Sony EX3 Rig Setup

[Gunther Schlatter]

Hi Folks!

 

In a few days i have to do some shots with a Sony EX3 (Original Lens, Chrosziel LWS and Matte Box, Digifox/Betz Motor and Transvideo Transmitter) on my Artemis EFP Pro HD SDI Rig.

Transvideo HD6, IDX E10s Batteries.

So i spent a lot of time with various Rig settings but i couldn't find one i'm really happy with. not really dynamic balanced, very unstable feeling!

also i put brass plates (2x2,2lbs) between top stage and camera and Donuts to add some weight...

 

Any Ideas to get the most out of it??

 

thanx!!

 

G.

[Tony Reyes]

How did your shoot go? I'm supposed to work with one next Monday through Wednesday. I'm still waiting for the equipment list from the client but I believe it will be the stock lens or something similar. He mentioned a Fukinon 7.8 is their widest but I know that won't due.

[James Davis]

I've done a couple of jobs with it on Steadicam, it's a shit camera to be honest I don't why or how they still get used, the mounting hardware sucks and the image quality is rubbish and easily surpassed by similarly priced so called "prosumer" cameras like the FS100.

I never had any issues with it on my rig, the one thing I would say is it's a very light camera, so compared to the Red/Alexa/Epic etc it will feel quite light and twitchy.

 

I extended the base on my Archer 1 to increase the Pan inertia as much as possible to make it feel a bit less twitchy, this worked but overall it just requires a lighter touch than when you are dealing with heavier cameras, I also set a slightly longer drop time (5-6 seconds) than usual and find this helped my tilting have less influence on the stability of a shot.

[Janice Arthur]

James;

 

Just one tip.

 

The lighter the rig, the slightly faster drop time I make it not slower. (we're talking 2 maybe 2.5 seconds not 3.)

Play around with it.

 

You get more feedback to your hand and you tend to make less "twichy" reactions to the lighter rig. I've found its the key to making these lighter set ups work really well.

 

(Jerry Holway tip.)

 

Yes it is slightly harder to tilt but then I don't make it so fast a drop time when I have big tilts in the shots and as we know in the day we have few big tilt shots so customizing your drop time to shots is the key.

 

Good luck.

[James Davis]

James;

 

Just one tip.

 

The lighter the rig, the slightly faster drop time I make it not slower. (we're talking 2 maybe 2.5 seconds not 3.)

Play around with it.

 

You get more feedback to your hand and you tend to make less "twichy" reactions to the lighter rig. I've found its the key to making these lighter set ups work really well.

 

(Jerry Holway tip.)

 

Yes it is slightly harder to tilt but then I don't make it so fast a drop time when I have big tilts in the shots and as we know in the day we have few big tilt shots so customizing your drop time to shots is the key.

 

Good luck.

 

Yeah would totally agree with you in most circumstances, I probably should have been clearer in that I was stuck in a real crappy position low below a stage on a multi-cam shoot of a theatre performance, so there was often a lot of tilting involved when talent was close up, but if there was hardly any tilting involved then almost certainly I would probably go with a faster drop time, as I generally like around 3-4 seconds for most stuff on my rig.

[Janice Arthur]

I would probably go with a faster drop time, as I generally like around 3-4 seconds for most stuff on my rig.

 

 

 

James;

 

Nice idea but the whole point is that you go faster than "normal" drop time for lighter rigs -- not the same.

 

(Doing the same thing and expecting a different result?)

 

That's why I said 2-2.5 seconds.

 

 

(obviously not when tilting a lot as stated before.)

Janice

[Tony Reyes]

I'm not so worried about the weight as I have to add weight to get it near 20 lbs. so it will play nice with my Master Series arm.

 

It will have a Fujinon 4.5mm wide on it with the Fujinon adapter (that will power the lens). I just found out that the crop factor is 1.38. I'm thinking about requesting a 4.3mm wide. But I'd like to know if that would distort the image. Has anyone used this setup?

 

4.3 with 1.38 crop = 6.21mm

4.5 with 1.38 crop = 5.93mm

 

I'd really like to get it closer to what a standard 4.5mm would look like if it were the normal large body 2/3 sensor size. I'm thinking about requesting at least a 4.3mm.