Andrew Stone

I am pretty sure anyone at NAB got more than one look at them. Every conversation I had with Operators discussed the new batteries at some point.

Garrett and Larry, thank you for this recent effort.

I concur with everything that has been said... The level is OK, not great in terms of responsiveness. The fatal flaw with it is the mini usb style connector on the side. If you are to use it, I would strongly suggest that it be hardwired into the monitor with the cable going into the casing on the bottom edge, rather than the side (very goofy design decision on the USB style port). The peaking function is, in practical terms, excellent. Although I would be using that function when shooting on sticks and using the 651STX as a reference monitor. Both false color and peaking can be assigned to one of the buttons on the front of the monitor.

It is a versatile monitor for the price, if you don't have the scratch to get a Transvideo monitor.

-Andrew

Thanks Alan. I am interested in one. Just sent you a PM.

-Andrew

Good advice and suggestions here. Also, do you have good dynamic balance? This could be affecting your horizon on panning, especially noticable with the lesser inertia of the light rig.

 

The quick way I used to get my Flyer into the ballpark on DB was to 1) extend the monitor arm completely horizontal, with the monitor face tilted up at a slight angle. 2) use a relatively light battery, like an anton bauer Hytron 50 or Dionic 90. 3) tip the battery panel down, tucking the battery slightly under the post (just a bit beyond vertical) 4) put the camera on the stage with CG about 1/2 inch behind the post center. Adjust side to side static balance. 5) get rough front to back static balance by making slight adjustments in the battery paddle angle. 6) Set drop time to about 3 seconds 7) fine-tune static balance with the camera stage adjustments. 8) test and adjust dynamic balance using the normal techniques.

Excellent description Mark. My only suggestion (and of course this is operator specific) would be a shortened drop time of a bit over 2 seconds. The business about the battery paddle being slightly under the post is critical in most situations especially if you are approaching the limit. If you put on a new monitor, which is typically heavier, then things are different and you have to angle the monitor arm up and tweak the battery paddle to balance and get the dynamic balance in order.

Here is a link to the page showing Andrew Ansnick's modified Backstage Steadi Cart.

The essential poriton of the cart's design is similar to the TR-05

Hi Dennis,

Daylight viewability is probably a major consideration for you in choosing your monitor. If so the monitors get relatively expensive even at the lower end. A few of us who either have a Flyer or a Zephyr have gone with the Marshall 651STX 3G-SDI. Nebtek has the Solar HD. I just checked the Nebtek line and it appears they have a newer version of the Solar that maybe priced right. Not sure as their site isn't coming up at the moment. At the higher end you could be looking at Cinetronic or Transvideo but the weight of these is most likely too much for the Flyer in terms of getting the rig to balance.

There is a Marshall 7" that some people are using but I don't have experience with it and it doesn't have the daylight viewability of the 651STX.

Robert, I assume you had the foam inserts made up yourself rather than GPI-Pro. If so could you let us know where they were fabricated?

... I basically just need a USB to barrel and I had a USB to ptap for the Paralinx. So far it took every signals.

 

The Paralinx P-Tap to USB power converter cable appears to be well made. I picked up one a few weeks ago but I see now the product page takes you to a contact us page. There was a sale on them this past month so it looks as if they are presently out of stock.

Does anyone know if the A/B plate kit is attached to the back, if it powers the monitor directly or if you need the P-Tap to Hirose cable?

Rob, how did you find the color reproduction on the monitor. Some of their older monitors had funky things going on with the skin tones.

Hi Alan,

I am interested as well. As Ozzie said, Post production final pics and pricing. I am confident there will be interest in this.

Efforts appreciated.

14 to 17 pounds is my estimate as well. The KiPro, the full sized unit (as opposed to the KP Mini), would probably require you mount it UNDER the F3 which would make an insanely high center of gravity for the rig. You would have difficulty getting the gimble positioned at a decent height without extended the sled length quite a bit.

F3's typically come with a Berkey Plate on the top of the body and of course a baseplate. Former is just under a pound and the baseplate is typically in the 2 pound range. If you have a Berkey Plate and can shed it for the shoot you will obviously loose that weight.

Good point Joe. With a KiPro Mini, that rig should be under 20 pounds. If it is uncompressed you need, see if you can snag a BlackMagic Design Hyperdeck Shuttle from someone you know. It works well with the F3 and it does uncompressed as well as ProRes and DNxHD. Terry West will have that cable to you within a day or two assuming he is not away.

After you power up the Hyperdeck, it is in "playback" mode. In order to get it to be in "record" mode you have to press the stop button once, and it will be in record mode. Assuming you have setup the Hyperdeck Shuttle, with the desktop app, to activate record with a change in timecode or SDI start/stop is detected it will trigger record on most cameras.

I use both recorders mentioned. I would say the Nanoflash is a lot more steadi friendly. It weighs about 9 ounces and about 6 watts (although the Hyperdeck uses less power) and it is small. There is a way to set the HD-SDI pass through so there is no delay, if that is a concern.

The downside on the nano is that the output is 8 bit as opposed to 10 bit, however, you can set the bitrate to the broadcast std of 50 Mbit and higher up to 280. The files are also output in a Quicktime wrapper so they are drag and drop for ingest.

Good to see a producer that gets

Below is the assessment of a Producer who I know and respect. Don't shoot the messenger I'm just passing it on. What I will say though is OUR perspective of the Movi is not the same as a Producer who is concerned with time and money...

 

The price at $15k is reasonable for this kind of tech, but when you really evaluate the product and understand how much more costs it brings to a production, you begin to realize spending that $15k for a real steadicam operator is almost always going to be the better deal and the better shot.

(7) There are a lot of points of breakage on the unit and I have yet to see a single production that had more than one Movi on hand or even available on stand-by. When you build a production around something like this, you're screwed if it fails. Steadi-gear is a different picture. A lot less to go around and not much that can't be fixed with tools."

************************

Good to see a producer that gets most of issues with a MOVI over a Steadicam & Operator.

Still not seeing many of the key problems fleshed out specifically, like controlled composition and consistently managing headroom in a shot. There is the cost but there is also the quality of the shots that come out of it that are usable when you are working from a script.

From the Transvideo office in North Hollywood.

(818) 985-4903

Another endorsement for John Ritter. As well, cracking open the AB cases can be difficult to do without making a mess of the shells.

Agreed. Well done. Iain what is the weight of it now?

Alan, do you have a sense of the unit's weight?

Thanks Jim. I will let people know.

This would be great news that creating a simple cable is possible. What I have heard thus far, is a microprocessor is required to do the triggering and not simply a control voltage switch.

The fellow at Shooting Machine does up these microprocessor/cables for the F series cameras and hooks them through pistol grips for shoulder style shooting. As in here...

https://www.shootingmachine.net/products/supergrip-mark-4

-Andrew

Very good idea.

i would suggest an extended area beneath the mini SDI in/out points with a HDMI cable Clamp to protect the very fragile connections.

Agreed on protecting the mini SDI connectors. I think more than a clamp is necessary. A full shield is required in my view. Those connectors are soldered right onto the IC board inside with no collar attaching them to the metal casing. A small glance off a door frame and goodbye Hyperdeck Shuttle.

I think most people would agree that part of becoming good at Steadicam involves becoming adept at creating a nice tight camera package with a low center of gravity and be able to do it relatively fast. I always have a box of strip industrial velcro in my kit that will allow me to get all the accessories as close and low as possible on the camera & rails. On lighter rigs you want to put some that weight behind or under/in front of the camera to help with pan inertia. Putting stuff on top and off to the side I avoid. That's where you are going to get into trouble or at least spend more time with balancing, be it static or dynamic.

Found this thorough production oriented run down on the Paralinx Arrow with mention of the HD-SDI version to be released in the near future. You can watch it here.