I purchased a Cartoni Focus tripod combo and recently realized that it has a feature that is a major benefit for those of us with 35mm adapters and shoulder mounts.
My rig is pretty big, but it's made up of all the common parts that we all need to shoot with an adapter: cam, adapter, Lens, Hi Def monitor, Noga arm, shoulder mount, battery solution, etc. It has become big and heavy (kinda like it's owner).
The great thing about the Cartoni is how the mounting plate drops into the top of the head. The left arm of my shoulder mount is long, 14" from the center of the rig. All I do is push the release button and rock the left handle upward and the plate rises above the head's catch. I open the head's lever fully and it latches in preparation of returning the camera to it. From there I simply pick up the rig and slide the shoulder pad on it. The whole exercise takes 5 seconds, and there is no threat of dropping the camera. Returning the camera is a split second exercises, just drop it back onto the head, just that easy.
This is a far batter solution when compared to the slide foreword/backward solution that seems to be on most heads in this price range. If you are just shooting a simple HVX / firestore type setup it's kind of irrelevant, but if you have built a 'rig' I think the Cartoni is the way to go.
Two things on doing this right though: First is that the Focus used to ship with a graphite impregnated plastic mounting plate that wouldn't carry the load properly, but a metal one has replaced it. You can get the upgrade for free if you get one with the plastic plate. Second is that I drilled and tapped the 35mm adapter's base plate for a second hole to mount the plate to. I use 2 screws for the head's plate at opposite ends of it's mounting slots.
Overall the head's motion is very smooth, and is has no problem with swinging the big rig around. My monitor is off to the side which places a torque force on the head, but thanks to the metal plate and the head's quality construction you never see signs of it in the footage.
Bob
My rig is pretty big, but it's made up of all the common parts that we all need to shoot with an adapter: cam, adapter, Lens, Hi Def monitor, Noga arm, shoulder mount, battery solution, etc. It has become big and heavy (kinda like it's owner).
The great thing about the Cartoni is how the mounting plate drops into the top of the head. The left arm of my shoulder mount is long, 14" from the center of the rig. All I do is push the release button and rock the left handle upward and the plate rises above the head's catch. I open the head's lever fully and it latches in preparation of returning the camera to it. From there I simply pick up the rig and slide the shoulder pad on it. The whole exercise takes 5 seconds, and there is no threat of dropping the camera. Returning the camera is a split second exercises, just drop it back onto the head, just that easy.
This is a far batter solution when compared to the slide foreword/backward solution that seems to be on most heads in this price range. If you are just shooting a simple HVX / firestore type setup it's kind of irrelevant, but if you have built a 'rig' I think the Cartoni is the way to go.
Two things on doing this right though: First is that the Focus used to ship with a graphite impregnated plastic mounting plate that wouldn't carry the load properly, but a metal one has replaced it. You can get the upgrade for free if you get one with the plastic plate. Second is that I drilled and tapped the 35mm adapter's base plate for a second hole to mount the plate to. I use 2 screws for the head's plate at opposite ends of it's mounting slots.
Overall the head's motion is very smooth, and is has no problem with swinging the big rig around. My monitor is off to the side which places a torque force on the head, but thanks to the metal plate and the head's quality construction you never see signs of it in the footage.
Bob
