the NP-1 market. Check out the Frezzi website for lots of fun toys. I also like the products of a relatively new company, Switronix. The idea behind a dual battery box is to run the bricks in parallel for longer run times. It's probably not that important for your application. The reasons for batteries on a stabilizer sled is twofold. One to power the monitor and any other accessories (possibly but not necessarilly the camera) and two to provide counterbalance on the lower stage in the rear. This creates the magic triangle of balance between the camera on top, the monitor on the front of the lower stage and the battery on the back. I'm not familiar with the stabilizer you've purchased, but I think you could simply power the XL-1 off its own battery and use the NP-1 to power the sled's monitor.

What kind of battery mount does the rig have? This will be the limiting factor on your choices. If you can get an NP-1 mount then this is the cheapest, most common battery solution. You can look into companies like Swit, Switronix, and many others for NP-1 mount batteries. If it is Anton Bauer mount then you're limited to Anton Bauer, PAG or Frezzi. If you can stick your own battery mount on there, then consider going to the hardward store and picking up a DeWalt cordless drill battery and charger. You can rip apart a charger for the mount and it will still be very cheap.

Try another Modulus transmitter. They can vary a lot from unit to unit, especially depending on the abuse they've received over the years. Also put the 6db pad onto the antenna output and pick up a longer whip antenna that is more specific to the frequency on which you are transmitting. Wolf Seeburg sells these for $50 each. The combination of pad and longer antenna weakens the output of the transmitter while taking the specific frequency you do want and strengthening it. Offers much better results and substantially less interference. I baby my Modulus and it has never affected the signal recorded to tape on any camera. But I have heard of this problem from others. Not all Modulus 3000 transmitters are equal.

I've been wondering about that front mount on the backmount Klassen harness for Garrett ever since that photo was posted. Seems to defy much of the physical logic of the backmount design, but then again in the end the weight is still distributed to the hipbone and the spine fully supported by the rigid back. Garrett is far, far more clever than I, so I would never question his judgement!

Arriflex, Cine 60, CP and others made flatbase adapters for the 2C. Essentially a gearbox, it moves the stalk motor (aka handgrip) to the dummy side of the camera. You use the same motor, just move it out of the way. If you do use the old hihat adapter, note that it has threaded holes in the base to fit it to a tripod or in this case your sled's plate. But the tiedown between the camera and the hihat is fairly weak and at the back of the camera where flexing can occur in movement. Use some webbing or strapping to cinch the camera tight to the hihat. Good luck on mounting a focus motor!

Alright Howard, you simply MUST post those pictures now! I'd want to see them just to see the Mitchell on a sled, but to see KUBRICK's Mitchell with the famous NASA lens on a rig... Sweet.

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Leigh-- Go to the Panavision New Zealand website to find a nice calculator to convert relative focal lengths between formats. http://www.panavision.co.nz/main/kbase/ref...lenseqvform.asp On your DV5000, if you can keep the cross in the middle at around 50mm then you're doing quite well. You'll want to practice walking forward and backwards and Don Juan (body facing away from subject with the camera facing back). The next exercise is to follow moving objects. Time to terrorize your dog! If you ever get to the point where you can keep that cross stable at 128mm, congratulations--you've just become a Fisher dolly!

That chart is a great aide and I know many people laminate it for reference. Btw, it's CAVISION, not cadvision. The nicer gear ring available from Abel is made by Century Precision Optics and it has the advantage of also having a white ring to allow for visible marks on the lens. Not that they'll remain accurate, but there's a lever which allows you to disengage the ring and reset the position relative to the gear so that the marks are again accurate. The trick is simply not to shut off the camera or even let it drop out of standby mode. Somewhere in the menus there's a setting for disabling the auto shutoff in standby, which otherwise usually kills the power after 5 minutes. Should the camera need to be shutoff (or put into VTR mode or whatever), simply set the lens to infinity (99 on the viewfinder focus scale) and reset the focus gear to this position.

The toughest part is likely to be keeping the subject in the center of the frame. I'd get some ND or light gel and tape it to the monitor, leaving a narrow vertical window where the actor should always be framed. This way you can always see the full frame through the gel but easily see that the actor is in proper position. I once had to keep an actress jogging in frame in a very telephoto shot with her head at exactly the right spot for a matte painting. Even though I was on tripod I chose to operate off a monitor that I blacked off except for a little window for her head. It made it easier to keep her in that little window.

Careful. I've seen bolts cut their way through the top of those nuts when cranked down with wrenches. Don't think this would be an issue for you, but you may have to occassionally replace the nuts (like every few years).

As I understand it (and I'm no metalurgist or engineer either), it is a question of static pressure v. torque force. The arm and sled put a lot of energy into the socket block. In the traditional mount the static pressure of the weight load is horizontal and the torque force perpendicular to the mount, but with the back mount design these are reversed. I think the only true way to test what this means is to take a rig into a metal stress lab and have them abuse it in all possible configurations until they blow it apart and determine what loads are really appropriate. Any volunteers? :lol:

Optex just introduced a new MPEG-2 recorder that seems right up the Steadicam alley. http://www.pbm3.com/trk/ct.aspx?x=aa0.2841.970609

I believe this is more an issue of the individual Modulus more than the individual video deck. The Modulus is a notoriously "dirty" unit; just have fun going through the UHF band and counting the additional bleed-through channels and harmonics. Perhaps the people here having issues own particularly nasty transmitters.

Aww Jim, you let him pull it out of you! So much for double-secret probation! I thought we needed the secret decoder ring to talk about it. Spendin' too much time in my Cone Of Silence.