G-50 Owners

[chris fawcett]

Hi all you happy G-50 owners out there.

 

You know the stopper at the base of the arm, by the block, the whatsit that prevents the spring from rotating the arm beyond 180 degrees outwards? Take it off, put it in a safe place, and see with you think. I've done without mine for 6 months now, and find that the arm, in any situation I've come across, handles better. Best of all is when you move the rig to the right (left for goofies), the arm folds up beautifully, reducing its profile, allowing the rig to traverse your body more easily.

 

Also, when you run, it is a lot quieter. No more 'click, click, click.'

 

I guess it's there to stop the arm hitting your vest (or, depending on the height of the block, your body), but this hardly happens and seems not to be any problem when it does.

 

G-70 owners don't gain the first advantage by removing their stopper, because that arm has a built-in kickback that allows the mobility I describe. The second advantage of reducing noise in certain situations is gained however, so that might just make it worth your while trying.

 

I say 'put it in a safe place,' because I haven't a baldy notion where I put mine. <_<

 

Chris

[Marco Dardari]

I try as soon as possible.

thanks Chris for feedback

 

Marco

[Alan Greene]

Excellent idea. The problem for me is not that it's there, but that it's made of a totally solid material. If it were made of rubber or something similarly flexible, it would still serve its purpose, but not cause that "where's that banging coming from?" confusion when running.

 

The socket is a little more awkward to engage now, but the trade-off is a no-brainer. I'm keeping mine this way for the foreseeable future. Thanks for the great tip!

[chris fawcett]

Hi Alan,

 

Thanks for the feedback! Yes, you've got to practice engaging the block a couple of times when no one's looking ;)

 

BTW, I really enjoyed reading (and rereading) your Uninflected Shots thread over in Steadicam Aesthetics.

 

Best wishes,

 

Chris

[Ed Moore]

Chris, I just 'Fawcettised' my G-50 and like it a lot. Slightly trickier to stick the arm into the vest when putting the rig on, but definitely increased mobility.

 

Doing a shoot on a WW2 submarine in a couple of weeks with insanely narrow corridors and I think you've just increased my chances of nailing some Das Boot magic :)

 

Cheers!

[Mike Marriage]

Doing a shoot on a WW2 submarine in a couple of weeks with insanely narrow corridors and I think you've just increased my chances of nailing some Das Boot magic :)

 

Whoa! That sounds like one very tight location, good luck! I think for Das Boot they had to make up a gyro stabilized hand held rig. I've got a KS8 if you have to resort to that.

[Ed Moore]

Doing a shoot on a WW2 submarine in a couple of weeks with insanely narrow corridors and I think you've just increased my chances of nailing some Das Boot magic :)

 

Whoa! That sounds like one very tight location, good luck! I think for Das Boot they had to make up a gyro stabilized hand held rig. I've got a KS8 if you have to resort to that.

 

Oh hey Mike - we bumped into each other at the Broadcast show, right? Yeah it's going to be very tight; I'm actually taking the rig down on a recce next week to see if it's even going to be remotely possible. Thanks for letting me know about the gyro, I'll bear that in mind.

 

Take it easy,

 

E

[chris fawcett]

Chris, I just 'Fawcettised' my G-50

Cute!

[Mike Marriage]

Oh hey Mike - we bumped into each other at the Broadcast show, right? Yeah it's going to be very tight; I'm actually taking the rig down on a recce next week to see if it's even going to be remotely possible. Thanks for letting me know about the gyro, I'll bear that in mind.

 

Was that at the Tiffen stand? Sorry bumped into so many people that it all blurred into one! I'll have to dig Das Boot out, it has some amazing operating in it. I think I saw some footage where they were passing the camera through hatches from one op to another during the take because it was so cramped. (Thread hi-jack over)

[Ed Moore]

Was that at the Tiffen stand?

 

It was, I was helping out for the show. I seem to remember you fell into the easily idenfiable category of 'professional operator' by the way you instantly had that Clipper with the SR3 on 10 seconds after arriving on the stand - quite right too :)

 

E

[Mike Marriage]

It was, I was helping out for the show. I seem to remember you fell into the easily idenfiable category of 'professional operator' by the way you instantly had that Clipper with the SR3 on 10 seconds after arriving on the stand - quite right too :)

 

...and I didn't ask if it was heavy!

Edited February 28, 2009 by Mike Marriage

[Matteo Quagliano]

it's been a year since I have my beatiful G50 arm (before I was flying a crazy homemade model 2 type). Today I was practicing parallel shots on an handrail, hours and hours back and forth, DJ missionary switch, all the moves back and forth. I did try different set of Iso doing exactly the same move, to understand better my feelings and my mystakes I put the zoom very long (tele) and I did a strange (?) discover.

The less Iso I use the more precise my horizontal lines and lock offs are. Also, my gimble hand work much better and has less solicitation producing better shots and frames both moving and locking off. Is it strage? Is it just me that I haven't take a workshop yet?

 

maqu