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Timothy Palmer-Benson

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  1. I am afraid that I am a long way from operator help, being close to the Quebec border in NE VT. I might be able to find someone in French but that might not help! :) Nearest city is 3-4 hours away. (Find an operator in the area who will spend 2 hours with you for a couple of hundred bucks and he/she can fix your issues.) JA
  2. I have my rig finally set up...I think... Its a Canon 5D Mk11 with a 16-35mm lens mounted in a Manfrotto quick release. I started off with one weight and one finishing weight either side, top and bottom. According to my bathroom scale, the total weight was 9.5 lbs...seems a little heavy for what I have got!! --The first issue I had was a pain in the kidney area from the weight. When I sat down, the pain went away. Does this mean that I don't have the distribution of weight low enough on my hips? I have extended the plate almost all the way. If I stand straight and sway back a bit with my body, most of the pain goes away, but I do have to go sit down after five minutes or so. Is this a bad sign or can I train my muscles and body to overcome this. It seems they are all tensed up. -- Until I added more weights, I was getting a bobbing up an down. Used to get this with a Merlin a lot! It seems to be less when I added four more weights all around, but is not completely cured. If I add more weights will it disappear as the rig becomes more weighty and stable? I think I am balanced okay. When on a C stand, if I push the rig back and forth and around, it stays pretty steady and doesn't bob around. I try to use the same action as with the Merlin, where you through your arm out in front of you and back again and watch for any movement of the camera. --Since I don't have any more weights left, I am thinking about putting the whole thing in Bruce Dorn's U-Boat Commander, and having a bunch of accessories mounted on top such as a mike and a Zoom recorder. The U-Boat is a kind of cage, so am i on the right track here? Then I can take my weights and use them on the bottom. http://www.idcphotography.com/kart/index.php?p=product&id=127&parent=30 Oh, and one final question,,,what is meant by framing? Is it being rock steady with whatever you've got? Greytail
  3. Thanks for the quick response. I have read that the rig performs better with more weight, so might it be a good idea to re balance by adding one weight fore and aft and top and bottom? I notice that the rig seems to take on a special feel when approaching balance. I can't really describe it but it is there. I have no idea what weight I have at the moment with this camera, this lens and one weight set top and bottom. I have heard the closer you get to 10 lbs the better the rig performs... so how many more weights should I try. I ordered four extra weights when I bought the rig because of what I had read. Tim
  4. I think I have got static balance with a Pilot, a Canon 5D Mk11 with standard battery, and a 16-35 Canon EOS Zoom Lens, however I think I may have broken a least one rule or piece of advise in the instructions. Please can you comment.... I have the camera set up on a Bogen quick release plate...(577 Rapid Connect Adapter with Sliding Mounting Pl). Because I could not mount the Bogen plate directly onto the Pilot plate (the holes didn't match up), I had a piece of wood fashioned to the same size as the Bogen plate and then i mounted it with freshly tapped metal screw holes onto the Pilot plate. The whole assembly now sits dead center on the Pilot plate. But, this situation violates the CG instructions! The actual CG of the camera with its male Bogen connector is about where the first ring of the lens starts. When mounted on the pilot, this point is sitting in front of the pillar by about half an inch. Way off! By the way, I have the male Bogen connector screwed to the bottom of the camera and positioned so that the little spring loaded pin is just infront of the body. However, I notice that with the application of weights on the front and rear of the top plate, and by using the adjustment knobs attached to the plate, I can achieve static balance. I also have some weights at the bottom and I have adjusted the height of the gimbal. The rig spins fine and my drop time is 2 and a half seconds. So, am I on the right path here, or do I need to go back to my machine shop guy and have him drill and tap four new little screw holes in the Pilot mounting plate so that I can more closely follow those instructions in the manual that call for the CG of the camera to be placed a quarter to half inch back from the center of the sled. I hope this description has been precise enough! Tim
  5. It is not really a problem...just neat and professional looking :)
  6. Yes, I have the cable but of course it is too long and I only need one of the cables. What do people do about this? I called B&H to see if they have short mini video cable but no, it doesn't exist. So do people just snip the unused cables and then roll the video one into a bundle and tuck in somewhere? Or, should I get out my soldering iron, snip the cable to a shorter length and solder on a new RCA?
  7. Pardon my ignorance, but how do I connect the Canon 5D to the Pilot's monitor? I know there is an HDMI output from the Canon which produces a non HD output but I don't see how to make the connection with my existing cables. I looked on line and didn't find the cable.
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