Mark Schlicher

If it was me I'd call Marshall and see if they will service it...

When you unscrew the screws on the underside of the topstage, the two halves of the plastic cover come apart like a clamshell. The BNC connectors just set into grooves in the plastic. There is enough cable to swap the positions of the SD and HD video cables. Piece of cake. As for swiveling, I went to the hardware store and bought a rubber washer. A "star" lock washer would probably work fine, too.

1. Flyer first gen has only one power connection on topstage, so at the least you'd need to build a junction box or power splitter cable. Not sure but I think that the Flyer LE has the same power setup. 2. Voltage drop from startup surge from accessories such as Bartech receiver mean extra care must be taken to power up the Bartech before the camera (otherwise powering up the Bartech might cause the camera to shut down). Separating the camera power from the monitor/BFD power solves this. Handgrip batteries solve this problem while staying within the weight limits of the Flyer. Hope this helps, Mark

Sigh. We all pretty much saw this coming, didn't we...

I've corrected my "Sony" mistype, apparently after you'd read my post. However, it matters not to the substance of what is being discussed. I do understand what I'm quoting, hoss. You say: "That reduced life is for draws over 90watts." Anton Bauer manual for Dionic 90 says: "Recommended operation: 15-50 watts*" (footnote): "*Routine use of a battery at discharge rates greater than the recommended operating range can reduce overall service life." It is precisely this question that caused me to call AB and ask myself. Mike P confirmed this. Dionic 90's can run over the recommended current draw before popping the thermal fuse, but they do not recommend it. The reason they don't recommend it is that it reduces the overall service life of the battery. The Dionic 90 is listed as having an 8A fuse (115W@14.4v) not a 10A (144W). Nevertheless, they are fused for the maximum, not the recommended current draw. Running above recommended is not good for any battery's longterm health, whether it blows the fuse or not. Again, There's a difference between capacity (93Wh "nominal" for the Dionic 90, 91 Wh "typical" for the Dionic HC) on the one hand, and recommended/maximum discharge rate (50/90 for the Dionic 90, 100/150 for the Dionic HC) on the other hand. You could say that, roughly, that Dionic 90s were designed for two hours at 50 watts recommended load, where the Dionic HC is designed to last one hour at 100 watts recommended load. If Anton Bauer is telling you something different than they are telling the rest of us, please share in detail.

Dionic HC manual Rev B page 14: Recommended operation 50-100 watts Maximum discharge rate 150 watts Fuse internal 10A footnote: Routine use of a battery yada yada... The discharge rate specs for the Dionic HCx (manual Rev A page 17) are the same as for the HC above. The capacity is higher. It's worthwhile to distinguish between capacity (93Wh "nominal" for the Dionic 90, 91 Wh "typical" for the Dionic HC) on the one hand, and recommended/maximum discharge rate (50/90 for the Dionic 90, 100/150 for the Dionic HC) on the other hand. You could say that, roughly, that Dionic 90s were designed for two hours at 50 watts recommended load, where the Dionic HC is designed to last one hour at 100 watts recommended load. I've corresponded and spoken by phone with Mike Pedevillano (Customer Support Supervisor) and others from AB about this, and am passing along my understanding of what they recommend and why. If Paul Dudek has other information, I'm eager for the clarification.

Anton Bauer Dionic 90 manual Rev "U" page 5: "Recommended operation: 15-50 watts*" "(Maximum Discharge rate) 90 watts" (footnote): "*Routine use of a battery at discharge rates greater than the recommended operating range can reduce overall service life."

Paul can you weigh in on these points? I'm going off of published specs for the Dionic 90 (not the Hytron 50, I know the difference, thank you) and phone conversations with AB tech reps (not Paul) as well as conversations with John Ritter. I guess I'll go pull the manuals them out and quote them, not that it will do any good. The name is Mark, not "tex." You can disagree without being disagreeable. Or maybe you can't. The 72W real-world power draw is useful information, less than the spec I'd read from Arri (Alexa Manual 4.0, page 20).

Andrew, just be aware you may be damaging the rental house's batteries for the next guy, who might suddenly discover he's got 15 minutes of runtime. Unless it turns out you are the "next guy", in which case you might get stuck with batteries with the "last guy" cooked. That's happened to me, and it's not pretty. Yes, I try to avoid using my own Dionic 90's on high-current cameras, but there are both practical and karmic reasons to use HC or HCx batteries, even when they are rentals. Rental houses around here are mostly small businesses, as I suspect they are in many markets. I don't want to deliberately crap in anyone's yard.

And a big thumbs-up to Matthias' bracket. Solid, reasonably priced, and a very clever design.

David, You could be in trouble with a single Dionic 90, even if it's only powering the camera body and recording to SxS. The specs say 85W with camera body, viewfinder and SxS recording. So...maybe 80w without the viewfinder? In a nutshell, you not only risk short runtimes, but you can damage your battery and reduce its overall service life. John Ritter can confirm this. Essentially, the Dionic90 were designed for a maximum sustained current load of 50W. AB stated that they could handle up to 90W with reduced service life (which means your batteries will wear out far sooner than the normal 3 years). In practice, if you run the camera for long periods on a Dionic 90 you might get away with it, or you might trip the battery's internal thermal protection fuse. Either way, you will be cooking your battery. As far as runtime, you may get 30-45 minutes off of a Dionic...so if you decide to risk it, have plenty of batteries because they will take awhile to recharge! I agree that HC's are the way to go. They are designed for high current draw. Rent some HC's or better yet, some HCx's (which are only 1/2 pound heavier than a Dionic 90 or HC). Don't fry your personal Dionic 90's.

Two things about US Airways: 1. Some independent commuter airlines operate under the US Airways flag, but the fine print exempts them from some of the policies of the parent US Airways carrier. Perhaps this is what you experienced...? 2. US Airways (and their commuter affiliates) seem to be in a race to the bottom with Delta for most awesomely awful customer service. Three or four years ago I experienced firsthand their infamous tendency to cancel flights simply because they haven't scheduled enough crew (or maybe don't have enough passengers booked?) Some of my most miserable domestic flying experiences have been on US Airways.

Here's the idea...(Zephyr and F3 but the concept is the same):

Don't worry about flipping the monitor, you don't gain enough to make it worthwhile. Just tilt the monitor for best visibility, and adjust the battery paddle to aid in rebalancing.

Matthias' bracket is superbly designed and made, and a great price. Ask him about adapting it for use with regular video cameras.... :-) Thanks, Matthias!

[quote name='William Demeritt' timestamp='1342571683' post='78471' "Back in my day, we didn't have fancy digital cameras! We didn't have iPhones or in-camera audio! We were filmographing all sorts of things!" Back when the internet was made of WOOD!

On a related note, I was wondering aloud the other day what the "kids these days" say when they want to convey that they don't want to keep repeating themselves. I'm guessing "I don't want to sound like a broken record" doesn't resonate. Sad, because it's such an apt metaphor.

For a crop-sensor camera like a 7D or 60D, the Canon 10-22 is a great little wide zoom lens, and not terribly expensive. Tokina has two lenses worth considering also: the 11-16, and an older 12-24 (?). All worth considering as a beginner...decent performance and not terribly expensive. For practicing tighter shots, something like the Tamron 17-50 2.8 is a good little crop-sensor lens. On a 7D or 60D, the 10-22 zoom is roughly equivalent field of view to a 16-35 on the 5D.

That link, I believe, is for the Zephyr auxiliary 12/24V battery hanger. It is not for a U2 lower dovetail, it's for the narrow dovetail found on the Zephyr. (Although the Archer, A2, and Clipper have the narrow dovetail also, I don't believe this is compatible.) If Tiffen is offering a similar unit for the U2, it will undoubtedly have different specs and design details from the one you linked. For what it's worth, the Zephyr battery hanger does have recharging protection circuitry. Also, the p-tap on the AB battery plate has been disabled. There is a simple switch to change between 12 and 24V operation. It has a 0B sized 3-pin lemo (male) cable that plugs into the sled to feed it power. There is also a 3 pin lemo (female) connector on the front face of the unit. When in 12V operation, every lemo power outlet on the sled has 12V. In 24V mode, both 12V and 24V is available to every connector, depending on the wiring of the connector going the accessory. In both cases, both batteries are tied together. You can separate the batteries in 12V mode by leaving the male lemo unplugged and connecting AKS into the female lemo plug. But again, if there is a 3rd battery hanger for the U2, it could very well be designed completely differently.

Doubt that anyone here has any knowledge of your unit, which is not designed for, nor used by, professionals. Suggest you try posting in the comments at Cheesycam.com or try Cinema5D.com. Good luck and hope you are able to get it sorted out.

Eric, Thanks for taking the time to write from set. My best regards to Steve, I enjoyed meeting him at the 2011 Stabilizer Expo. First, let me clarify that Justin brought up the idea of adding weights. I simply was recommending a source for a weight plate. That said, I do think that adding a bit of mass to a Pilot with a <2 lb camera on it is a good thing. When I took my weeklong workshop, I'd been operating a 7 pound camera on a first-gen Flyer for about 8 months. While I benefited from developing a light touch, the lack of mass and inertia of my rig made it difficult to adjust (in terms of grip, balance and posture) to operating the workshop's big rigs. Switches were a vastly different experience, as were starting and stopping, pans, extending the arm, etc. You might say I had learned to "under-control". Plus the Flyer's small diameter grip (similar to Pilot's) practically required a "fingertip" technique...quite the opposite of what I soon learned to be effective and appropriate for a big rig. After I went home I ordered a weight plate so that I could learn to control my own rig in a heavier, more inertial configuration. I was glad that I did, it improved my operating and provided a better steppingstone to my next rig and heavier cameras. So, that was my personal experience, which formed the basis of my advice. Given the countless times that weight plates and weight cages have been recommended on the forum, and the benefits of more mass and more inertia touted, I'm genuinely surprised that my recommendation might be at all controversial. But okay. I agree that a light rig can help to avoid overcontrolling. A Pilot with a 6 pound weight plate and a 2 pound camera is still a very light rig...just a little less flighty than without it.

Justin, I recommend you practice near the top end of your rig's weight range. Buy one of Janice Arthur's weight plates, I believe she has a 6-pound plate that should be about right.

Justin, My 2 cents... 1) Buy a cheap practice camera, for you that may be a DSLR, but for practice and review even a mini-DV camera that a friend or family member has gathering dust in a closet is fine. But if you are looking to justify buying a DSLR camera, then fine, go ahead. On a crop-frame camera like 7D or 60D you can get a decent wide zoom (Canon 10-22 or Tokina 12-24 or 11-16) for $600-800 if I recall. That plus the kit lens is enough to get started with for practice and for personal projects. 2) But before you buy any of that, buy the EFP DVD and Steadicam Operators Handbook. Do it now. Don't wait. Devour it and practice the exercises. 3) Dynamic balance: it's pretty easy on a Pilot, so play with it, get it close, but don't obsess about it. No need for an overly-technical approach. It's pretty far down the list of what's important for a beginner...but I liken it to tuning a guitar. Why practice a guitar that is way out of tune, just because you don't have the "ear" yet to tune it to perfect pitch? Tune it as well as you reasonably can, and start practicing. 4) Only you can judge whether you're "ready" to work on the music videos with your friend. You are potentially in a great position, where you can get on-set experience without huge pressure to perform beyond your current abilities. But you must have a frank conversation to set realistic expectations. Good news is that music videos often chop up the moves into tiny chunks. I've also had directors ask for "bad" operating. 5) That said, you should master some basics...panning, tilting and booming with control. Keeping your horizons level. Keeping a subject centered (or the place where you want it in the frame) Maintaining headroom on a subject as they approach or recede. Smooth starts and finishes (lock-offs). Slow moves. Switches. Walking backwards with confidence. Hope this helps.

Southwest offers discounts for checked bags for film and video companies. I can't remember whether it's just a discount on overweight or if it is a discount on the third bag. It may have changed since I flew with them. Anyway, find the page on their website, and carry a copy with you...not every ticket agent or gate agent is familiar with it. You just need some ID that shows you're a media professional. My business card worked every time but once...at LAX. I got a ticket agent who insisted that the media discount was ONLY available to those with major network press credentials. Not true, but too much hassle to argue. EDIT: okay, found the page. http://www.southwest.com/html/customer-service/baggage/special-luggage-pol.html $50 charged for excess bags, but overweight and oversize charges are waived. I also now remember that one time I got hassled for packing camera gear in a bag that also contained my personal stuff. The waiver is technically only for equipment cases.

I see. In my case, a similar effect was actually caused by the end of the dovetail (on the sled) catching on the bracket edge (right next to the silver clamp). It seemed jammed but was really due to the way the edge is milled...a little jiggling to get it started and it slid right off. The dovetail receiver itself wasn't too tight, it was just hanging up on that leading edge. (I hope I'm being clear...hard to describe without pictures.) Don't know if that might be the source of your issue, but thought I'd share my experience.