35mm Adapters and DIY Dollies

T

Tomiger RoPort

Active member
Well I just recently got my Letus Flip back and decided to try to shoot some stuff with my DIY dolly (inline wheels, pvc pipe, etc.) When I shot some test shots with just my DVX and tripod, it was fine and smooth. When i setup my adapter rig (letus flip, indirails), all my shots were shaky. The shakes are subtle and I believe it is because of the way my rig is setup: The indirails raise the camera above the tripod about 3-4 inches or so and I think this (along with the weight of the Letus and other stuff added on) makes the rig top heavy and any minor bump on the track that would normally not cause problems is making the shot shaky. So, has anyone else had this type of problem with their rig? I mean, the dolly runs as smooth as I can get it and I've tried adding weight, making sure every nut is tighten down on the rig, etc. I just can't seem to get the type of smooth shot that I can get with just the DVX. I know this could go in the DIY section, but I think it pertains equally to 35mm adapters.
 
yeah I have the support bracket that comes with the indirails (I am assuming the rails Tim sells now are the same as the ones I have). It is the T-bracket with the wire that wraps around the letus. The letus is supported good from the bottom and fasten tight with the wire.

This is how my rig is set up. The camera is set as far back as possible on the tripod, so it is as "centered" as it can get, but as you can see, the dvx is lifted off of the tripod and I fear that is the reason why it doesn't take a whole lot to cause shakes. Well, then again, after looking at it more, the Letus is secured to the rails and is on the same level with the tripod, so the height of the dvx shouldn't make that much of a difference. I dunno.

dscf0216vg1.jpg
 
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You really might want to consider the Letus to rails mount that Letus actually sells. It's around $50 and I think it might work a little bit better than your setup. Keep in mind the LEX redistributed your camera's weigh, center of gravity, and all.
 
Is this rail mount only for the extreme? Because I am using an "ancient" letus flip enhanced. And yeah, I definitely believe the adapter itself is throwing off the center of gravity, but what can be done to fix this? Add weight to the back somehow? And also, when doing all my shots, the tripod head is completely locked, so there isn't any movement with the head going on and the tripod itself is secured to the dolly by 2 bungie cords.

EDIT: Well, just looked at that mounting bracket. It would sure help a whole lot, but it is only compatible with th Ex and Economy.
 
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Then you're ino a problematic situation
you could add weight to the back with something like the Zacuto lunchbox. You'd need longer rails!
 
haha yeah I thought the 18 inch rails would be more than enough at the time. I dunno, this adapter business is killing me, might not be worth it for my situation (as you can tell by my walls covered in posters, I film skateboarding, though I take it in a cinematic way. I never thought it would be this difficult to deal with a rig).
 
hahah yeah most likely, but I am relatively young (18) and was short on money (bought this setup about a year ago, finally purchased everything I needed to be able to actually use it). I think just using a stock dvx is good enough for me.
 
Is that monitor mounted to the shoe of the camera? If it is, you might try mounting it directly to the tripod. With the rails and mount you've added a bit of flex (even if fully tightned down). This is just a fact with any rail system...especially in the "snorkel down" configuration because the center of gravity of the camera is now higher. The monitor on top, even if it is light, can act like a lever and any amount of movement would be amplified in your rig...and you would see it on the video. Take the monitor off....hold it in your hand if necessary just to try it out. I think you'll see a difference.
 
Alright, I did notice that as well, but didn't think to take it off. I'll be shooting some skating tomorrow and probably give that a shot. It's just hard for me to notice if my shot is shaky or not until I capture the footage on the computer. But thanks. And yeah, it's mounted to the shoe by this cheap ass lcd/shoe mount thing...I need a Noga.
 
I just got back from shooting. I shot with the monitor off of the shoe mount but still had noticeable shaking as far as I could tell (haven't captured the footage yet). It appears to be a very subtle up and down movement more than a side to side movement. Really weird. Anyone have any other suggestions?
 
Alright, here's the footage. The first two shots are with the dvx alone and smooth. Next two were dvx/letus shots. Angle was just to see how it would react from there (the angle was garbage). The next shot was again dvx/letus. I was zoomed out a tiny bit just so I could frame the skater, so there is some vig, but I was mainly focusing on the shakiness today. And the last one was regular dvx footage; warm up trick/angle.

So mainly, I can tell the adapter shots have that up and down shakiness, while the stock dvx (mainly the walking shots; the last shot had a bit of a shake because of the dip in the ground) is smooth.

http://www.century.gnarlyy.net/April_07_08.mov

Also, I just talked to Tim at Indifocus and apparently my mount bracket (the wire thing) is upside; he said flipping it over correctly may instantly fix the problem or be the same old again, so I'll definitely try that tomorrow. I'm dumb.
 
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Well, I looked at your video pretty closely and I noticed that there's also a slight up and down movement in the first (dvx alone) shot as well. It's not as pronounced probably because you are moving very slowly. To check that I loaded your footage into After Effects and placed a motion tracker on the chain link fence in the background. There is indeed a slight up/down motion. You can even see it if you place a mouse pointer on the fence and play the video on your pc...focusing your eyes on the mouse pointer. The second shot was too short to check.

In the next two shots where you are trucking right to left, the up and down motion is clearly visible but I noticed that it's in the very same spot on both clips or at least seems to be. It really looks like a dip in the ground rather than any kind of shaking because it is in the same spot and not random.

To be fair, the direction and speed of the dollying/trucking in the first two shots were completely different than the next two shots. If I hadn't read your posts, I would have chalked it up to ground imperfection, not shaking.

If it were me, I would take the time to perform a more scientific test. For example. Take your set up to a location where you know the floor is completely flat, like a kitchen, garage or perhaps a gymnasium. Set up some markers in the field of view of the camera and then shoot some video dollying in and out and trucking side-ways first with the dvx alone and then with the 35mm adaptor. Then compare the shots, apples to apples and see if you see that same up/down movement. You may not want to go through all of that, but it would bother me until I knew for sure.

The only other thing I can think of is if there is any flex between your dvx lens and the adaptor, then you would see that exagerated because your dvx is zoomed in on the Ground Glass. Its just like any movment is exagerated when you're zoomed in on a distant subject with a telephoto lens.
 
Yeah definitely. I have done some tests are very smooth porch ground and still had movement, but I have been too scatter-brained to setup a control and experiment and what not, but I will do so tomorrow possibly or whenever I can. Also try out Tim's idea of flipping the mounting bracket. Thanks a bunch for your advice.
 
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