Alexa Vibrations

[Paul hill]

Hello guys,

 

I've been working with the Alexa lately and on viewing the rushes have found small but very fast vibrations - at first we thought it was the remote iris control; as it seemed to happen when the DP racked it. It was not noticeable whilst operating I.e no vibrations felt down the post (using the Ultra rig). Any theories welcome here. Thank you.

Edited June 8, 2016 by Paul hill

[Benjamin Treplin]

Hi Paul,

could you be a bit more specific on your setup please. How is the Alexa mounted to your sled? Vibrations with the Alexa have a long history and there are several brackets/plates out there to conquer this.

[Paul hill]

Hello Benjamin, thanks for the reply - I've been investigating the situation with rental companies and other Steadi Ops. It was the way the camera was mounted to the rig, not locking the back pin. Now another question - if you were a 'day player' on a long running production using the Alexa; who would supplying the correct Alexa plate fall down on? The operator? Or the rental company?

[Lawrence Karman]

Regardless of who supplies the plate you must ask yourself do you want to be remembered as the operator whose footage had vibration? I always went out and got what I thought would make my work better. That being said, I never had an issue with Alexa vibration using stock PRO dovetails.

[Benjamin Treplin]

I got my own plates for the Alexa. Peace of mind! It just needs one guy, that is not you, to forget a bracket, bring the wrong one or what ever you need to make a certain setup work and you get toasted.

[Tim Fabrizio]

Proper plates for whichever camera you are using should be a part of your package. Just like camera power cable, BNCs, etc should all be a part of your personal package.

[James Davis]

I always supply my own Alexa plates a proper Steadicam specific one for the bottom and a cheese plate for the top so I can mount antlers easily if I need to or go into proper low mode.

[Matthew L. Perez]

Chris Fawcett made this excellent tutorial for Alexa's to help elimate vibration for free. It worked for me.

 

[Paul hill]

Ah yes but the problem was not that I didn't have an Alexa dovetail plate (I did) it was the Alexa wedge BP-3 that was missing on the kit - this is something I would expect only the Facilties conpany would supply. Unfortunately not in this case.

[Lawrence Karman]

I have my own wedge. You should too for reasons I stated in earlier post.