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The Betz Wave system review??


Brian Nordheim

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I shot a few sequences on a TV show last month with handheld wave1.

Mounted directly on my Betz Shoulder set, added a Starlight clamped on the Alexa.

Raises the camera level noticeabily! But no big deal. Pans are pretty clean :-) and allows fast moves.

Anyway, director didn't feel comfortable with this kind of framing. It's very different than what we're used to, you've got that "organic feeling" but with an almost perfect level...

Don't know how to deal with that, how to use it in an academical way of telling stories with a camera.

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I have been using the Wave1 a lot and I love it. It's always on my rig. There are some situations where I prefer to shoot with it turned off. A few times when setting up my rig the Wave wouldn't power on. The first time that happened it totally stressed me out however I found the solution is disconnecting the power cable for a second... and in the worst case just shoot without it. (Note aside: If a gimbal stalls, your screwed)

 

The Wave does raise the camera a fair amount. With heavy cameraloads you either need to extend the sled bottom very far, or if you want to fly compact you'll need to counterweight with heavy batteries. I use a Pro rig.

 

I have the assistant set up the camera more or less in balance, just how I would fly it without the wave. Never ran into off balance issues.

 

It's an excellent tool that lets you forget about horizon to a degree and concentrate on the frame.

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Hey there, I would love to rent a wave for my next job, though I've never tried one besides at a trade show a year ago or so. Would you say if I had a look at the tutorial videos on the web and read the manual, plus use the prep day to get familiar with it I will have a smooth time with it or should I definitely consider practicing with it for a while before using it on said job? (which would not be an option, unfortunately)

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On June 19, 2016 at 3:53 PM, Jarrett P. Morgan said:

not that I noticed. It was a very solid build. Amira with the UAP-2.

 

I didn't do very much full on running though. I would be interested to see some actual sprinting with it. When I get some downtime next week I can do some tests.

i used it on the 2018 ironman event in hawaii and i did some serious sprinting and it was solid on the horizon 

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On April 5, 2018 at 10:30 AM, Ramon Engle said:

No real way to positively lock the roll cage. Just power down. Theres always a tiny bit of play when powered down.

 aloha roman, i've bee using mine and the locking pin seems to keep it solid but my question is, what's the best drop time for the wave it sometimes seems to throw me off when it's correcting the horizon not often but from time to time,it starts to feel top heavy and i'm at a bout a 2.5 second drop time

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11 minutes ago, mark morgan said:

 aloha roman, i've bee using mine and the locking pin seems to keep it solid but my question is, what's the best drop time for the wave it sometimes seems to throw me off when it's correcting the horizon not often but from time to time,it starts to feel top heavy and i'm at a bout a 2.5 second drop time

Hi Mark, 

The big question is - are you balancing the camera's vertical CG in the Wave? As in, can you unlock the Wave (when powered down), roll the camera to either side, and have it stay there without issue? It should be balanced so that the camera is totally neutral inside the roll cage of the Wave. If it is "bottom heavy" (aka seeks the center) in the Wave, it becomes almost impossible to operate as any deviation from absolute level will cause the rig to want to fall further and further off level.

The method Larry McConkey figured out early on, and that I also use (and many other ops) is using a set of small counterweights on a Noga arm to raise the CG and be able to adjust it precisely to where it needs to be. I am also working on the design of riser plates that will allow you to raise a camera's CG with a very light, small plate, rather than the heavy and often too-tall Wave Rider, to limit how much weight is needed.

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On February 13, 2019 at 5:44 PM, Tom Wills said:

Hi Mark, 

The big question is - are you balancing the camera's vertical CG in the Wave? As in, can you unlock the Wave (when powered down), roll the camera to either side, and have it stay there without issue? It should be balanced so that the camera is totally neutral inside the roll cage of the Wave. If it is "bottom heavy" (aka seeks the center) in the Wave, it becomes almost impossible to operate as any deviation from absolute level will cause the rig to want to fall further and further off level.

The method Larry McConkey figured out early on, and that I also use (and many other ops) is using a set of small counterweights on a Noga arm to raise the CG and be able to adjust it precisely to where it needs to be. I am also working on the design of riser plates that will allow you to raise a camera's CG with a very light, small plate, rather than the heavy and often too-tall Wave Rider, to limit how much weight is needed.

yes i do balance it side to side and for and aft

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Hi Mark,

Tom's question was if you are balancing the camera in the vertical axis. You just confirmed the other two axis. If you are not balancing the camera vertically this may lead to issues with the wave's behaviour. So you have to take care about the height of the CG of the camera as well. Therefore most of us put small counterweights on top of the Alexa mini or attach the viewfinder to the top because the mini's CG is lower than needed with the wave with most setups - or all setups I had at least.

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On March 2, 2019 at 11:47 PM, Frank Schwaiger said:

Hi Mark,

Tom's question was if you are balancing the camera in the vertical axis. You just confirmed the other two axis. If you are not balancing the camera vertically this may lead to issues with the wave's behaviour. So you have to take care about the height of the CG of the camera as well. Therefore most of us put small counterweights on top of the Alexa mini or attach the viewfinder to the top because the mini's CG is lower than needed with the wave with most setups - or all setups I had at least.

thank you frank i'll do that this week 

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