FS700-The Essential Accessories

F

filmrebel13

Member
If you purchase the FS100/FS700 with a lens, it can shoot right out of the box all ready to go. However, what are some accessories for these cameras that can increase its potential. According to Philip Bloom, a Zacuto EVF and a monitor. Lenses, audio, and lighting are obviously important too. What are some specific accessories, in your opinion, that are essential to purchase with the FS100 or FS700?
 
A variable nd filter. 77mm or 82 if you can get one and a few step down rings for different glass sizes.

edit: and just get one of the 970 batteries. It'll last longer than you will, and will probably be able to jump start your car if you need it to.
 
filmrebel13 said:
What are some specific accessories, in your opinion, that are essential to purchase with the FS100 or FS700?
Click to expand...

Sensor care kit: brush, puffer - stuff will get onto to the sensor and leave blotches on your image. Spare mount adaptor - just in case. In fact, for my FD lenses, I've one adaptor per lens.

If you're going to use long/heavy lenses (e.g. 80-200 f2.8), you're going to have to look at rails to support the lens. It will work without, but long, expensive, heavy lenses create a lot of leverage at the mount end. I have the bare minimum from Genus (the DSLR Adaptor Bar System), but accept the truth that I'll have to invest in a full rails system for shoulder support at some point.

+1 on the Zacuto EVF (on a Noga arm for me) if you're to do anything tripod based over your natural eyeline (carrying an orange box to stand on is a little inconvenient). Things like the chimney magnifier and side grip get removed and put on the shelf, though the FS700 grip is better and may soon have a nice little accessory to drop the grip down to chest height (as spotted at NAB).

If you R&G with Radio Mics, I've got to do a shoutout for Caleb Crosby's handle from http://shootingmachine.net/ - top handle for transport, which then twists round to become 'antlers' to hang your monitor and radio receivers.

The FS100 & FS700 cameras are lego bricks. You can shoot with them like a box brownie or pimp it out until it looks like a full-on Panaflex rig. It's all down to your shooting style, what you need, what you think you need. I'll continue to rave about the Pix220 (should have bought the 240) - the sound quality is a huge step up from the FS mic inputs, and shooting direct to ProRes is ideal for doing those conference edits of a morning's plenary down to 5 minutes over lunch for replay at the next session (hey, we have to earn money somehow). Would I say it's a must-have accessory? No, unless you shoot a lot of chromakey talking heads and want the best audio you can get, whilst also having a client confidence monitor with a duration marker.

Storm Cases, Pelicases - yes. However, another shoutout for ThinkTank backpacks which have looked after my kit as carry-on over the dozens of flights around Europe last year. Never checked the gear in. And that was including a 17" laptop and 2 hard drives.
 
roro20 said:
any particular reason you would need a variable ND? The FS700 has built in ND.
Click to expand...

Just a personal preference. If you read the question, it was aimed at fs100 or 700. The 100 NEEDS a vari nd. While the 700 doesn't need one, If I owned one I think I'd still use a vari ND anyway. (I've become very accustomed to walking in and saying, this room/area/shot I want to shoot at 5.6, and using the nd to adjust to that. NOT flipping the nd (as on the 700) and then trying to set the iris to get as close as I can to 5.6.)

I've seen a few resolution tests on the 700 here and there but I've never seen any of the people that have used the 700 test the nds. I think people tend to think the nd's (if they are internal) are good quality. Everyone's been screaming about nd's since the fs100 came out and now that the 700 has been around in the field for a little bit but nobody (that I've seen) has looked at this.

In fact the only comments I've seen on the nd's (other than it has them) Is that it's a rather cheap/clunky mechanism, but nobodys said anything about the optical quality. (I hope that's a good thing and noone noticed anything bad)
A simple dollar bill check at 24 and 30 fps at 35 and 200mm (and all three nd settings) would be nice to see but I don't think you'll see that until everyone gets a little tired of the 240 fps thing.
 
Hey Thanks for the shout Matt, it was actually an email from Matt with a cool drawing attached that was the push needed to start work on my new side grips that are shipping soon now. Matt knew exactly what he wanted and he called the email "dear Santa" on Dec 7th! So Santa has delivered for the FS100 and FS700. We are shipping July 1. It's a walnut contoured side grip with menu control and trigger. New weblink up in a couple days at shootingmachine.net I'll post when it launches.

Have two new cheeseplates as well. The FS100 version is shipping now and works with the ShotGrip handle- pop out our miniplate that comes with the handle and pop this in. It has over the lens rods- which in some cases can eliminate the need for a heavy baseplate and keep all your kit topsides and light.

Also a new cheesplate for the FS700 shipping in July. This can come with the ShotGrip handle and has the same over the lens rods. Also for the FS700 only because it has a rosette we have handgrip extensions that are adjustable in length with a rosette at each end. It can come with a captive (can't fall out) 15mm threaded rod in 4.5, 7.5 or 12 inch version. These are slick and you can mount the sony handle to them to get it where you want it.

Cracking the F3 this week end, fingers crossed.
 
Not to hijack, but a hard thread to resist! The FS100/700 here on DVXuser got me started manufacturing. Now I'm making quite a few different parts but still an FS100 'Customator' at heart ;-)

Just last week I designed something worth knowing about for both the Fs100/700s. At nab this year Juan at Sony asked me to come up with something that inhibited unwanted swivel with the flip up screen when it was being used with the Chimney loupe. He said lots of people were "face chasing" and looking for a solution. So I made a swivel inhibitor or "Swivelator" that stops the solves this- at almost any angle- no tools. It's a great little fix, only 36 smackers. Made of solid Mycarta plastic which is a cool hard to find very expensive material. Check it out if swivel is putting a hitch in yer gitty up.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthrea...m-product-Swivel-Inhibitor-for-flip-up-screen
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top