weight plates for Digi SLRs

[Joe Broderick]

Any recommendations for a weight plate for these digi SLR's we are required to fly nowadays? Do you guys have them custom made, make 'em yourself, or is there a 3rd party making them. Do any of the rental houses offer the weights and/or low mode cages?

 

Opinions on a weight preference for these plates?

 

Thanks for any comments

 

Joe Broderick

[Fabrizio Sciarra SOC ACO]

Hey Joe,

I had mine done few days ago, so I can maybe give you few tips; I started considering the sweet spot for my arm and sled in terms of weight and inertia, so from there on decided the weight of the plate, considering also the weight of the whole rig around the camera body. At the end, mine came at around 10 pounds.

Then stepped into a workshop, (suggest you to bring a cheese plate with you) and had the material shaped, then, went to a friend @ Panavision that helped me out with the holes. Pretty simple if you know what you want. Pics of my practice configuration, which is not light considering the camera....(I like to practice with heavy conf. to keep muscles up, but that's me)

Hope it helps

F

[Fabrizio Sciarra SOC ACO]

...and another one

[richard bellon]

hiya

 

if you have the steadicam operators handbook, there's a nice article on weight/practice cage

try and make a cage(two pieces of steel) as it raises the cg of camera giving a more realistic feel, and should be rectangular in shape. a few 3/8 threads and slots

 

weight would depend on how much u want to fly.. mine is 13kg/28lbs

 

my friend is a precision toolmaker, so he machined it for me.

 

kindest

Edited July 10, 2010 by richard bellon

[RonBaldwin]

Hi Joe, long time!

 

contact Janice Arthur, she has a bunch of different plates available. I think there's a thread about them somewhere (try the classifieds here) but if I remember correctly she makes a 2 or 3 lb plate, as well as 6, 11, and 15 lb plates with the rods to bolt them together in any combo you might need. My numbers may be off so check with Janice. They are nicely made.

 

rb

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Oh my... I don't know what to think. Ron made a post without a wisecrack or reference to Lisigav. What is the world coming to.

 

Joe, yes, call Janice.

[Andrew Stone]

if I remember correctly she makes a 2 or 3 lb plate, as well as 6,

 

She posted a few weeks ago that she was getting the lighter plates manufactured. She could have some inventory on these now.

 

-Andrew

[Joe Broderick]

Thanks. I 'll do a search or PM. Should have done that first!

 

Joe

[RonBaldwin]

Oh my... I don't know what to think. Ron made a post without a wisecrack or reference to Lisigav. What is the world coming to.

 

Joe, yes, call Janice.

 

sorry to let you down Alec! I will make it up to you soon I promise!

 

 

LISAGAV

[Joe Broderick]

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.

[Fabrizio Sciarra SOC ACO]

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.

 

That's why I suggested you to consider the whole weight of the rig first, as it may change a lot depending on what you are carrying with the camera body itself. Also, again, the sled and arm flying the set up needs to be considered. A huge difference between a pilot and a Pro II for example, or whatever the brand of a sled that as been designed with big film cameras in mind. Make sure what will be the total weight to keep you in the sweet spot.

Taking a closer look to the picture, Charles is using a Flyer arm, needles to say, perfect for the job. His sled, should be a custom made running rig, again, nothing better for his set up.

Let us know

F

[Tom Daigon]

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.

[Sydney Seeber]

hoorah for another $1000 product with an 18 month life span... That seems to be more and more popular. What I don't get is their follow focus that supposedly controls three motors... But only one at a time. Maybe I missed something.

[William Demeritt]

Well, I've actually been using Brian Freesh's practice cage lately, so I did a little light gripping for my HDSLR jobs:

 

 

Quite a few of my 7D jobs lately haven't tried giving me a matte box, I'll be eager to see how my contraption works out.

 

TOP: 18" long, 5/8" rod (also have 12" long 5/8" rod), 2 baby starter pins, 2 3/8" bolts through the top, 5/8" rod sleeve and 5/8" corner. Maybe $60 in hardware? I've mounted the motor to this rod, no issues with pushing the camera off/away. Depending on how popular the HDSLR jobs are, I may go to Modern and purchase some of their 5/8" rods in varying lengths that screw together to extend.

 

BOTTOM: Bogen Manfrotto 357 Universal Plate ($46.95 at FilmTools). With the HDSLR jobs, I usually confirm with production that they have spare batteries for their camera. The Bogen plate was almost strictly so I can quickly pull the camera off, swap batteries, and reinstall it. Takes less than a minute, I can even do it without docking.

 

Sydney, this was my $110 solution for the next 18 months, and it uses an existing practice cage.

[Charles Papert]

I missed all of this. Fabrizio is absolutely correct, I use my half-size rig with the DSLR's and it's perfect. Makes Steadicam fun!

 

There are more and more small cameras coming down the pipe--I suggest that those of us with full-size rigs might think about adding a lightweight sled, or a way to strip down the present one. When the PRO arm came out with a minimum of 13 lbs of lift (two blues), it started me thinking about a "running rig". Ironically, while my Nimblecam flies fine with a two-canister (generally black) setup, I wanted the system to be 100% separate from my full-size system so I could rent it or have it built with a lightweight camera on the same show. I started with a Flyer arm but have moved to a G40.