Sony F900 w/ RF Central & AirPaint

[Mike Germond SOC]

I've got the following 3 components coming up in a show this weekend:

 

 

These aren't the exact components so disregard the v-mount camera body. We are going to stack these off the back of the camera and I want to avoid flying a Hytron on the top stage of the rig when I have 3 perfectly good PowerCubes on the bottom. How can I power this setup from the rig? Is there a way to feed power from the camera back through these components? I seem to remember a trick from a post somewhere involving notching out the female 4-pin XLR connector so it doesn't push down a pin in the camera body that supposedly cuts power to the plate. Does that apply to the F900?

 

Advice is appreciated!

[Rob Vuona SOC]

If they all stack via the AB mount then all you'll need is the 4-pin AB adapter

 

If they don't all stack with power through

 

You can back power through the D Tap

[Mike Germond SOC]

Does this look like it?

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/135979-REG/Anton_Bauer_SO_XLR_SO_XLR_4_pin_XLR_Snap_On.html

[David Shawl SOC]

I used the RF Central with a Panasonic HPX500 recently and had a Y cable built to power both components from my sled. As Rob mentioned, you can likely use AB power or a D-Tap from your sled power to accomplish this, but I found this alternative.

 

The RF Central kit should hopefully come with an XLR Male adapter cable that plugs into the Lemo Power In port on the Transmitter. You would then need a XLR Female Y Cable so you can power both the camera and the transmitter. This is how it would look:

 

Sled Power to 12 volt XLR Female (I assume you already own this cable for video jobs) connected to a 2nd cable, XLR Male to a XLR Female Y cable, so you have two Female XLRs available to plug into your components.

Depending on your rig and batteries, you may need to arrange your batteries in parallel so you have a higher amperage available to handle the power draw of both components.

 

This worked for a HPX500 that was also powering a Litepanel Ringlite, but I assume a F900 would be more power hungry, but give it a shot. You have a third component, AirPaint, which I'm not sure how is powered, but perhaps it can tap off these other components or maybe you run a separate sled power to XLR to the AirPaint if it has its own XLR input or adapter cable.

 

If you put an Anton Bauer on the back of the RF Central, it powers both the transmitter and the camera. If you power just the Transmitter with the sled via the adapter cable, it only powers the Transmitter and doesn't pass through to camera.

[Rob Vuona SOC]

Does this look like it?

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/135979-REG/Anton_Bauer_SO_XLR_SO_XLR_4_pin_XLR_Snap_On.html

 

 

Yup Thats it Mike

 

Always a good piece of gear to keep in the kit, because it allows you to use the D-Tap on the side of the AB connector without having to use a battery

 

Hopefully the camera is a 900R not the old F-900

[Thomas English]

That AB plate is very cool. Does anyone make that for Sony V-Lock?

[Caleb Ennis]

I agree with Rob that plate is pretty nifty when it comes to powering things. Good to have.

[chris fawcett]

Mike,

 

If there is a retracting pin within the power XLR socket (and I think there is) on the camera, it will probably cut off the D-Tap too.

 

You need to drill out your corresponding XLR plug, so the pin doesn't retract, and mark it as a special cable. Then you can power those components from the rig.

 

Let us know,

 

Chris

[Mike Germond SOC]

That's what I thought, power applied to the camera's 4pin xlr can feed back to the battery plate. I bought the Anton Bauer plate anyways, it's a good backup. Plus UPS 2nd day air was $9!

[Mike Germond SOC]

Here are the results of the show.

 

The camera was indeed the 900R, not the older model. It also had the retracting pin in the 4pin XLR like Chris and I suspected. All of the AB plates had p-tap connectors as well. I didn't go this route, but the options were available. Everything balanced fine and came in within my Flyer LE's arm range. With just 2 PowerCubes, I got on average 3hrs of run-time powering everything on the sled. I didn't even have the post halfway extended. I later used the camera handheld with Hytrons and could only get 1hr out of it. The SOXLR plate from Anton Bauer was worth every penny!!

 

There were 2 G-zoom units at the venue, on my rig courtesy of John Atkinson (using my BFD for focus), and on Jamie Soto's ActionCam rig in another studio courtesy of Dondi Sanchez. One lesson I learned about using the BFD with G-zoom is to calibrate the motor without the G-zoom connected.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 19, 2011 by Mike Germond

[Caleb Ennis]

Kool man! Fun setup. Surprised it all fit on the flyer arm...

[John atkinson]

Here are the results of the show.

 

The camera was indeed the 900R, not the older model. It also had the retracting pin in the 4pin XLR like Chris and I suspected. All of the AB plates had p-tap connectors as well. I didn't go this route, but the options were available. Everything balanced fine and came in within my Flyer LE's arm range. With just 2 PowerCubes, I got on average 3hrs of run-time powering everything on the sled. I didn't even have the post halfway extended. I later used the camera handheld with Hytrons and could only get 1hr out of it. The SOXLR plate from Anton Bauer was worth every penny!!

 

There were 2 G-zoom units at the venue, on my rig courtesy of John Atkinson (using my BFD for focus), and on Jamie Soto's ActionCam rig in another studio courtesy of Dondi Sanchez. One lesson I learned about using the BFD with G-zoom is to calibrate the motor without the G-zoom connected.

 

 

 

 

 

If it was a 900/3 the outcome may have been quite different. Kudos!

 

JA

 

 

[Erik Brul]

don't worry about the arm, more worry about the gimbal. However, awesome setup Mike. Congrats to you ... :)