Premium Members James Davis Posted February 3, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted February 3, 2011 Well it kind of gets to the point where you and the focus puller aren't doing your job properly if you don't order the right kit. Now sure times will crop up where a mistake has happened, but James seems to have a heads up on this one, so making sure there is an LMB on the list should be a priority. You shouldn't really be flying a production matte box if you can help it. Without some special engineering you can only fix an iris rod or two. They won't be spaced to accommodate anything, but will be there to affix motors onto. Look at the pro style iris rods, they have two holes in them, have those holes drilled and threaded into your dovetail plate, then screw on the rod. Don't the newer archer dovetail plates come with a new style hole pattern layout that has the rod holes drilled already? I thought I saw this, but could be mistaken, maybe consult Tiffen, Rick :) I did use the carbon fiber rods and they're good. I would like to know how you fix rods on archer plate. Anyway, a good reason is a mattebox with filters, Dps and Acs don't like to flip around or to put filters from the bottom. Or at least that was my case.... unless you always go for a cilp on mattebox but I think you never know and you should be prepared for the worst (as always happen :) ) maqu On my original Archer plate, I have no such holes as standard, not quite sure how you would affix rods directly to the dovetail without then fouling the camera somehow? We are using an MB19 mattebox plus it is highly likely we will be using 1-2 ND grad filters, I was anticipating having to have a rail mounted matte box so this is no big deal, luckily i've spoken to the DP and he is in agreement about keeping the rig stripped to the minimum, so is happy to remove: Viewfinder, top-handle, hard drive (shoot to card instead), and the battery will only go on when the sled is docked to avoid powering down when changing batteries on the sled, and it looks unlikely that we will need to pull iris mid shot so although we have a preston 2 channel its highly unlikely we will end up mounting or using more than one motor on the day, so.... camera build looks to be as follows: Red one Ultra Prime(s) Red Zoom 18-50mm Arri MB19 (most likely with just one flag up top) Element technica bridge/base plate set-up Redbyte decimator downconverter marrell wireless video link Preston 2 ch lens control (focus iris/zoom) Fairly minimal and should weigh in around 25lbs, hopefully less depending on what lens we stick on I guess, have the weight kit that bolts to the rails on the battery hanger of the sled, but if all else fails I guess we can tape a spare battery on there, but hoping that won't be necessary considering how much we are managing to strip off the rig. What do you guys reckon? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Matteo Quagliano Posted February 4, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 James you're good to go... :) For sure you'll have to tape a battery on archer bottom rods (for balancing and DB). Other then that you're perfect, kit is good, weight is in control and (lucky you) you have the element technika bridge plate, so you'll keep mattebox in the right position (not upside down) and you won't have any issues regarding vibrations or weight positioning. Preston kit, slurp, this is f£$%£ing good... I suggest also you use RED battery on your sled, they're heavier and can help you with weight distribution. As I said... Production mattebox... so what, Richard? Just say no? :) my best, hope I helped you maqu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard James Lewis Posted February 4, 2011 Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 I give up... As I said... Production mattebox... so what, Richard? Just say no? :) my best, hope I helped you maqu 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Matteo Quagliano Posted February 4, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 AHHAHAAHAAHHA... that's good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members James Davis Posted February 4, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted February 4, 2011 Had the good fortune to get my hand on a large chunk of the kit today, so made it down to my local steadicam specialists optical support, to bolt everything on to a practice camera, put all the accessories on, and added weight in the form of a weight plate to put the camera build up to around 26lbs to simulate tomorrow. Just wanted to check I can get the rig flying nicely with that kinda payload, had to move the gimbal up a little closer to the topstage, add my bolt on weight kit to the bottom, but other than that, no nasty surprises it seems, so hopefully should be no major issues tomorrow with the build, cheers for all the help and advice guys, will bring back some pictures from tomorrow too hopefully as one of my colleagues is taking some behind the scenes snaps :=) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members James Davis Posted February 7, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted February 7, 2011 Thanks for all advice guys, despite a few bits of missing kit on the day (not mine), and a small error on my part (grossly underestimating the power draw of the camera and combined accessories) all went well, we nailed the shots we set out to get, DP was happy, Director was happy, and i'm feeling pretty pleased. Looks like that second battery bracket is going to be pretty much essential for future jobs though, if I want to avoid having to change batteries every five minutes :D , probably would have made my life a bit easier on all those takes where I had to pretty much sprint up stairs too I guess :) Regards James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members James Davis Posted March 25, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 25, 2011 UPDATE! A last minute Red job came up.....and so I went to get this bracket sorted out, unfortunately we didn't have three weeks to wait to pick up a hocus products bracket, so I went to see the guys down at Optical support. The legend that is Chris Edwards at Optical Support, fashioned me a rather awesome second battery bracket which slides straight onto the rails of my archer, in 15 minutes flat! He took the rail mounted bracket for my weight kit which mounts to rails at the bottom of the rig, found a couple of nuts and bolts, a standalone IDX V-lock plate normally used to power directors monitors, chopped the XLR connector off, soldered up a D-tap connector....plonked it on the end, then I think he glued a section of the rail mounted bracket to the plate, ET VOILA, instant hot swappable parallel wired second battery bracket awesomeness! I'll see if I can take a pic and post something up next week when I get the rig back off my business partner, but now we can power the RED and all accessories off of the rig which means we can strip everything down to the bare minimum on camera, and make my life and my day a lot more enjoyable every time I go out on a RED job, happy days :lol: I have to say...I think that is pretty much the fastest custom bracket/cable i've ever seen made! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Matteo Quagliano Posted March 28, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 James... I'm quite curious on this... How did you hot swap your battaries? Did you parallel them through P tap port on the archer battery plate? Let me know thanks. my best maqu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members James Davis Posted March 28, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 James... I'm quite curious on this... How did you hot swap your battaries? Did you parallel them through P tap port on the archer battery plate? Let me know thanks. my best maqu Yes exactly that, the bracket is solid, obviously not quite as rock solid as something like the hocus products one, but we will get something more permanent sorted out soon, it was meant to get us out of trouble for the time being, and it certainly does the job perfectly. We will probably speak to Chris to get a more permenant solution sorted soon, or just order up the Hocus products one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Matteo Quagliano Posted March 31, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted March 31, 2011 I've been using the hocus for a year now and it's very good since it has a IDX plate and it's rock solid when locked, never tried to parallel the 2 batteries through P tap since I was told it's dangerous. Now I know it's not. What you think about the weight being set over there? I mean it doesn't pull down directly from underneath the sled. I add some arrows on the pic to explain it better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members James Davis Posted April 1, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted April 1, 2011 I will post a picture up of mine later on today, off to do some training on the rig round a Dop friends place, if I remember correctly I usually have the rails all the way in, or no more than an inch exteneded away from the sled at the back, and the centre of gravity ever so slightly ahead of the post. I generally start with this set up, and then move the (second) battery plate accordingly if I need to to get as close to I can as perfect when I spin balance. Don't quote me on this, but Chris at Optical support said the cabling/connectors were more than up to the job of handling a paralell set up, and I haven't had any problems so far, even with a few Red shoots, and slapping 140 wh Red brick batteries on there. Although there was noticable flex in the bracket at that point, almost certainly going to get the hocus one on order today, and maybe call him see if he can turn it around sooner than 3 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members Peter Hoare Posted April 4, 2011 Premium Members Report Share Posted April 4, 2011 Good news, we have two of these plates in stock, so I can get it out to you pretty quickly.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members James Davis Posted April 5, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted April 5, 2011 Had a chat with Peter, placed my order, should hopefully have my plate through and done by Thursday :=) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Members James Davis Posted April 6, 2011 Author Premium Members Report Share Posted April 6, 2011 Talk about great customer service, Peter called earlier to let me know the bracket was ready, ordered it Monday afternoon....nice one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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