Tom Daigon

How many Zephyr prototypes are there?

Upon further investigation, John Ritter (not the dead actor) seems to have a wonderful track record recelling AB batteries. You can see his customers reviews with a Google search for user- ritter9

Found a place that has the required "bench gear" to recell Dionics. You can find it here.

Thanks Andrew. I did some extensive research at Resellerratings.com and it appears that this company has a lot of people who are dissatisfied with their service. It seems that buying a new battery in the long run is a safer bet.

When available, the prototype of the new Steadicam Zephyr® is being used in our Workshops Program.

Still only the prototype, huh?

I sure wish Tiffen had just released the Zephyr instead of the Phantom. I am aware of literally hundreds of folks (on the web) that would have made that purchase right away.

I still haven't spoken to anyone interested in buying the Phantom.

Oh well, patience... (place any truism or platitude that is appropriate here) ;-)

PS I still love and have lots to learn with my Glidecam X-45 / EX3 rig.... but the Zephyr would be ideal as a lighter rig for use with my 5D. My old knees seem to prefer a lighter load these days. ;-)

Hi Tom,

 

There is a fellow who posts up in the "Steadicam-Marketplace" forum here. He has an eBay storefront as well. A quick peruse through "Marketplace" and you will find it. He posted, I believe, about a month ago.

 

I have spent some time poking around locally and have found one that will do it. There are several that come up in Google as well. If they recell NiCads, they should be able to recell them. Things like TrimPacs and Hytrons are candidates for recelling.

 

There appear to be quite a few veteran ops that recell their Hytrons and such. Hopefully they will chime in with some of their experiences particularly with the problems some of the recellers may have with some of A/B proprietary "Logic Series" stuff they have in the batts.

Thanks Andrew. Do you know if Dionic 90s can be recelled?

So... the time is coming for me once again to replace a round of batteries. I've always used Anton Bauers and have enjoyed their performance. Buuuutttttt... It's worth opening a dialogue up to see what else is on the market, who's using it and what they think. In a world of big capacity needs and falling budgets, it's worth having a look around at the other options. I fully recognize that IDX and Pag build great battery systems as well and are comparable in price/performance (if not superior in some cases), but I'm mostly interested in hearing about the other brands. You know, the Swits, and Varizooms, and Switronix, and generic rebrand #42 etc, etc, etc. Who's using them, how have they been, how are the chargers, charging time, flakiness factor, capacity, price, performance, lifespan, did it burn your house down, are you on a no-fly list for too many made in china products in your possession, etc, etc, etc...

 

Thoughts?

 

Again, this thread already recognizes that Pag, Anton Bauer, and IDX/Tiffen are the cream of crop. Moving on to the wallmart section of B&H...

 

Thanks!

 

I quit buying new batts and began getting them recelled. I am deep into AB batts/chargers so I'm very happy with recells by third party at half price of new. They come back stronger and lighter.

 

John A

 

 

What third party does the recelling on the ABs?

Has anyone used this?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uWYWm9V6T0&feature=channel

 

 

Might all this work? - Put the camera in the cage, power the cage, power the BM HDMI converter via the cage, add & power the cam-wave xmitter . . . . .I think I still have my Hill low mode bracket too.

 

Doesn't look like Charles needs any additional weight.

Be very careful of Viewfactor. A Google search reveals a lot of angry customers that have paid for but not received products from them.

With the configuration (5D+Ultra2+G70) above uploaded, I get shoots like this

 

For me, antlers´help is the solution. For weight and increasing inertial pan...

Nice looking stuff Amando. So how heavy was the rig after piling all that stuff on it?

Jerry I have a related question regarding the 5d use on a rig. In the interest of having a lighter more Nimble (Charles have you copyrighted this name yet?) rig, and given your familiarity with the new Zephyr,

do you feel that it is a viable solution that will be able to handle all the AKS necessary for professional use (i.e. remote focuser, transmitter,etc). I do have a rig that can accommodate larger cameras and their needs , so I wanted to keep the 5D rig as light as possible and still be able to support the day to day needs of most job situations.

 

I'm not Jerry, but the answer to your question is Yes. Max camera payload is 20lbs, minimum is 5 lbs, though I would put weight on anything at the light end. Enough power ports, great balance, fantastic little rig.

Thanks Brian. You had a chance to demo the Zephyr didnt you?

Adam-

 

The arm itself will dial down to carry the light weight - no issues there.

 

A weight cage would be a better bet - gets the added weight further from the gimbal, - gets the gimbal closer to the lens.

 

Bigger concerns - unless you just want to shoot wide angle with the lens set at the hyperfocal distance - is how to set up the lens with focus motors, make for easy lens and battery changes, add mattebox - i.e., turn it into a professional tool, rather than just attaching it somehow for a specific shot.

 

There are professional (or commercial) gadgets for some of these functions; you should check them out to see if you can adapt/modify or copy aspects of them to make it work.

 

Here's a starting point: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Rod-Systems/ci/12017/N/4294545025

 

Jerry

Jerry I have a related question regarding the 5d use on a rig. In the interest of having a lighter more Nimble (Charles have you copyrighted this name yet?) rig, and given your familiarity with the new Zephyr,

do you feel that it is a viable solution that will be able to handle all the AKS necessary for professional use (i.e. remote focuser, transmitter,etc). I do have a rig that can accommodate larger cameras and their needs , so I wanted to keep the 5D rig as light as possible and still be able to support the day to day needs of most job situations.

Hi Everyone,

 

We just updated our demo reel and wanted to get the opinion of fellow operators. We would like to hear if there are things you don't like or could be better. This is a compilation of 2 operators (Dash Adamson and myself) that work for Production Pit.

 

 

Looking forward to your feedback,

 

Cheers

Emre Tufekci

www.productionpit.com

I am more editor then operator but here are my thoughts.

I really like the reel. One of the things I like is the way the motion in the shots matches the build of the music (i.e. moves on static subjects at first then increased activity with the camera and the in frame subjects as the music intensifies). Very professional looking stuff. The only 2 shots that dont really read for me are the night shots. And the humorous out take at the end is also a nice touch.

The variety of well executed moves would definitely motivate me to hire you guys after viewing your reel.

I have been a Steadicam operator since 2004 and I owned / rented / operated stabilizers from Glidecam 4000 pro all the way to the Steadicam Archer.

 

 

Hi Luiz,

 

Love to talk to you about this, see you and your rig in action and see if we can nail this down. If you're willing to do a bit of driving, so am I ! Let's meet up half way between Easton and NYC and spend some time running around and figuring this out. Diner, New Jersey, lunch on me, we work on this and see exactly what is going on. You'd bring the Z1 exactly as rigged on the day you shot the kids doing the bike stunts.

 

Work for you?

 

Always glad to try to do the face to face fix- assuming an overnight stay in Motel 6 isn't a part of the picture :)

 

Best,

Peter Abraham

Director of Technical Services/ Steadicam

The Tiffen Company

917-453-1219

pabraham@tiffen.com

Wow...now that's what I call great customer service!

And the "icing on the cake".... was a surprise birthday cake after the lunch break, since the second day of the workshop fell on my birthday. A very nice touch.

Oh yeah...I forgot to add that one of the highlights was rebuilding the sled so its total length (without camera) was about 2 feet long...a good foot shorter then the way I had it when I started the class. The monitor and battery were also repositioned to lie on the same horizontal plane. These adjustments added to its nimbleness and made it a breeze to get dynamic balance! And the gimbal is now about 1 inch below the stage as well.

I just completed a 2 day workshop with Robert Starling in Las Vegas. After studying on my own for about 6 months from the DVD and handbook, this was the perfect experience to broaden my knowledge and technique. Roberts organization and instruction in the course rivals any of the college level video production courses I took many years ago. It covered a voluminous number of subjects and exercises in just a 2 day time period. It really addressed some issues that I needed to get comfortable with (rig building and High/Low mode)as well as correcting some bad habits I had learned on my own. A real boost was seeing how all my previous work had really paid off in helping me internalize things like switches and starts and framing. At times it felt like I was having a private session even though there were 2 other students in the class. Roberts direct yet supportive feedback was just what I needed. I really got a kick out of the final exercise when a "scene" was blocked that allowed me to implement much of what I had learned during the class and own my own. Its nice to know what I dont know and what to I need to work on in the future.

A great source for this kind of information can be found at this link...

http://hbsboard.com/

You might want to get in touch with Robert Starling on this site. He has a system for sale and also is a great source of information.

Great, now I feel self conscious. What's the average Lemo size?

Do I detect Lemo envy ;-)

My humblest apologies ;-) Im going to go play with 64bit CS5 screaming on Snow Leopard.

Hey guys glad you liked video. Sorry for jumping in late. Just returned from Nepal on gig for the last month (no steadi just operating...thank god!). I gaurantee I got it everytime. We shot over 3 days and had 1 16hr day that we actually got it the first time but the band was absolutely wiped off. They looked like they were about as thrilled as getting a root canal thru the whole thing. The second time we got it was one they used, not my best though due to damn machine. I almost got killed by Donkey Kong barrel after ping pong balls because of box being in barrel track (PA not quick enough to grab so he left it...thanks, I had to kick out of way.) Then by oil drum at end of shot that popped up different then the other 85 times we tried it. Just about took out my legs and I almost missed the end!!!!! Could you imagine missing the end after all that. The third time we got it the TV didn't blow and the bowling ball just missed it's target so Dan (band memeber) kicked the trigger for hammers and what not at the end. I'm actually emailing producer to see why I'm the fall guy:-( "Camera guy didn't get it"...come on man! Damian Kulsah is a great guy and creative genuis behind all you see here. We got it three times, band got it twice, machine got it twice but camera got it thirce baby!

 

 

Nicely done! What camera/rig did you shoot it with?

 

Thanks Brian...I did miss that.

 

 

It was shot with the Sony EX-3. The band owns the camera. Of course you could hardly see it under the all the "extras" (FIZ unit, Cinetape, Cam wave, etc...). Needed the extra weight though, camera is just a bit too light even with Anton Bauer brick slapped on the back.

 

Mic, nice looking rig. I have almost the exact same setup. What do you use for follow focus? I fly the EX3 as well. It seems very well suited to my system (using some weight plates). Nice job on the video!

 

You missed it in his post Tom, he uses a FIZ

Hey guys glad you liked video. Sorry for jumping in late. Just returned from Nepal on gig for the last month (no steadi just operating...thank god!). I gaurantee I got it everytime. We shot over 3 days and had 1 16hr day that we actually got it the first time but the band was absolutely wiped off. They looked like they were about as thrilled as getting a root canal thru the whole thing. The second time we got it was one they used, not my best though due to damn machine. I almost got killed by Donkey Kong barrel after ping pong balls because of box being in barrel track (PA not quick enough to grab so he left it...thanks, I had to kick out of way.) Then by oil drum at end of shot that popped up different then the other 85 times we tried it. Just about took out my legs and I almost missed the end!!!!! Could you imagine missing the end after all that. The third time we got it the TV didn't blow and the bowling ball just missed it's target so Dan (band memeber) kicked the trigger for hammers and what not at the end. I'm actually emailing producer to see why I'm the fall guy:-( "Camera guy didn't get it"...come on man! Damian Kulsah is a great guy and creative genuis behind all you see here. We got it three times, band got it twice, machine got it twice but camera got it thirce baby!

 

 

Nicely done! What camera/rig did you shoot it with?

 

 

It was shot with the Sony EX-3. The band owns the camera. Of course you could hardly see it under the all the "extras" (FIZ unit, Cinetape, Cam wave, etc...). Needed the extra weight though, camera is just a bit too light even with Anton Bauer brick slapped on the back.

Mic, nice looking rig. I have almost the exact same setup. What do you use for follow focus? I fly the EX3 as well. It seems very well suited to my system (using some weight plates). Nice job on the video!

oops

I only read the first part what mentioned the vest and arm, cause I've owned a similar setup in the past

 

missed the sled part, and I don't even know what an X-45 is...

 

on an unrelated topic, I found out this evening they make Coronas in 24 Oz too

Sydney, the X-45 is GC's newest post. It is basically the V-25 post, but 1.75" diameter and wired for HD.

[deleted]

Hi Simon. Oh sure...now I really want to know what you decided to delete ;-)

Peter is the Hocus Focus ever going to be approved for use in the US?

Thanks for the tips everyone!