Nic Owens

Hi everyone, Just wondering if anyone on the forum had any real world experience with Rathbone Batteries. I'm looking at buying some more v-lock batteries and they seemed liked they would compare favorably with Sony Endura E-10's or even Tiffen powercubes. Cheers, Nic

Hi Ants, The way I did it was sacrificed one of my master series batteries by taking the mounting plate from it and screwing it together with an IDX v-lock plate and connecting the appropriate wires. It works really well, it just means you lose the use of one of your master batteries. Alternately, you could contact Tiffen and see if they'll sell you one of the master battery backing plates. Good luck with it! Nic

Just wanted to give a shout out about PRO GPI. I recently bought a second hand PRO arm from a mate of mine, and I'm absolutely in love with this piece of precision engineering. I also was in need of a new vest and, after reading countless testimonials about the rigidity, comfort and engineering of the PRO vest I took the plunge and ordered one. The vest, ofcoarse, is fantastic. But that's only part of it. The customer service from PRO is equally as good as the products they put out. The vest arrived in Australia right on quoted shipping time and the fit is perfect. Loads of posts on the forums have already said this and more about PRO, just thought I'd add my recent experience and my two cents.

My new PRO vest just got delivered yesterday. I can't believe how light it is compared to my Master Series vest! It's interesting to see the evolution in vest design and manufacture from a mere 15 or so years ago. Nic

G'day James, If you do end up in the market for a weight cage, go straight to Janice Arthur. Her cage is fantastically engineered and comes in a great many combinations for weight. I have used mine a number of times with a variety of video and still cameras and I swear by it. Good luck, Nic

Janice's weight cage is simple to set up and fantastic to use. In that price bracket there was nothing I could find that came close.

Hey, Mark Schlicher has just listed a Flyer for around $4000 in the marketplace. Looks like the kinda thing you might be interested in. Cheers, Nic

thanks for the reply Mark. I've got an old Master series so I've got the backing plate mounted to a v-lock backing plate. I don't have an AB mount, as I mostly work in TV in sydney where the cameras are mostly sony HD's with v-lock mounts. What you said about the rental houses makes a whole lot of sense, and I hadn't thought of that. Most everything here is v-lock in that regard, so I think you have given me my answer! Thanks again for the advice, now to get to buying them! Cheers, Nic

Hi everyone, I've taken the backing plate off one of my steadicam batteries so I could use the v-lock batteries that we use on the cameras. The job has another couple of months to go, then I'll need to invest in some of my own. Just need some advice on which way to go, AB or V-lock. Most cameras I work with are v-lock, so it's convenient to go that way, but I hear AB's are great. Any real world advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Nic

Thanks Ken, Janice and James. Great advice from all, I've already modified it like you suggested Janice, and it seems fine for the time being. I did email Louis, James, and he's going to get his plastics guy to fabricate one. Should be all good. Thanks again, Nic

G'day everyone, The black flexible plastic strip that runs around the front of my vest at the waist has cracked in a number of places and is on it's last legs. Any advice on DIY replacement would be greatly appreciated. CHeers, Nic

Thanks so much Ken, that's genius! First thing monday morning I'm gonna get my hands on the V-lock and change the rig. Cheers, Nic.

Hey Everyone, I just bought my first rig, a master series, and I want to mount a cinemonitor 3 on it but it really throws the rig out of balance. My mate told me the way to fix the issue is to take the backing plate off one of the batteries, get a v-lock mount and join them together. That way lower weight v-lock batteries will balance the cine 3. Just wondering if anyone has experience of doing this themselves, and how they went about it (wiring, screws used, etc). Any help would be greatly appreciated. Cheers, Nic