Best Shoulder Mount for EX1-R

B

bayarea_dvxer

Member
What your favorite shoulder mount for EX1 or EX1R and why?

I'm considering:
- Anton Bauer Stasis Flex for EX1 - around $440
- Birns & Sawyer 388194 - around $380
- Vortex Media VSB1 - $200
- Sony's VCTSP2BP - supposed to be available in Jan 2010 - I see a few UK sites are selling it.
- Others ???

Thanks
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sony EX1R, Final Cut Studio
 
Last edited:
You also want to consider http://www.westsideav.com/EX1plate/

For the EX1R it's kinda a tricky issue. For me, I'd like to shoot with the EVF while I'm outside in the sunlight. That means your shoulder mount needs to be offset so your head doesn't have to lean over too far. If you use the flipout viewer maybe it's not such an issue. Also, if you hold the camera for any length of time, hanging weight off the back of your shoulder makes a big difference. It may not look to attractive, but you'll get used to it. Additionally, there are some mounts that allow one or two hands on a front grip. Still others assume your hand will be on the focus ring. And don't forget, what accessories do you have or will need that the mount will need to accomadate?

It all comes down to finding the shoulder mount from the various makers that conforms to your shooting style. It's interesting that a cottage industry has formed around the EX1(R) and many other "handheld" cameras to get back to the shoulder. Good Luck!
 
Last edited:
I'm a believer in modularity and getting parts from cinevate, redrock micro, zacuto, gini on ebay has given me the ability to make a whole series of setups for different situations and cameras instead of just a shoulder mount for a specific type of camera. I can go high, low, arms only, shoulder only, and special situation rigs. i can use these rigs on my EX!R, my canon HF11, and my VDSLR's . You also have the ability this way to create comfort designs to making shooting long periods much easier.
 
mico said:
I'm a believer in modularity and getting parts from cinevate, redrock micro, zacuto, gini on ebay has given me the ability to make a whole series of setups for different situations and cameras instead of just a shoulder mount for a specific type of camera.
Click to expand...

Though I've been eyeing the various shoulder mounts available, I too also like the idea of modularity, in fact I modified my Cinevate Proteus rails from my 35mm adaptor system to work double duty as a shoulder mount for my EX1R.

I also made a custom single handle to help point the rig.

My setup is a work in progress, I need to move the battery and possibly the receiver to the rear to offset the weight on the front end.




DSC_0058b.jpg
DSC_0055b.jpg
 
5 New Shoulder braces for the Sony PMW EX1

5 New Shoulder braces for the Sony PMW EX1

Hi Guys,

I'm manufacturing 5 kinds of shoulder braces, you can see tham at www.embracevideo.com

They start from $50 going up to $250, many are firsts of their kind. I've made what I think is the first brace with linear motion, where you can change the height of the camera from eyelevel to belly button height while supporting it on your shoulder, during a shot if you so choose, it's that smooth. I've also made what I think is the first genuine shoulder brace for the EX3, I'll be posting about that separately.

We've just launched on Jan 14th 2010, so please let me know if you have any responses about the kind of stuff we're doing.

My best wishes,
Nakul Sood
 
Does it work with adapters, lens, mattebox and so on? Or, is it too heavy for the Embrace to handle? If it's not balance, there is really no use in my book.
 
Lor said:
Does it work with adapters, lens, mattebox and so on? Or, is it too heavy for the Embrace to handle? If it's not balance, there is really no use in my book.
Click to expand...

I don't understand "If it's not balance" What axis is my question? Please be slightly more detailed in what you need and I can answer.

Of course you can fit a matte box, you'll have to tell me what lens and adapter, can you see any reason why it would not fit???

Best Nakul
 
Nakul Sood said:
I don't understand "If it's not balance" What axis is my question? Please be slightly more detailed in what you need and I can answer.

Of course you can fit a matte box, you'll have to tell me what lens and adapter, can you see any reason why it would not fit???

Best Nakul
Click to expand...
I'm referring to ANewman's post showing pictures of shoulder mounts that are not balance at all.

As for the Embrace, I like to see pictures with all 35mm adapter + Nikkor 80-200mm lens + mattebox + external monitor + extra battery for the external monitor. If for shooting with just the EX1 or EX3 alone with no extra accessories, I would consider buying Embrace no doubt.
 
Hi Lor,

I haven't the accessories myself so can't take the pics, If ever a customer sends me a pic with all the accessories, i'll be happy to post it.

My feeling is that as long as the centre of gravity of the whole rig is about 2 inches further than the cameras threads for base plate then it won't be an issue. Otherwise depending on the brace, I'll have to machine a slightly longer piece, not a crazy amt of work.

Sorry thought you were refering to my designs. One huge thing I've found is that a brace resting on one shoulder is no where near as steady as one resting on two, I tried single shoulder designs and completely moved past them. Another big thing for me is to make them hands free, so that the weight can come on the hips as opposed to the hands, much more comfortable shooting longer durations.

Best Nakul
 
Nakul Sood said:
Hi Lor,

I haven't the accessories myself so can't take the pics, If ever a customer sends me a pic with all the accessories, i'll be happy to post it.

My feeling is that as long as the centre of gravity of the whole rig is about 2 inches further than the cameras threads for base plate then it won't be an issue. Otherwise depending on the brace, I'll have to machine a slightly longer piece, not a crazy amt of work.

Sorry thought you were refering to my designs. One huge thing I've found is that a brace resting on one shoulder is no where near as steady as one resting on two, I tried single shoulder designs and completely moved past them. Another big thing for me is to make them hands free, so that the weight can come on the hips as opposed to the hands, much more comfortable shooting longer durations.

Best Nakul
Click to expand...
Love your design so far. I would personally go for both shoulder especially if the weight gets around 20-25 pounds. I believed my rig will be around that range once I have everything and although I just purchased a Redrock shoulder mount, I still think two shoulder support is the way to go. The issue I see is that if the camera is in the center, how do one operate if putting everything on to the mount(meaning the length of the rig will get too long)? I have a set of 24" rods for my rig and that's not counting the extra battery that I will be putting to the back to balance the frontal external monitor and it's already too long.
 
Nakul Sood If I have an EX1R which would you recommend best? all your designs look extremely nice my only other question is do they have some sort of warranty on them?
 
Take a look at www.paguk.com
they have some great solutions...
but i also enjoying building my own rig... so i get what i want..
borrow ideas from different products...
and..then i get my own cheap and good solutions...
 
Hi Guys,

Lor - First off if you ever want to develop something or modify/adapt what you already have, let me know. I'll be happy to help. Currently I've not designed anything to take 20lb of weight, I'll have to do serious think about the various factors in play. My gut feeling is I'd make a full fleded vest steadicam style for taking that kind of load, and then use ideas depending on what was needed to support it on the body. Thanks for telling me about redrock, was a company I didn't know of. If you want to adapt the redrock to sit on 2 shoulders let me know, I'll try making something, that you can fit onto the rig. Completely agree with you about the sheer length of the rig, I try to have designs where I can get my eye to the viewfinder, that's how I like to shoot. Does the redrock allow that? Second big thing i'd want is to be able to attach the weight to my waist, in a balanced way so that I'm not keeling forward.

Billy - Depends on what you're looking for, I'd recommend the Embrace3, it's what I shoot with, I want the ability of changing height, I don't only want to shoot at eye level. For price I'd go with embrace1 it's only $45, for overall comfort and ease of getting into I'd go for the embrace5, I've got some pics shooting with the Z1, embrace5 was very comfortable, you hardly feel you're wearing any additional weight. embrace4 is a bit of a pill.

Jonny - Hey I'm all for making my own stuff, that's how I started, power to the independents. I've tried to price my stuff so that it'll probably work out cheaper than making it yourself. But I only do my designs. I can't believe the price of some gear - $700 for a brace is a lot, $250 for a bent piece of aluminium, $7500 for the steadicam flyer, it's crazy! I feel you.

Nakul
 
really? I was actually looking at the embrace4 thinking it was the best of 2 and 3. And regarding warranty is there any of the sort?
 
I've used a number of devices with my EX1, including belt-supported PAG Orbitor, and the Redrock shouldermount at the opposite end of the spectrum. None has been perfect.

Recently, I have I just got the shipment from Olof Ekbergh (http://www.westsideav.com/EX1plate/index.html), and here are my first impressions.

1. The base plate is solid, extremely lightweight and well machined; it really adds confidence when fixing heavy stuff to the bottom of my EX1!

2. The wing + nanoFlash bracket are ingeniously designed, and can support the additional weight of my Sennheiser receiver and the nano exactly where they belong: at the rear of the camera, making the whole rig very easy to handle or even put in a bag without disassembling. It also makes it possible to use very short cables (the nano power cable, the HD-SDI cable, or even the wireless signal cable - whether it goes to the nano's analog input, or the camera's XLR port). In fact, it's so well arranged now that I can hardly imagine a situation when I'll need to disassemble it - it works well on its own with Olof shoulder pad, as well as on my own RedRock shoulder mount; it can also work unaltered with my full-blown, tripod setups with Letus, matte box, and the Marshall monitor!

3. Speaking of the small shoulder pad: using the rig described above with the Hoodman loupe and Olof's small shoulder brace under the battery is surprisingly comfortable - even for a partially disabled person like myself (I'm healing slowly after a couple of neck spine surgeries)! Everyting is extremely compact; the rig's center of gravity is (almost) on my shoulder, and there are as many as four points of support: the shoulder, the camera's hand grip, the Hoodman loupe against my right eye, and of course my left hand - when not operating the rings or other controls, I can use it to gently support the camera's stock sunhood. I can even operate the focus ring with my thumb, while still supporting the camera... Well done, Olof!

I still need to experiment with the longer shoulder bracket, but even without it - what I described above has been a very good investment.

Thanks Olof!
 
billygraydon said:
really? I was actually looking at the embrace4 thinking it was the best of 2 and 3. And regarding warranty is there any of the sort?
Click to expand...


HI Billy,

As much warranty as you want. It's industrial grade stuff, any thing broken, I'll fix it/replace it.
The Embrace4 has a lot in a very small space, the tilt is v close to the centre of gravity, so very little force causes a huge movement, it takes some getting used to. I've sold a few haven't heard a complaint, but it's not my favorite. Still it does all the functions of 2 and 3. Your call.

Nakul
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top