Dovetail Plate w/rods + BFD Receiver Bracket

[Dave Wowchuk]

I've got a bit of an issue that I'm trying to figure out. Have a look at the picture and you'll see my dovetail plate, rods, and the BFD receiver bracket. If I want to mount the bracket and rods to my plate, the screw holes don't match up.

 

Tom Gleason told me that the BFD bracket was designed to Arri specs (60mm & 100mm rod spacing, on-center) Glidecam's dovetail's holes are 52mm, and PRO is 49.something mm.

 

My guess is that the dovetail plates were never meant to be used this way. I wanted to modify the dovetail to accomodatethis setup, but there isn't enough metal to tap new holes.

 

Any ideas? :(

 

Dave

[JobScholtze]

cant you drill true the plate? And use screws and bolts?

[Louis Puli SOC]

I've got a bit of an issue that I'm trying to figure out. Have a look at the picture and you'll see my dovetail plate, rods, and the BFD receiver bracket. If I want to mount the bracket and rods to my plate, the screw holes don't match up.

 

Tom Gleason told me that the BFD bracket was designed to Arri specs (60mm & 100mm rod spacing, on-center) Glidecam's dovetail's holes are 52mm, and PRO is 49.something mm.

 

My guess is that the dovetail plates were never meant to be used this way. I wanted to modify the dovetail to accomodatethis setup, but there isn't enough metal to tap new holes.

 

Any ideas? :(

 

Dave

 

Hi

Why don't you just add a solid plate to the end of the glidecam plate and then drill into that all the combinations you like ?

 

Good luck

Louis from down under B)

[Lawrence Karman]

Usually the receiver is mounted off of a bracket on the top stage of a rig. It is independent of the dovetail plate. I'm not sure if this is possible with the Glidecam, but it would give you more room on the rods to mount lens motors. It seems to me that the receiver would get in the way of this. You could just velcro the receiver to the camera. Sorry if you already know all this.

[JobScholtze]

There is no wat to mount that reciever directly to the glidecam gold. Very UN handy if you ask me.

On my nexus i have a bracket fot it but i find velcro easy enough.

 

Perhaps you could make a plate at the front of the topstage. Like lawrence said, its annoying to mount motors this way. If i remember correctly, there are small screwholes at the front of that topstage. Try to build a plate and connect it.

[Louis Puli SOC]

Hi everyone

If you only do video jobs Why don't you try and make or buy the mount that fit onto the hot shoe on the handle ?

This way the receiver is out of the way when the assistant ,grip rests the camera on the ground or on his /her lap or on the car or mag liner etc,etc

I have never liked that bracket .I have drilled a 3/8 hole in the bracket (Right angle bracket) that comes with the BFD and I (on film cameras )always mount it on the handle or off the rosette mount on the side for hand held work .

For hot head work (or sticks) I have made up this bracket as seen below which seem to work quite well .

Good luck

Louis from down under B)

[Dave Wowchuk]

Thanks for all your suggestions. At this point it seems that adding a "nose plate" to the dovetail is the best route to go (without having to make some crazy modifications to the top-stage ... unless my machinist gives me some other great idea.)

 

This only came up because of an older camera system I have to use once in a while. If I use a Sony or Panasonic camera there's no problem.

 

Dave

[TJ Williams]

If the glide cam plate is the same wedge as others like pro xcs etc maybe just buy a new plate. My call would be to get greg bubs at xcs which is super rigid and has holes to accept your rod or any 15mm rod!!

TJ

[Erwin Landau]

I'm still baffled that so many newer manufacturer (and some old ones) still haven't figure out how to mount a Motor Driver to there equipment. And sorry but No, Velcro is not a valuable alternative to a fixed bracket... I don't know about you, but 99% of my jobs require Follow Focus capability, at what point I don't know why the mounting should be an after thought. My Motor Driver is basically permanently mounted to my Sled but can be taken off within seconds if required. What if you have to exchange your camera plate? Then you also have to remount your MDR as well...

 

Since PRO started, there is a standardized hole pattern that pretty much everybody has copied. It requires 2 holes in the Camera or upper Junction Box (Below is my Camera stage with 3 holes) and the resulting holes in the bracket mate up with all (professional) MDR Brackets on the market... for Preston, BFD, Scorpio, Fox, Genio, etc

 

Below is my new MDR Bracket. The nice thing is that the L-bracket comes with 10 holes for positioning on the Sled and with 3 holes to find the hight that you like. And it puts the MDR out of the way of the Lens Motors and future tilt plates... And it's rigid.

 

Just my thoughts...

 

Erwin

[Benjamin Treplin]

Erwin,

 

do you have more pictures of your MDR bracket? Due to some mods on my Ultimate my old T-bracket doesn't fit anymore.

 

I have a cmotion and trying to figure out if it could fit before ordering it.

 

Thanks

[Brad Smith]

If the glide cam plate is the same wedge as others like pro xcs etc maybe just buy a new plate. My call would be to get greg bubs at xcs which is super rigid and has holes to accept your rod or any 15mm rod!!

TJ

 

 

That sound's like a good idea except that the Jim's BFD Bracket is made for the spacing of either the Arri or Chrosziel rails. I've got both an XCS plate and a BFD bracket and the two don't work together. I think the pre tapped holes in the PRO plate are the same positioning/spacing as the XCS plate. The best solution is Louis's