Is anyone producing a grip-side mounting plate?

jdesignhi

jdesignhi

Well-known member
Iʻve found an incredibly simple way to mount my Nanoflash to my AF100. I use a 1/4-20 stud and two locking nuts to secure it to the right hand/grip side of the camera. I see that some manufacturers are making all kinds of plates for other cameras, including top plates that strengthen the carrying handle and add mounting points. But, after staring at those four 1/4-20 holes on the camera, I was wondering if anyone was producing any sort of mounting plate for this camera. A V-lock (or similar) plate would be so functional.

Has anyone seen this?
 
Aha! Very interesting. You might also want to consider a replacement for the handle. Something more industrial, with more mounting points on it. Maybe delete the handle altogether. I can see people wanting to mount accessory EVFs, HD monitors, etc. to the camera without all those long Israeli arms all over the place. The shorter the arm, the more solid the mount.

Good luck, love to see what youʻre doing!
 
You may want to visit my WEB store and check out all the AF100 gear I make:
http://www.westsideavstore.com/index.php?p=catalog&parent=8&pg=1

Here is my NF and battery shoulder bracket. It uses the attach points you mention, I have been making this system since January.
106.jpg


And the handle mentioned by mkfotos (thanks) will be available soon.
picture-1.jpg


This is what Barry had to say about my NF bracket:

"Okay, this is long overdue, but I have to say it --

I love Olof's Nanoflash bracket. It is totally a must-have.

Olof sent me one for review... well, forever ago. And like so many things, it slipped through the cracks, then I got sick, and ... blah, blah blah...

Okay, so anyway -- the Nano is great and tiny and all, but how do you mount it? I had the top-handle shoe mount thing that Filippo Chiesa was using, but ... yuck. I mean, yeah, it sits up there, but then it's in the way of the handle and the little mount gets loose and whatnot. When I saw what Olof was doing I thought... eh, I dunno, looks too big and bulky, looks like overkill, makes the camera look like it's too long, etc... but he took a leap of faith and sent it to me figuring, I guess, that once I actually saw it, I'd change my mind.

Yes, I did indeed. Yes indeed.

This bracket is great. First, the idea of it fitting in like a shim is excellent -- it takes up practically no space, and it's solid and rigid and it doesn't compromise the handling of the camera at all. Second, with the Nano mounted on the side like that, it's pretty much out of the way, fits nicely in the camera bag, and a little one-foot SDI cable is all you need. And now instead of being "one more thing to juggle", the Nano is just always there, ready to go. It's really well thought out.

Next nice surprise -- after I got my follow focus in, the camera+nano is now perfectly balanced left to right. The follow focus cancels out the weight of the Nano and now it doesn't tip either way when carrying it, which is verra nice.

But the main reason I'm writing this now, is because on Wednesday I got called to do a job in Phoenix for FlightLine, and we needed the AF100. And as I was traveling light, I had to strip it down to fit in a carry-on bag, and I picked up the AF100 and thought ... aw, man, now I gotta strip off the handle and unscrew and pull off the Nano bracket... but NO! Because Olof thought of that. The actual Nano bracket attaches to the camera in two parts, and all you have to do is loosen some thumbscrews and take off the Nano portion, leaving the shim nicely intact -- and it takes up practically zero additional space that way. And as we were figuring out how to mount the AF100 onto the tracker truck, Jay looked at the existing holes of Olof's bracket and thought ... hmmm.... maybe we could use these -- and I bet they would have worked just fine. We didn't end up using them, we used a Noga arm contraption from beneath, but I have no doubt Olof's bracket would have worked to hold the camera even from there.

In summary -- if you've got a Nano and an AF100, get Olof's bracket. It's a well thought out, well engineered, well constructed, heavy duty, and it's made by someone who understands what professionals need and the way things should work. And even though he sent it to me to review, I'm not sending it back -- I'm buying it (at full price, of course) - it's that good."

And here is a shot of my new 15mm super compact rail system custom made for the AF100.
picture-14.jpg
 
jdesignhi said:
Aha! Very interesting. You might also want to consider a replacement for the handle. Something more industrial, with more mounting points on it. Maybe delete the handle altogether. I can see people wanting to mount accessory EVFs, HD monitors, etc. to the camera without all those long Israeli arms all over the place. The shorter the arm, the more solid the mount.

Good luck, love to see what youʻre doing!
Click to expand...

Thanks. Originally I was going to make a plate with several mounting points like a hand grip coming off the front, an EVF mount that goes up and over the lens, and a place to mount an external recorder all while still being able to put the original hand grip right over the top. It's a similar concept to Olof's design just having everything in a different place. Now I'm just going make a Cheese plate that replaces the hand grip and build everything off of that with Berkey System parts.
 
Brian@202020 said:
... I'm just going make a Cheese plate that replaces the hand grip and build everything off of that with Berkey System parts.
Click to expand...

Thatʻs the ticket: it was the Berkey F3 topmount that caught my eye. It got me wondering why no one has done this for the AF100. Once I have Olofʻs Aaton grip (you got a non-infringing name for it, Olof? 8-) I might seriously start looking for an EVF, but it has to be mounted in the right place. I just held my rig up as if shooting, and with the Nano hanging off the right side of the camera, it balanced very well. It might only need a very small pad to rest on my shoulder. With a simple, solid mount for an EVF, this could be my HD video Aaton.
 
What I have going on for a shoulder mount is I'm using this attached to this. I just remove the rod mount from the Jag35 shoulder mount. I have a second Manfrotto quick release on the top of my Zacuto baseplate so I can easily go from a studio configuration to super light weight hand held in seconds. The missing piece to my rig is the cheese plate, so that's why I'm making that myself.
 
That Jag35 shoulder pad is perfect! OMG, now I have to have an EVF! I started a thread, a feature request to the folks at Panasonic. If only we could remove and remount the existing EVF... (sigh!)

I should take a picture of the shoulder pad I built for my now departed P&S Technik Mini35. It incorporated an NOS Sony DVCam shoulder pad. Beyond comfortable!
 
simonpwood said:
I have been looking at this rod mounted shoulder pad on ebay, seems ok for the price (plus he has some grips and other stuff for sale):

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Shoulder-Pad-...70496206061&po=&ps=63&clkid=37194174286552104
Click to expand...

Wow! This design is both wonderfully simple and horribly executed. The corners arenʻt radiused (ouch!), and he obviously doesnʻt have a rock tumbler to ease the edges. If only the corners and edges were smoother, this would be awesome. The mounting of the rod adapter at the leading edge is just about perfect, IMHO.
 
sonicfilms said:
Just a heads up, the Genus shoulder pad doesn't come with the bracket that's needed to mount onto your rails. The snap on bracket costs another $139.95. It's not clear from B&H web site, but I found this out first hand.
Click to expand...

I bought that exact Genus shoulder pad from B&H, and it did have the bracket. Odd yours didn't.
 
Really?! I think I need to get in touch with B&H about this. I though it seemed pretty odd to sell a shoulder pad for almost $120 with no way to mount it. Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate it.
 
I just got off the phone with B&H customer service who told me the Genus shoulder pad does not come with the bracket to mount it. So the list price of $119.50 for the shoulder pad actually costs ( plus the $139.95 for the mounting bracket) $259.45! I guess Bern was the exception.
 
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