I agree. The fx6 is very tempting and easier to swallow price. But I sure would like shoulder mount capability. But so far my clients are happy with what I have so I'm going to wait
Black Friday Specials
- Thread starter chris f
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Haha. Having a sugar momma would sure take the pressure off running a media business. That could certainly make things easier, or much harder. One of the worst things you can do is unequally yoke and have the life of misery and destruction that ensues.
Run&Gun
Veteran
That’s not really one of those “client pleasing” aspects of a camera. It’s “operator pleasing”, which I feel is vastly overlooked these days. One only has to look at some of the God-awful rig jobs on some cameras to make them useable to see what I mean.
Agreed. Ease of use is something I do value and I miss having shoulder mount cameras. The closest thing I have now is a Sony EA50 which is semi shoulder mount, but still worlds better than something like FS700R when it comes to run and gun. I would love an A7Riii / A7Sii/iii in an FS7 form factor, which I think is the idea behind FX9 but $11,000 is steep for me right now and I don't really need it so I'll wait. Something like FX6 with handle like FS7/FX9 would probably be better
Grug
Veteran
I'm not sure I quite understand these (can't shoulder mount it) arguments. Just put the camera (like you would with any other) on one of these:
And you should be able to balance it perfectly on the shoulder. I used my shoulder rig with everything from 25kg of Arri Alexa Studio, down to a tiny little Fuji X-T3, and it's worked just fine with all of them. I wouldn't expect the FX6 to be any different.
ahalpert
Major Contributor
Thank you. Sorry I should have said design, not capability. Anyway your workaround rig accomplishes it regardless
Well, it's not REALLY a workaround. Sure, there are ENG-oriented cameras with built-in shoulder mount. But like Grug said - everything in cinema-world gets rigged to a shoulder mount. When I was an AC, there were always tinker toys to do so on every set.
It's true that I can throw my naked FS7 on my shoulder and the shoulder pad, handle and viewfinder are already all there ready to go. That's nice, especially for fast deployment. But I dont know if I'd call rigging a shoulder mount to another camera a workaround.
Ok - I admit - it's nice to have the FS7 the way it is. But if I had to choose between that form factor and something more versatile and smaller like the FX6, I think i would go with FX6 (especially with the viewfinder situation of the fs7).
But truth be told, I spend most of my time on tripod/gimbal, so I may just have different priorities than you do
In the older days, you know, like 2015, it was "shoulder first, sticks second" approach. Or vice versa. Now, with the miniaturization of electronics in general and cameras in particular, it's sticks/gimbal/shoulder or gimbal/sticks/shoulder.
And, if this trend continues, it will be selfie sticks/gimbal/drone/shoulder. Or something like that.
And, if this trend continues, it will be selfie sticks/gimbal/drone/shoulder. Or something like that.
ahalpert
Major Contributor
Sure but for me it's clientele. Most of my clientele doesn't want any handheld shake, they want either smooth movement or stasis. Similarly, they dont want zooms. I tried impressing my producer with some slow, stately zooms with my new 28-135 shooting b-roll at Christie's recently and she told me to knock it off. (I ended up doing some anyway that made the cut)
Everybody has different clientele and certainly in narrative and commercial and, I suppose, more stylistically liberated formats in general there is plenty of handheld. But I shoot mostly interviews + b-roll, conferences/corporate, weddings, gimbal livestream, general beauty b-roll. All of that could be handheld but it's not what they want
Still a lot of handheld shooting in doc stuff for me and occasionally in interviews. But I like shooting gimbal for doc as well when possible so I can intersperse nice tracking moves, although of course it depends on the mood/style
And in Hollywood they're still rigging to shoulder mounts most of the time to accomplish it, which was the original tangent
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ahalpert
Major Contributor
Everything always depends on the specific piece, but I feel like Kubrick's use of handheld aligns with my sensibilities. Sometimes he went handheld due to space constraints and would try to be as stable as possible. But most of the time that he went handheld, it was a clear break from the feel of the surrounding scenes, and usually when a fight was happening. By and large, he leaned on tripod/dolly/steadicam. I think handheld is overused
Could you please pass along a message from me to your wife:
"MARRY ME!"
The FS700R is still a capable camera, this guy impresses me with all the work done with the FS700R: https://vimeo.com/paulbates
Just get a rod to get the LCD further forward, and a third party accessory to remote the hand grip down forward/lower to more a convenient position and done! The perfect lightweight camera set up for shoulder shooting.
Agreed. Ease of use is something I do value and I miss having shoulder mount cameras. The closest thing I have now is a Sony EA50 which is semi shoulder mount, but still worlds better than something like FS700R when it comes to run and gun. I would love an A7Riii / A7Sii/iii in an FS7 form factor, which I think is the idea behind FX9 but $11,000 is steep for me right now and I don't really need it so I'll wait. Something like FX6 with handle like FS7/FX9 would probably be better
The FX6 is an a7Smk3 in a FS7 body! (better than that even, seeing as how it is TC that the FS7 lacked)
G
Guest
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The use of handheld in ‘2001’ has to be some of my favourite use of handheld of all time.
ahalpert
Major Contributor
I'm thinking....when the scientists go down to see the monolith and get the piercing sound... is that what you mean? When else? Such a great movie, albeit very slow...
G
Guest
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Yeah. Ole Stanely shlepping a big ole large format film camera, he probably thought... yeah, that’s good enough, we don’t need to do that again.
ahalpert
Major Contributor
Lol. Yeah I think that nearly killed him. I can tell you're being facetious but I cant tell how much - do you actually like the sequence or do you think it failed?
G
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...
G
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...Abe...
G
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2001 isn’t a Twilight film to sarcastically bash in a hidden manner. That would be one lonely joke, as no one would know you’re joking. If i disagree with something in a classic film, i just state things plainly.
And yes, i was serious. I liked the handheld in 2001.
And yes, i was serious. I liked the handheld in 2001.
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