FS7: Balancing an FS7 - a year down the line

B

bengiles

Well-known member
For many of us, we're a year or so down the line of running an FS7.

This question goes out to those who've been owner-op'ing an FS7 day-in/day-out for a decent amount of time.

I do a lot of hand-held work with the FS7 - most shooting days involve rapid switching between h/h actuality and tripod-mounted interviews.

My own FS7 is mounted on a Chrosziel and VCT-14 tripod plate, with rods supporting a fairly lightweight Genus matte box - occasionally used for some grad ND, but mainly to support a top flag. Power comes from a Tilta battery plate and 95 w/H V-Lock battery.

It's all nice and solid and the rods do a good job of supporting longer lenses.

BUT it's now a heavy bugger and hand-holding can be challenging. I feel I've gone down the route of trying to iron out various shortcomings and disappeared up my backside in the process.

Before you respond - please - I don't want to start another thread with lots of pics of rigs for the sake of it. Please only respond if you really feel you've sussed your system.

I'm particularly interested to know if anyone is using stock BP-U batteries and how they're finding an effective working balance between:

Lightweight overall system
Adequate lens support
Flagging off lens flare
Decent and non-flexing tripod interface
Shoulder comfort
Balance - a solution to the innate front heaviness that doesn't involve adding more weight behind (ie V-Lock etc)

Cheers.
 
Morning :)

I think to solve this you need to bow to Olevel physics.. if you cant balance your rig (and see the monitor) your a not going to be happy.

Stock Monitor

If you put a lens on the rig and find the balance point you will most likely find that the stock monitor is too far back for you to see

You cannot move it forward because of the cable length - even if you replace the fore rod - cable length is the limiting factor.

Ergo.. the stock monitor must go. The physics equation is insoluble without adding rear mass. Insoluble.

Replacement options are Dp502 or Zacuto Garitical, Zacuto teased a mini gratical a year ago.. what happened to that? Or another EVF that is bound not to support LUTs. If you cant afford to bin the monitor then at minimum you will need that zacuto shorter chimney.

A side note.. monitors that support luts are awesome curing nearly every shortfall the fs7 has - luts, wfm at all framerates - nice.

Shoulder Support

Simply physics, find the balance point.. the shoulder pad must be under it.

I have my own homebuild shoulder support that is a work in progress - the maths adds up, the construction does not (yet)

Recently I shot the 'Brain' job - on day one we had the Chorizel pad - it is utterly completely useless - you will never balance that on your shoulder. Me and the other operator demanded to swap to the zacuto pad.

Clearly the zacuto pad with its ability to mount the camera far back is the best commercially available solution.

Lens support.
I would suggest testing an arri amera and arri rig at a show.. you will instantly understand the need to move the camera position relative to the shoulder pad as you change lenses (its that old physics again!)

Yes I have my own homebuild solution for my 50-300.

Similar could occur for your 70-200 or whatever your bigger lens is.

The support is ideally not attached to the rods but to the camera - which needs to slide on the rods to maintain balance.

Using the zacuto rods to lens support on the canon zoom worked OK.. I kept it on the lens when shooting with primes.. it pops on an off the rods OK being of a inverted U construction (as opposed to O)

Lens Flare
While not ideal - in a bid to save mass I use a french flag on an arm - everything is a compromise.

Decent and non-flexing tripod interface

I think the zacuto hits that mark... if your sticks to sony plate is suitably robust! Some have moaned about the Z plate I found it needs a little lift at the rear to engage nicely.

My own system seems to be let down by the plate on my miller arrow 25 head which is disappointing as the head is not cheap - the height of the rig needs to be minimised where possible to reduce torque on the head.

Shoulder comfort

Zacuto is most comfortable, mine less so but lighter

Balance

As above.

Power
Having swapped to a monitor that needs power I need to power two things - initially I did this with an L battery on the rig and BPU in camera. Last week I found out that hawkwood have a BPU range of plates. I am now fiddling with powering the camera and monitor from a single BPU. This is an exciting development as the battery can be moved back in the fight for balance, I have lost a second battery from the rig, saving mass, and I am now using BPU only and have no need for Sony L batts, which means only one charging system which is a boon for dumb assistants who don't know their L from their BPU, also BPUs have power meters unlike L. Awesome

HW also do BPU with Dtap out - to me reliance on this system means fully restocking with batts and unlikely to be able to rent more, nice idea but a nogo for me.

Hawkwoods did mention (in passing) modifying their FS7/Vlock plate to take BPU.

However.. I am not sure about the BPU solution. Not 100% sold..

I feel that the margins of mass saved compared to the Vlock solution and Hawkwoods V70 batteries is a close call - the 70 batteries are light and robust enough to power other gumbo if required - Id like to power my gopro which I sometimes add to the rig. Also I sometimes add my phone to the rig (!) and powering that too would be nice.. the HW fs7vlock plate has a load of dtap outs and is neat.

While losing my Vlock charger for the camera is a boon one may consider the broader picture in that if you use any location LEDs then you may have to schlep a Vlock charger anyway.

Going with the hawkwoods Vlock plate also sets you up for inserting the timecode box should your client require jam synch of cameras.

HW also sell a four up BPU charger.. this is appealing as it would sigificantly neaten my charge bag from 1offL charger and 2 single BPU chargers to the single unit.

S
 
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I have an F5 but similar balance problems with a heavy zoom..

I agree with Morgan.. the Zacuto universal base plate seems to be the only game in town to get the camera far back enough.. I have initially vocas.. but cant go back far enough and some sort of concrete foam used ! the zacuto has actual gel sacks..

Lens support.. if the lens is long/heavy .. any rail mounted support should work..

For mattbox .. try Vocas.. the internal flags set into the mattbox itself ,do the job without need of a flag.. although you can have that too.. clip on is light and easy
 
With the rather short DSLR lenses most FS7s operators use it forces the camera forward so the operator can operate the lens which invariably means more mass on the rear to balance the rig. I think a remote follow-focus like the Zacuto thing would allow an operator to find a better balance by setting the camera further rearward.
 
Hence my focus with the right hand. cam is way too far back to focus left hand on the shoulder (apart from with the CN cine zoom)

S
 
My camera is light, comfortable and easy to use with a follow focus on the left hand.

First things first you need to ditch the VCT14 setup which adds about an extra kilo for no reason!
 
I build a support for the 50-300 mm lens I mostly use. Camera doesn't leave tripod. For other types of shooting I use Lightweight camera (panasonic 4/3).
The original BP-U batteries are good enough. The support can slide a lot on the tripod so using of smaller lenses or bellows is no problem.
Most of the time I film nature, by the time something happens it is mostly faster to grab other light camera than to remove camera from tripod.

So my solution? Buy a second camera.
 
Ben Scott said:
I've not seen a single fs7 baseplate with VCT mounts that wasn't large and bulky.
Click to expand...

Yep.

If I decide to dedicate some serious wedge I would check out maybe 2 16.9 V plates as 'feet' or maybe something from Arca or Element technica.

Currently I use a 501/77 with an additional 'foot' - Ill take pics sometime.

S
 
I'm not punting Zacuto's heavily marked up anodised metal but their Recoil rig looks the ticket for balance. If I was shooting all day every day I wouldn't think twice about buying a very similar rig. I would continue to run off the largest BPUs and power the VF with its own battery packs.


Goto 7:11 it shows the Follow Focus arm.
 
My lightweight HH rig

19891833233_01f96cd440_b.jpg


20324650090_b081f6be0b_b.jpg


Larger v-mount/7Q Raw or high speed setup

19916613724_ebd6aa1f4d_b.jpg



Shoulder mount is lightweight - goes on and off in 5secs and can be slid more or less under the cam to balance it depenidn g on what you're running on it.
 
I keep mine stripped down and run it of BP batteries. I find it light an d perfect for hand held. I use it handheld 80% of the time.
Instead of buying rigs and building it out I just use my Easyrig and hang it from there. Saves my back as well as stabilising the camera
 
Ben Scott said:
My lightweight HH rig

19891833233_01f96cd440_b.jpg



Shoulder mount is lightweight - goes on and off in 5secs and can be slid more or less under the cam to balance it depenidn g on what you're running on it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback so far. VCT14 - yep, partly habit (I've been using one on and off since 1987), but mostly for heft and solidity. I've got an Arrow/Compass 25 head, like Sam, and one thing I do like about a VCT14 is the solid interface - it makes for steadier shots on the 100-400.

Ben, your setup there looks like it might fall into the "front heavy" category. What shoulder pad is that and how does it slide forward enough to get balance? You still rate those Smallrig dogbones? I like the idea that I could mount my grip in lieu of one of the handles (I did that rosette conversion to my grip.)
 
Still no probs with the smallrig components.

the shoulder pad is on a quick release rails adapter so can slide forward or back on them. You're only limited by the size of the connected tripod baseplate but if that was off it would have complete freedom of movement.

If I'm going to be using a seriously heavy lens for a long period of time then the quickest way to balance up with to use the back and a v mount. I think all my lenses are under 1kg so they're fine for a bit on just the regular BPUs.
 
bengiles said:
I'm particularly interested to know if anyone is using stock BP-U batteries and how they're finding an effective working balance between:

Lightweight overall system
Adequate lens support
Flagging off lens flare
Decent and non-flexing tripod interface
Shoulder comfort
Balance - a solution to the innate front heaviness that doesn't involve adding more weight behind (ie V-Lock etc)

Cheers.
Click to expand...

I only shoot BP batteries unless TC is needed then I rent the back unity. I use a shape VCT baseplate/shoulder pad and mount the camera back on it for balance. Works great for most lenses but really short old DSLR primes it is impossible to mount a FF as the shoulder baseplate sticke out beyond the lens mount. It hasn't been a problem for me but maybe for some. Its not quick to slide camera front/back as it requires unscrewing and screwing 1/4 20 3/8 screws. I also own a Shape VCT light weight rail block and use it when I need rails but maximum weight savings.

I don't use a matte box do save weight and have fallen in love with those rubber 3-in-1 lens hoods. Nice and light and I can pull it out or push it back to control how much shading I need for the lens.

I often go from shoulder to craddled handheld and use a Tilta rosette dog bone so I can flip the smart grip back towards the body similar to stock placement on a C300. I find that helps a log for those gut style shots that come up a lot.
 
I just got a new BP battery from SWIT btw. It works perfectly, reads the minutes left just like Sony batteries. It's a bit bigger and gives me 240 minutes or so. It has a D-tap AND I just discovered, USB as well.
So now I can charge my phone while shooting;-)
 
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