35mm Adapters and DIY Dollies

Yeah OIS was off. I'll admit that alot of the shaking came from the horrible ground I was on, but I do know it still has subtle shaking when it is on smooth surfaces. I'll hopefully set up some shots tomorrow and post back with the results/footage/pictures. One question I have is what's the best way to work around really bad ground when using the dolly? I know some people use wedges and what not, but I have not really seen how they work (like a picture of the track and wedges).

I was using a nikon 50mm f1.8 for the adapter shots.
 
Pick up the Z riser and keep you camera low. Yeah it's a chunk of change but well worth it. I've never been a fan of the platform look - inherently less stable. Also a pair of good handgrips go a long way. I'm using the Cavisions and with a few mods they work fine.

For leveling track on crappy ground use a combination of things depending on conditions. Wedges/Shims, Basso Blocks and Apple Boxes (pancake, 1/4, 1/2 an full). If you're panning you have to level both x/y axis.

It's a pain and often requires a decent grip crew (or someone who knows what they're doing) if you want to keep moving (shooting something else while track is being leveled). A good way to speed things up is without the track use camera or view finder to mark your start and stop position, then bring in the track. Better than changing your mind with the track already laid out.

Good luck. Can't beat a good dolley shot.
 
I second Tim's Z-riser comment. Zacuto support arms are good, but lots of people use Cavision for the obvious cost difference. Give it a week! NAB is coming up and who knows what all the companies will release next
 
I just got done talking to Tim from Indifocus/rails and he setup his own rig similar to how I have mine and ran it on the indicruiser he had set up and got the same results as mine (the oscillation movement). He thinks that mounting bracket is the problem, or can at least be contributing. He is going to send me a more rugged/effective one and we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I'll do some test shots with just the dvx and see if my dolly itself is causing problems.
 
Intuition tells me the DVX isn't going to be the big problem but that mount and the additional weight of the letus and lens. I mean after all I do produce a science show :)
 
I never said the dvx was the problem, but as mvansomeren said, the regular dvx/dolly shot was still a tiny bit shaky, so I am going to do some more controlled tests to make sure it was just the bad ground I was running on. Tim set up his dvx and 35mm adapter on his own dolly and secured the adapter the same way I have it and got similar results, so he is working on the issue. He says that the better mount that supports and secure the adapter (Which is the thing with the wire going around the letus) will work, if not definitely help. If you look at the shaky footage, it's oscillating, and it seems as if it is the adapter itself moving, not so much the entire camera setup, though it's hard to tell.
 
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Alright, it's been a week or so, but I got around to doing a few things:

1.) I upgraded my track to 1.5" PVC with 1.25" to connect the sections, so there are no gaps or anything to cause bumps.
2.) I got some pieces of wood and put carriage bolts through the wood and made corresponding holes in the PVC so my track is raised off of the ground and completely fixed (stationary), so it doesn't move when I use the dolly.
3.) Tim from Indifocus sent me a new support arm/bracket that supports and secured the Letus to the rails; I am able to tighten down the wire/bracket much more, so the adapter is completely fixed to the rails.

I noticed definite improvement, some shots I can't even see any kind of bumps. But on one or two shots I noticed the same kind of shaky footage from before. Here is a clip and picture from the stuff i shot today.

DSCF0223.jpg


None of the shots in the clip were shot with the tripod up that high, I was just doing some mess around stuff with it like that. As you can see, the ground is very smooth and the wood is the only thing in contact with the ground anyways. And I kinda forgot about the monitor issue (making it more top heavy),but as you can see in the footage below, I can only notice one shot with obvious shaking. The more i think about it, it seems the shaky footage appears when I am doing a dolly forward and backward and not trucking. I am thinking that the monitor may be moving forward and backward due to the way it's mounted and causing the shaking, opposed to trucking and the position of the monitor not making as big as an effect. Either way, it definitely deserves a better test which i shall do.

http://gnarlyy.net/random/Sequence 1.mov

Here is the clip from today. The first two shots seemed good/normal to me, though I would like another opinion. The last shot was bumpy/shaky for some reason. Nothing was changed except the way the head was turned (it was turned in the direction that it is in the picture.) I did some test stuff with the dvx alone and I had no problems whatsoever (will post that clip once it's uploaded). Also, I only have 8 feet of track right now. The other 8 feet still needs to be drilled/etc. But I tried to do my best with this, so sorry again for not having a more organized/controlled test.

Here is the other shots from other day. The first 4 shots I believe were the dvx alone and I can't see any problems, even at zz99 (the dog shot). The last two were with the Letus rig and the car shot seemed fine to me and the last one did as well except at the end where it kinda bumped/shaked for some reason.

http://gnarlyy.net/random/Dolly_test.mov
 
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I agree with your observatoins that it is steady while trucking but a slight wobble when dollying forward and back. You know what might be interesting...do you have a friend that can video you with a close up on the camera while you truck and dolly? That might solve the mystery...you may see that monitor moving back and forth or exactly what is moving.
 
I do have a friend that can do that, not sure when, but that's definitely interesting. I talked to Tim from Indifocus late last night and he said the footage is definitely an improvement and suggested getting a stiffer bungie cord (one of those solid rubber ones) to use; it might help with the back wash as he described (the transfer of motion/energy when you start and stop, which caused that slight bump at the end of the green garbage can shot.) I'll definitely try some more tests this weekend or as soon as I can.
 
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