Jess Haas SOC

Also a good time to oil certain parts for rust protection. I am a fan of CorrosionX for this.

When things like this happen do most people get productions insurance to cover it?

WP Dolle is what just about everyone here uses. Covers you for full replacement value and doesn't include all the exclusions that will sneak up on you with many other policies.

That got me thinking. You could probably take a cable tv splitter, put F to BNC adapters on it and have a working HD-SDI splitter. Wouldn't be surprised if that is actually whats in that box.

It could be doing some magic to keep you from double terminating the signal. You will still get a 3db(half) loss in signal strength but that is significantly better than what happens if you double terminate(such as when you use a T). Could also be just the same as a T but he says it works better so my guess is some sort of transformer style setup to avoid the double termination. ~Jess

As far as I know very few non goofy operators practice shooting goofy. There are situations where you need the rig to hug a wall to your right where you must either operate goofy or Don Juan. I have on a couple of occasions walked backwards in Don Juan in order to get the shot, but switching to goofy is an option.

I think he has the camera on backwards. It is the next big thing in reality TV, just strap a camera to yourself and go, no need for pesky crews and if you don't edit you can get 24 whole 1 hour episodes in a day! ~Jess

I have a brand new blackmagic battery model and it worked just fine out of the box (just have to wait a few seconds for the image to return)

Not enough information. If you were doing real Steadicam shots the whole time then you have nothing to complain about. I have done features where I was working on virtually every setup 6 day weeks, 14 hour days for over a month straight. I am sure others have done worse. Now if you were doing steadisticks for no reason(sometimes it actually is the right tool), had talked to them about it repeatedly and they were being dicks about it then you might have had a reason to tell them off. That doesn't mean doing it is a good business decision. I find setting the rig down when I need to far more productive than complaining about standing around with the rig, etc... Usually no one says anything about it even when I am contradicting the ADs orders(usually when they say things about camera its meant to get other peoples ass in gear, not mine) when the AD does have a problem with me not standing around with the rig this results in a conversation that normally ends in a good solution. That said I find that often when people are dicking around I will pick up the rig before I really need to because it does a good job at getting everyone elses asses in gear and I want to get the shoot day done not stand around and socialize. ~Jess

It should come back after a second or two. The 5d mark 2 cant handle outputting HD and recording at the same time so it switches the output to SD forcing everything connected to reacquire the signal. Only ways to stop this are to use a different camera (5d mark 3 and 7d dont do this) or install the magic lantern firmware hack and set it to always output SD

If your operator complained about the weight than they need instruction and practice. Going Lighter will only cause problems.Even maxed out at 25 pounds a 100 pound girl who knows what they are doing should be able to fly it. Minimum camera weight on a mini is 5 pounds. Just about anyone should be able to fly that.

Went with the battery version of the blackmagic. It accepts upto 31volts so don't need the silly switronix voltage regulated cable.

Yes. That's what I did. I got the newer blackmagic battery version. Don't have any real use for the internal battery but it is in a rugged machined aluminum housing, is the same price and will accept up to 31 volts so I was able to just chop the powersupply cable it came with an add a p-tap in order to get a p-tap power cable for it. No silly voltage converters necessary. Another thing I found out by testing was that the website states "It was also designed with a back up power failure function. If the external power is disconnected, it will automatically switch to a connected battery" but it doesn't really work as I hoped as it actually draws power from the connected battery even when power is supplied to the 4 pin XLR.

I had a director tell a DP I was working with recently to hire me for their next shoot but that he didn't believe I was a Steadicam operator. Apparently I don't complain enough. Guess I need to work on that.

Good point. The original bartech uses analogue motors which use a potentiometer to read current position. So when you turn power back on it can read the current position no problem. As far as I know this wouldn't work with the new digital receiver as an optical encoder(which I believe is what digital motors use, correct me if I am wrong) would require power to keep track of position. ~Jess

With a bartech I have been told that it is safe to turn the motor when the receiver is turned off. It doesn't lose calibration, when you turn the unit back on it goes back to the mark set on the handunit.

ATSC transmits HD on VHF or UHF so I have yet to see any real information on wether this thing broadcasts HD or SD.

Is this still the case? Their Website lists them as accepting 12-31volts. What about the heavyduty version?

It seems there are a lot of options out there now. Which one works the best for a good price? I need something that will work well with cameras like the Canon 5Dmk2 and T2i that switch the HDMI feed to SD resolution when you hit record. Also need to be able to power the thing from p-tap power without too much crazyness. Thanks, Jess

Thanks for the clarification. The product literature is a bit misleading on the subject.

How exactly did it fail you? Did it stop working or would it not work in certain situations? What were the other reasons you sent it back?

Their website says it can but none of the people I have asked have actually done it so I want to double check. If i run hdmi into the recon ultra from a 5d mk3 will it give me hdsdi out that I can send to my monitor?

Ultrasonic ranfefinders like in the cinetape work at somewhere between 40 and 300kilohertz.. Their wireless is in the upper megahertz or gigahertz range. If you are having problems with those frequencies interfering with each other you might want to ask them to not talk so loud because it makes it hard to see them. That said it is possible that a cinetape could emit interference just like any other device but I have never seen it and I would bet the source is elsewhere.

Your not the only one. I have a very wide forefoot and ridiculously long monkey toes. New balance is the only company I have found that makes a shoe shaped properly for my foot in a wide size. Love them but in many situations I prefer operating barefoot and I would love a shoe that gave me the feeling without getting dirty looks from people who care about OSHA. I have been told that you can take a torch and a pair of pliers to five fingers to stretch them but haven't gotten around to seeing if that will work out for me or not. Wonder how REI would feel about someone trying to return a scorched half melted pair :-) ~Jess

If it is then I expect it to suck. The only reason Modulus/Canatrans work as well as they do is because they are higher transmit power than the FCC legally allows. When broadcast TV switched to ATSC channels that used to come in crystal clear when transmitted analogue were too week to receive despite transmitting at the same power. Rabbit ears on your TV inside used to get lots of channels now the only way for most people to get broadcast TV reception at all is with an antenna on the roof. All that said I really hope that it uses a reasonably strong transmitter and blows everything else out of the water. Even then I doubt the range will be good enough to warrant much concern about people pirating the signal As far as Europe goes they use a completely different digital TV standard. That wouldn't stop Europeans from using it with North American(ATSC) receivers but their home TV won't be able to pick it up. ~Jess