Jess Haas SOC

Brant, did you ask them about this? If it won't run off my AB batteries which are around 16 volts when full then that would be problematic. I am hoping to get one of these monitors in the not too distant future but will need most of these problems taken care of before I am willing to buy it. ~Jess

I felt the same way until I took a workshop with Peter Abraham. Since then I have even done DJ while walking backwards to avoid switching to goofy. Before the workshop I once did goofy while walking backwards to avoid Don Juan. Hmm, maybe Peter is contagious..... I think it has a lot to do with where you are positioning the sled and what angle your body is at. It seems like it needs to be a certain way for DJ to be comfortable. ~Jess

Thanks for the quick reply Jim. I guess I need to get off my lazy arse and actually use the phone instead of just clicking away on the internet :-) On an unrelated topic my BFD worked on its first feature the other day. I was a bit nervous because its maiden voyage was inside of a crash housing looking up a 45ft cliff as a car drove off and landed 10ft away. Luckily it actually landed where they planned and my BFD(and the camera) survived. ~Jess

Anyone know a good place to buy Fischer connectors? Arri power, etc... Preferably online. Looking to make up some of my own cables but the Fischer connectors seem a little harder to find than Lemos. ~Jess

I have a shoot coming up with the 235 in a few weeks. I am looking forward to seeing the pictures so be sure to post them when you have them. ~Jess

There are some fun shots in there. I love how he spins the rig around into low mode and back. Would probably make the audience sick but it looks cool watching him do it :-) ~Jess

Check it out. Includes some fun footage of Garrett operating with the new Flyer rig and a brief cameo by Peter Abraham. http://www.video.bhphotovideo.com/index.js...60341b2bbdd20af ~Jess

2 pairs, or one pair of 2? I believe it would be two pairs with each pair consisting of a transmitter and a receiver. ~Jess

Don't worry, I am not ignoring your advice. I am about to order a few more trimpacs. I have access to more batteries when I need them so having 4-6 trimpacs of my own should get me by until I can afford more of my own batteries. When I do 16mm jobs I usually run with an onboard battery, and use rentals or onboard with HD, so really the only thing I need more batteries for is 35. I am starting to get some 35 jobs lined up but so far they shouldn't be requiring much in the way of power because they are so far only a few shots and I will have access to other batteries. Once I get a few paychecks from those jobs I will hopefully be able to afford to buy even more batteries. Can't afford much more in batteries until then since I just ordered a BFD. Should be shipping tomorrow. It will be much nicer than the wired unit I have been using most of the time, and definitely cheaper than the Preston that the show I am currently on has. ~Jess

Well I already changed my mind and I think I am going to get some more Trimpacs and then down the road add some Hytron or Dionics. ~Jess

I think I have decided to get 4 of Rathbone's 95wh lithium ion batteries for now. If they work out I will probably get 4 more in the near future. I mainly do 16mm and HD gigs and the 35 gigs I am looking at are looking to only be a few shots here and there. If they turn into more and I get into trouble I can borrow some batteries or worst case scenario throw on a battery belt. ~Jess

Don't really know why I included the F900 since I plan on using rental batts for that one. My question wasn't so much about the number of batteries as it was about the type. At the moment I am not shooting all day long with these cameras. Dropping 10 grand on batteries just aint going to happen at the moment. I will get additional batteries when necessary, but am currently trying to decide which direction to go as I buy additional batteries. Right now I am either going to get two(or maybe 4)trimpacs or spend a little bit more money and get 4 knock off lithium ion batteries. The Trimpacs will live a lot longer and be more reliable than the lithium ion so if they will have enough juice for some very basic 35mm stuff I was thinking of going that direciton and then buying some dionics in the next few months when I have a little more cash flow going. So what about trimpacs? Nicad is old tech but it does seem to outlast just about everything and lets you draw a lot of amps. I am mainly wondering how long they will last when running cameras such as a LW or 235. Anyone want to answer that question?

I rewired a lot of my rig myself. Comparatively a few power cables are easy. I am rather comfortable doing it. If there was a place in town I could drop by and pick up premade cabels for cheap I probably would, but that isn't the case so might as well do it myself. Panavision is 3 hours away and it is C camera. Besides that I plan on triple checking the wiring before hooking anything up.

That is what I was planning on doing but was just wondering if anyone knew what it is supposed to be in order to double check. Yes it is a commonly used camera but I have never flown 35 before so I am just starting to get all of the cables I need for it. So far I have done a lot of 16mm and HD. Honestly I was hesitant to even offer myself up as a steadicam operator on this film but I am already working on it in another capacity and when they brought a guy in who was even less experienced than I am one day I thought I might as well throw my name into the hat. They know exactly what they are getting and the DP said he will try me out. I know the camera is going to be a LW because I already had a chance to mount it up and fly it one day on set as a test. Just need to get power going so I don't need to wear a battery belt. ~Jess

I currently have 2 Trimpacs which leaves me with no spares when running 24volt or heavier cameras. I am thinking of buying two more Trimpacs but is that going to cut it? In the near future I may be flying a Panavision lightweight, an F900 and a 235. Will 4 Trimpacs be enough power to get me by or should I be looking for higher capacity batteries? What about when flying a 435? ~Jess

I am working on a show where it looks like I will be flying a panavision lightweight 2. The AC gave me a power cable for the camera to steal the connector from so that I can power it from my sled. Does anyone know which pins are what? I think I can figure it out but if someone could confirm the wiring before I start soldering something together that would be great. ~Jess

Personally I would say that the Pilot is far better than the Merlin. While it is possible to achieve good results with both, the Pilot is a far better rig for use with an arm and vest. Also the lack of a monitor is a deal breaker for me. The camera is not where you want to be looking. ~Jess

Yes you will. I would suggest using 9v batteries or getting a voltage regulator that will regulate the voltage down to what it needs to be. ~Jess

I think I am about to buy myself a bartech and a motor to use with it. I am currently looking at getting a Stanton motor because they are cheap but a used Heden or similar motor would be even better. Anyone have anything available? ~Jess

I used similar bags for audio crap once and if I remember correctly we had to result to gaff tape to keep them from moving and even then they were still a pain in the arse. ~Jess

I need to start taking pictures of my setups. Had one a while back similar to many of these, except they wanted to record sound to camera so we had two rather large wireless hops and a comtek transmitter attached. By the end I didn't feel that I really needed to add any weight and after using a very large amount of gaff tape things didn't seem to move around too much..... Film is so much easier. ~Jess

Yeah it doesn't look like those fit quite right. I have a modified older action cam rig that uses a non standard socket block. I really like the design of the socket block but I want to make adapters so that my gear will be somewhat interchangeable with some of my friends gear in town and so that I can upgrade my arm at some point. Is the EFP socket block the same size as that used on Tiffens current higher end rigs? If so and you will let that bridge plate and socket block go for a reasonable amount of money then I am very interested. Of course I also want to buy a whole new vest at some point. So let me know when you have something available, especially if you are looking for a beta tester :-) ~Jess

When possible I prefer my big rig even when flying a camera that weighs less than a pound. Of course in those cases I would be adding a weight plate to get it in the 10-20# range. The results with the big rig are going to be much better than the lightweight rig could achieve. The times I would prefer the pilot are when it makes travel significantly easier. ~Jess

I normally fly big rigs but had a chance to try the pilot a while back. It is a strange experience but I was pleasantly surprised by it. After using a big rig it felt like I was wearing absolutely nothing with an XLH1 mounted to it. For someone used to big rigs a docking bracket becomes almost unnecessary because flying for 12 hours straight without ever docking would be an easy task. Of course it might be nice to set it down while eating lunch.... The vest is extremely simple but is all that is necessary to fly such light weights. The smaller mass involved of course makes smooth flight more difficult than with a big rig but I was very pleasantly surprised by the gimbal and the arms ability to isolate movement with such a small rig. Combined with the weights it gives far more isolation than I thought would have been possible with such a small rig. The fact that the entire rig will fit into a backpack even made me consider it for a possible job shooting HDV that would involve lots of travel. I think that is saying a lot from someone who is used to a big rig. ~Jess

Alan, I though you didn't drink and assumed you didn't do drugs. If I was wrong would you please pass that shit this way? Sounds like some good shit :-) ~Jess