Kevin Kelly
Active member
At what lens weight would 19mm rods be necessary?
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15mm LW Rods vs 19mm
- Thread starter Kevin Kelly
- Start date
Mitch Gross
Veteran
You may be thinking of this wrong. Lightweight 15mm rods are aluminum and 85mm below the lens center and spaced 60mm apart. These rods are generally attached directly to the camera or a mounting plate. These days they often extend behind the camera but they were originally designed to mount to the front and go under the lens for stuff like a follow focus and mattebox. 19mm is for a sliding bridgeplate system, and there is a 15mm version of this as well. The rods are steel, are further from the lens center and further apart from each other. The bridgeplate mounts to a dovetail plate on the tripod head and can slide back & forth for balance. This is generally for large camera systems.
In addition to the balance control, a reason to move to a bridgeplate system is to use a larger mattebox, which may be necessary for certain lenses even if they are not particularly heavy. Anything requiring a filter larger than 4x4.56, is a very wide angle lens or has a front larger than 114mm generally needs to go to a studio bridgeplate. As for weight, I would say that any lens heavier than 10-12 pounds really needs to be supported by steel bridgeplate rails instead of lightweight aluminum rods.
In addition to the balance control, a reason to move to a bridgeplate system is to use a larger mattebox, which may be necessary for certain lenses even if they are not particularly heavy. Anything requiring a filter larger than 4x4.56, is a very wide angle lens or has a front larger than 114mm generally needs to go to a studio bridgeplate. As for weight, I would say that any lens heavier than 10-12 pounds really needs to be supported by steel bridgeplate rails instead of lightweight aluminum rods.
Kevin Kelly
Active member
Mitch, thank you for the information. The 15mm LW rods are more than adequate for what I'm considering (4x5.56 mattebox and 5'ish pound lens.) My rail clamps do have enough length to adjust balance.