Lawrence Karman

Robert, I strongly advise against cutting a reel together using video tap footage. Framelines, crosshairs and flicker are distracting. Always looked cheesy to me, especially when viewed against other reels that have actual footage cut together. Also, there is no matching sound to go along with it. I know you have to wait, sometimes until the project is aired or released on DVD to get the footage, but it is worth it.

I flew this camera for a week on a doc. and had zero problems. We had several of them and they all worked fine. Used P2 cards as recording media. I am curious why they chose to use a fire wire drive on the Steadicam when you had P2 cards? Surely the length of a take was short enough on a commercial to justify not having to fly the troubleing drive, no?

Try cleaning the contacts on the batteries and the chargers with a pencil eraser or a sharp object.

The baby was 100% CG. Amazing. The sequence was shot by the 2nd unit, with Lubetski's input. Fantastic job all around, even without Steadicam.

I just wired up a new cable from the docking pod connector. I found in my cable, at least, the video out was WHITE not YELLOW. Also used one of the bare shields for video ground. Hope this helps.

I was told by a salesman at an Apple store that while the Intel Mac was capable of running Windows, you voided the warranty as soon as you used it in Windows mode. too many virus opportunities in that mode. I never heard them advertise this fact. I don't mean to sound negative here, but your new Preston toy sounds like it is using up a lot of your free time. Are you guys camera operators or focus pullers? Move on and let the AC's work this stuff out.

George Richmond was the operator. He was my 2nd once. He was actualy singled out in thew LA Times review. Haven't ever seen that before. Props to George! Hope to see the film soon. The LA Times had a picture and article on Saturday about the long moving car sequence. They used an underslung compact remote head that was hung off speed rail on track where the roof was cut out and able to travel N,S,E,and W inside the car. The seats were modified so the actors could drop them and get out of the way of the camera. Getting the actors to do that and act a difficult scene was a major achievment. I can barely get some of them to hit a mark or exit frame on the correct side of the camera; forget about moving things out of my way!

If that is the Panasonic HD camera you are talking about, I flew it with great success with a modified Video SK rig which I believe was the Prototype for the Flyer. It was nice to have the beefier arm, as I added a video transmitter and wireless audio receiver. Nice to have a little more rig than you need to carry the extra weight. I have flown the Flyer at Cinegear, but only with a very light mini DV camera. It was quite nice, though.

Dave, get yourself a small video distribution amplifier. Video Accesory Corp makes several models that are small and light and run off of a 9v battery or 12v. www.vac-brick.net

I will. Have fun on Jerico; HD, ugh.

Sorry but I go in on Grey's a few times a month and they are not using this system this year. Too much fuss over the delay I was told and the picture broke up as well.

My wife and I were talking about her recent missing UPS shipment and I told her of your problems with UPS damaging your cases. As I am always wrong, she told me that UPS advises all shipments to be wrapped in at least 2"s of packing materiel inside the box. I replied this is a shipping case! and went to their web site to check. Damn it she was right again. Why do I even try? Here is an excerpt from their web site: "Each item should be surrounded by at least two inches (5 cm) of cushioning and be placed at least two inches (5 cm) away from the walls of the box. This will protect your items from product-against-product damage and shield them from the shock and vibration that can be conducted from the exterior of the box to its contents in transit." It would seem that A&J will have a hard time recouping their costs if they only shipped that case in a cardboard box without padding. By the way, A&J could easily replace the broken panel only, not the whole case. I've had it done more times than I would care to remember.

I'm glad you said it, Alec, because I would have if you didn't. Posting this kind of info gives the producers the knowledge of how low to set the bar and certain operators an idea of how much to undercut the competition.

You are welcome to borrow mine, as my rig is sitting in the camera truck foam bed when not in use for the next couple of weeks and my hard case is in the garage. Otherwise is there not some Pelican case available over the counter right now. I'm sure Irwin has 12 of them.

It's true, the newest of the Archos line-up needs the hard cradle for input. Even though it is cheaper and possibly better video quality than the 400 or 500 series it is not the model to use on the rig. Better to find the older models.

www.markertek.com sells pre-made thin BNCin various lengths. I've also made my own, but this is much simpler and well priced too.

Did you use an "arrrrr" bracket?

I know mine (400 series)will not detect a B&W signal if "source" is set to "automatic"; it has to be set to "B&W" I assume you tried scrolling through the different input options?

Regarding the Dbox 3 I'd have to say adjustment every couple of weeks and several times the last few days.

[ And anything is better than the old CP gimbals. Larry how does that MK-V upgrade work on the older PRO gimbal. Does it still activate a clamp at the gimbal? Or does it just clamp down at the bottom of the handle? What kind of center post do you have? My gut feeling is that there will be less discrepancies in diameter with a Carbon Fiber post than there will with an Aluminium post. Anyone? Anyone? Will Will, I have the latest PRO center post.I used this Mark V tools free on my older PRO post as well and couldn't feel any play with either. Sliding the gimbal up and down feels good and tight. And as Charles has said it is such a pleasure not having to deal with the separate sleeve. One thing I have found is that I can get my fingers closer to the actual bearing because of the shape of the sleeve at the top just under the bearing. It's a flater shape, not as rounded as the original PRO gimbal base. I feel like I have better control of the rig, closer to the actual center, and can operate better than I did with the original. And even if the bearing shifted one or 2 thousands because it is not being tightened at the center of the bearing (and I am not saying it is), but a few inches below, I doubt I would see the difference. I certainly can't feel it if it is doing it. I have more trouble with the donkey box 3 getting play in the fore and aft axis. Often needs adjustment with the special tool.

I have a "tools free" gimbal adaption for the PRO that Howard made at Mark V which is basically a handgrip extension with the kip handle at the bottom. Soooo much better than the original version. Chris Haarhoff tried to explain to me why this would not work and I have never understood it. Mine has been working just fine for years. They made the VZ tool-less gimbal which still tightens the gimbal nearer the bearing, like the original hex screw version because it is supposed to work better that way. Maybe it does.

Dave, the golden rule applies. Glad I could help. More than paid back by the look under the hood of your french fry oil sucking bio-diesel rabbit. And Charles, I think Dave was praising all the pot smoking ops out there, yes? And blessed are the cheese makers.

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Have your Proformers re-celled. Check out Rathbone Energy.

Try hank@interactivehank.com He's got a couple he would rent and might want to sell.