"Adult" Content for us Camera operators..... >:)

Got to spend a lot of time with one of the new-ish Arri geared heads this winter. I just sat there every day asking, "why do we use anything else?" The price and weight considerations go right out the window as soon as you turn those wheels.
 
William_Robinette said:
Got to spend a lot of time with one of the new-ish Arri geared heads this winter. I just sat there every day asking, "why do we use anything else?" The price and weight considerations go right out the window as soon as you turn those wheels.
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from the looks of it I bet, I so want one of these. Why can't these things grow on trees, I would love to have one.
 
nothing smoother. when I was an assistant I used to come back from lunch early and practice with them. Figure eights. If you could pull off a smooth figure eight with a gear head, you were good to handle anything.
Heavy beasts though.
 
We've been working on one. About 2 years now (maybe a little longer). It does not have the weight of the heavier heads and thus not as sexy. We tried to keep the weight at a level that a DSLR camera (or other small size cinema camera) along with the gear head would fit on a decent 75mm or 100mm ball tripod without overloading it. Make it so the shooter does not have to break his bank nor his back with the thing. I just finished the design of some inertia rings that will slide over the exisiting crank handles to provide that little extra omph! when doing the whip movements. I apologize ahead of time for the music. I'm a big Ren and Stimpy fan.

http://youtu.be/5ZyIwBUrF-o
 
Postmaster said:
Sueeeet! - and, what´s wrong with the music?



Frank
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Ha! Nothing. All the instructional videos I do I use the music from the Ren and Stimpy production alblum. I even have them on my ipod and listen in the car. My daughters think i'm a little touched (12 and 15 yrs old), not sure its entirely because of the music though. But some don't like the music :) We tried to keep the unit under $2,000.00, getting real positive feedback from the first production units sold.


Steve
 
CPM Camera Rigs said:
We've been working on one. About 2 years now (maybe a little longer). It does not have the weight of the heavier heads and thus not as sexy. We tried to keep the weight at a level that a DSLR camera (or other small size cinema camera) along with the gear head would fit on a decent 75mm or 100mm ball tripod without overloading it. Make it so the shooter does not have to break his bank nor his back with the thing. I just finished the design of some inertia rings that will slide over the exisiting crank handles to provide that little extra omph! when doing the whip movements. I apologize ahead of time for the music. I'm a big Ren and Stimpy fan.

http://youtu.be/5ZyIwBUrF-o
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I just saw it, been waiting for ages. Would be very cool to try one, so now it's just a matter of saving up... Unless you would like to provide some sponsorship? (One asks with hope)
 
CPM Camera Rigs said:
Ha! Nothing. All the instructional videos I do I use the music from the Ren and Stimpy production alblum. I even have them on my ipod and listen in the car. My daughters think i'm a little touched (12 and 15 yrs old), not sure its entirely because of the music though. But some don't like the music :) We tried to keep the unit under $2,000.00, getting real positive feedback from the first production units sold.


Steve
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Nice head... you say you aimed at the DSLRs. In theory with a base plate I would be able to mount a FS100 on that as well? What's the max load of the head?

Torben
 
legrevedotcom said:
Nice head... you say you aimed at the DSLRs. In theory with a base plate I would be able to mount a FS100 on that as well? What's the max load of the head?

Torben
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Thanks, We calibrate the backlash with a 15 pound block of stainless steel on top of it. Thats not to say that if you put 16 pounds she'll implode :) But beyond 15 pounds and the tolerance starts to open up and the effort to move the head is more noticable. Not so much on the pan but on the tilt. We took a unique line with the head in that the angle of tilt is +- about 48 degrees. This helps eliminate the need of a tilt plate for a lot of shots. But with the range comes a heavier 'head weight' at the heights of the tilt. The main driving detail with the head is the weight limit of the sticks its on. Since we targeted the low end shooter we expected most would have 75mm ball head style sticks that have 15-20 pounds weight limits. With the head coming in at just shy of 10 pounds we take up a large chunk of the load limit on the low end sticks. Add to that the inertia wheels we just designed (3 pound rings that fit on the outside of the wheels) and you just pinged the limit of some sticks before the camera goes on. Its a hard line to walk in that I 'think' I know the intended purpose of the head but you find yourself straying here and there sometimes with the design. Hope to have some additional video uploaded this weekend. Dealing with dolly details right now, but want to get more info out for people to view.

Steve
 
Prairieboy said:
Head looks great. Is there two pan wheels instead of different gears?
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Nah, single speed. We just ran the main shaft through from one side to the other. Primary we usually put the 6" wheel on the the secondary gets the 4". Future designs may have two speeds, but trying to keep costs and weight as low as possible. We just started setting up one of our machine centers to hobb our own gear sets in house. All other manufacturing is in house on this head, so this would make it 100% in house. This change was mainly becauseI was not happy with the tolerance the off the shelf gear sets had. But it also opens up the possibility to offer different ratios when a customer orders. We can also sample different gear materials to see if we can lighten the unit up. The current gear sets are steel and weigh a ton. So I think its a win-win.

Steve
 
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