Andrew Stone

I presume someone from TIFFEN will chime in but I would simply call them on Monday during business hours, your time zone. Here is the 1-800 number...

(800) 645-2522

Good to hear Alexander. Thank you for the report.

Part of what I do is SysAdmin work and have run servers for years (decades). Generally Google Authenticator is used to lock down the admin portion of forum or WebApp software from prying eyes. Generally, it is not used by the general user public accessing forum software. If they were accessing the backend to do forum admin work, then that is a different story.

Google Authenticator is good for what it is intended for, sysadmin work on webapps like forum or blogging software. For general Userland kind of stuff, like it has been said, is overkill. 

My 2 cents worth.

Hope everyone is doing well and has meaningful work that is relatively safe.

EDIT: Saw Lawrence's post. Could be the settings of Google Authenticator have been adjusted to only the Admin and backend of this forum software.

Is this wishful thinking or something that has been stated as probably happening?

Lawrence you make a great point and given what seems (at least to me) is a collective awakening that has happened in the media recently as a result of the massive forest burn that is happening all over the Western USA. There is a interesting compendium of leading articles in most if not all of the American newspaper outlets about the "Climate Apocalypse" that is underway. You should be able to find the articles on AXIOS.com.

I truly think we are going to see shift in collective thinking about the environment and in this case the reuse/recycle ethos. If brands that sell products that can be recycled ignore this psychological shift that will take place, they will do it at their peril. I refuse to believe the cynical perspective that everybody including VITEC Group will just wait out "this issue" and carry on in the same old way. They have to be discussing this at an executive management level.

Thank you for bringing up what should have been obvious to many of us.

Hopefully, there is a local operator that will come forward with a solution or even a firmware patch that will get you out of the bind. Wonder if pandemic issues behind the scenes are affecting the response time from Transvideo in your area. My experience with that office, while minimal, has been good in the past.

Thanks for the reply Paul. I had not seen the new batts until just now. WIll get in touch once I sort out my freelance work in the near future.

Good to hear A/B is willing to come part way with the Trade-in and similar programs.

That Flyer looks in very good shape. As long as the gimbal feels "frictionless" when doing a spin with a balanced camera or load on it you should be good. They are solid units. Nothing wrong with them. Only issue is you will have the equivalent of standard def cable running down the post but you can just get over that or run HD-SDI cable off the front of the sled and down to a replacement monitor like a High Def TVLogic or Marshall, at least that is what a lot of us have done. Cameras are waaaaaay lighter than they used to be so don't turn your nose up at this Steadicam. They are good beasts and it is all in the operator at a certain point. There you have it. So go ahead and learn the nobel Art.

Paul, given that Ritter Battery is no longer in business, are there any promos going on with A/B batteries right now. I know there was one a while ago. A bunch of us are trying to figure out how to proceed from here. Thanks.

Thanks for letting us know.

I have been wondering as well.

Remarkable man that went way, way to soon. Thanks for posting up the link to the thread Charles.

Only seeing the last video of what is posted thus far. Pretty impressive. Had a good chuckle on many levels. This rejoinder has been several years in coming. Well executed from what I see. Nuff said.

Sorry for your loss Jim. The way you describe Don and his varied and remarkable achievements, he was obviously a very dear friend.

Just added a few questions to the thread. Thanks for pointing this out.

I don't see the photos either in the original post. I am sure Peter will give some great advice on this. There are a few others who make be lurking who have done this as well.

Pretty amusing excerpt from a soon to be released film on Jacques Monge, french Steadicam Operator who was an operator on features a while back.

-Andrew

It says at the bottom of the page that they are sold out of the diode. Email is there to find out if this is still the case.

Coming back to this thread six months or so later...

Ramon, the slop was pretty wild when you had more than two stacked. Even a one or two piggybacked would turn off most if not all operators, unless you can cope with stuff moving around on your sled. Mind you, as I mentioned, this was noted at NAB when properly over a thousand people had laid their mitts on this stack of batteries and was pushing it around. Even so, the casing material did not seem to be particularly hard. Not sure if a velcro wedge would do the trick. The slop gets worse over time. I checked out the stack of batteries several times over the 2 days I was on the NAB floor and the movement got noticeably worse.

It's a great concept, the idea of being able to stack batteries to charge which is one of the primary intents of this design but I wouldn't stack them on a steadicam sled, no way. Having said that the operators I know are disciplined in charging their batteries so I am not sure if many here would be taken by the stacking concept other than extenuating circumstances.

Clemens, you probably would have the ability to see these batteries demoed at a trade show in Europe in the near future. I also think PAG has some demonstration videos up if you are keen on this product.

Brian, Louis and Shawn have pretty much summed it up.

Depending on where you are coming from the course might seem expensive. You will certainly get your money's worth out of the course in terms of the quality of instruction, access to gear and the food.

You also will get a short cut to some knowledge that could save you 10's of thousands of dollars of investment.

Whenever I have needed parts from TIFFEN I just call them up. Try (818) 843-4600

I was intrigued when I saw these at NAB but there was enough slop when the batteries were stacked to eliminate the kind of use you are talking about.

Nicholas, I just fired off a note to SmallHD about your comments and this thread. See what happens.

The video has been yanked.

William I fundamentally agree with your analysis. A couple of additional things. The change in size is going to be problematic for people who have storage cases fitted for Dionics. I presume that would be many here and most are thinking about this as well.

I noticed with the new stackable PAGs there was a LOT of slop when you lightly twisted the top of the pile of batts. Now I know a lot of people on the NAB floor were playing with the stacks of PAGs on display so they received a lot of lock and loading during the convention. But seeing that would preclude me from stacking them on a sled. Stackable charging and the LED placement is obviously very useful.

The new A/B battery case design did not receive approval from the many A/B users I spoke with at NAB from an aesthetic or practical perspective.