Steadicam Zephyr thing to buy

[Victor Lazaro]

here is one of the setups I made. 11lb weight plate (you could use a 6lb instead of you want) my hyperdeck is on the bottom of my rig.

[Chris Loh]

I'd keep the hyperdeck shuffle next to the battery in the back like victor said.. Mounting the battery vertical still keeps the weight spread long. Definitely get that lens closer to the gimbal, don't worry if the chip is in front of the center post.

[Chris Van Campen]

Would the Zacuto Z-UB3 Universal Baseplate Version 3 be a good choice for a rod setup?

 

And perhaps a Zacuto Zwiss Plate V2 with an Anton Bauer - QRC-GOLD Gold Mount Battery Plate attached would work better than the iKan power dock?

 

Hi Eric - I use this baseplate with the Zwiss and the AB as well. Works great for me. Grab whatever length rod extensions from Zacuto and you can make the topstage as long as you need. It comes with 12" rods.

 

That baseplate also allows you to have 2 screws in the camera. So, I have 2 in the dovetail to whatever weight plate (6.5 or 11), then two from the weight plate to the Zacuto. It's very solid, and doesn't add a lot of height.

 

I think the older baseplate is a much better choice for Steadicam...

 

good luck,

Chris

[Libor Cevelik]

I second the Zacuto Z-UB3 Universal Baseplate Version 3 , but as for the Zacuto Zwiss Plate V2 I used to have one, but after while i went with http://woodencamera.com/Battery-Slide.html

 

It has more option for positioning and its lighter. I like it better..

 

Libor

[Eric Coughlin]

Okay, so last night I bought the Zacuto Z-UB3 Universal Baseplate Version 3 and the Zacuto Zwiss Plate V2 with an Anton Bauer Universal Compact 3-Stud Battery Plate (different version than the original one I linked to but it seems to work better in terms of mounting and being compatible with digital run-time). I got the Zacuto plate used on Ebay for $160 without rails, but it came with three extra (so five total) screw pieces (a $54 value) so I'll be all set there and then I bought black (yay!) 12" rails separately on B&H, and I've already got a pair of 4.5" rails which together would make the length 16.5".

 

Libor, do you find you sometimes take advantage of the versatility by mounting the Wooden Camera battery slide at an angle or slid down? Both the Swiss plate and Wooden Camera can be mounted horizontally with a rail block; to mount at all you'd need an additional rail block for the Wooden Camera and the ones on their site are $100; the Berkey Systems one I'm using on the Hyperdeck was around $50 and might be compatible with the Wooden Camera battery slide. Can you easily mount items on both sides of the Wooden Camera one? It seems the Swiss would make that easier since there are more threaded screw holes. I'm curious to see how big the Swiss is; I might prefer the smaller size of the Wooden Camera one.

 

With the C100 the extra weight of the Swiss may be beneficial over the Wooden Camera, though with heavier cameras lighter would be better. With the setup I'm going for now I'm guessing I'd be around 15-16 lbs which I'd think should be fine without a weight plate. I already own four Glidecam weights (about 3.5 lbs) which could be attached to the Swiss plate if I needed more weight.

 

I'll plan to post photos of the next setup after everything arrives.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Eric Coughlin

[Eric Coughlin]

So I got the Anton Bauer Universal Compact 3-Stud Battery Plate and I can't figure it out. There's no backplate to it; is it supposed to come with a back-plate or did I buy the wrong item? The installation instructions say, "NOTE: When custom mounting the Gold Mount bracket system it is necessary to support the shaded areas against a flat surface. A backplate is provided with each Gold Mount bracket for this purpose." So shouldn't there be a backplate? I bought it new from B&H.

 

It says, "CAUTION: Open + and - wires inside bracket. DO NOT attach battery without terminating wires." I'm wanting to attach it directly to the Zacuto Swiss Plate, so there's nothing I'd be terminating it to, so what am I supposed to do with the extra wires?

 

 

Also, the screw holes are not threaded on both the battery plate and the QRC holes on the Zacuto Swiss plate; the Swiss plate comes with screws, but the only way I can think to mount this is by using nuts (which I'd have to buy separately since neither come with any) to secure the screws in position since there are no threads.

 

Here's a photo of what I got.