Movcam cage (or other rigs). No mention of 4K inside here...

P

paulcurtis

Veteran
Is anyone here using the movcam setup for their fs700? What do they think of it, how heavy is it? Any problems?

I have the tilta base plate which i find quite bulky, also i don't have a decent top handle. So considering just moving to movcam which offers a little less bulk and the handle which i like.

opinions greatly received! In fact with rigging in general. I like the tilta but just find it very bulky by the time i've got the battery and everything hanging off it.

cheers
paul
 
I am totally committed to hardware from Berkey (BerkeySystems.com). Everything is modular, so I can assemble any configuration on a moments notice. Handles, cages, monitor mounts, shoulder mount and battery holders. I recommend Berkey for light weight and cost effective. Not to mention that Brian Berkey is probably one of the nicer vendors.

I have the Tilta baseplate, as well. It's rediculously heavy and useless. Zacuto makes nice stuff, as I'm sure you know, but, unreasonably priced.
 
I am using the Movcam rig for FS700 and I think it is prefect match to FS700. It gots high quality and nice workmanship, specially the top handle is very reliable.
 
I also love Berkey System stuff. He's a good guy and has actually gone out of his way to get me the right parts to set up my camera exactly how I wanted it. I've got his top plate, baseplate, and some of his ultralight and quad blocks to build out my rig. This topic actually reminded me that I wanted to post about an EVF mount that he rigged up for me that is perfect for the Alphatron and only costs about $115-130 in parts.
 
freshTEA said:
http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/movcam_303-1701
I have this and I think its to bulky for me (without the handle) but thats just me :) Let me know if your interested. (I live in Sweden)
I now have http://jag35.com/fs-700-baseplate.html
But yeah you will loose the should mount :)
Click to expand...

Is that a VCT plate underneath? I'm a bit confused what plates the movcam stuff has. That seems lighter than the tilta version and i quite like the rest of the cage with movcam, especially the top handle.

For the Jag stuff (and similar) i will never go back to SLR mounting plates after one fell apart on me with the fs100 rig i had. I'd rather stick to the VCT docking arrangement. Much more robust.. These SLR plates don't seem designed to mount and unmount all the time.. Perhaps this one is different.

I may well be interested though...


Chris_T said:
I am using the Movcam rig for FS700 and I think it is prefect match to FS700. It gots high quality and nice workmanship, specially the top handle is very reliable.
Click to expand...

Great to hear, so what's the docking plate underneath? Is it a VCT? Or something else - how do you dock it to a tripod - do you have any images? :)

The Berkeley Systems stuff looks nice too, i'll look into that more

cheers
Paul
 
I'm using the Movcam rig with my set up and it works well enough for me. I use their sliding dovetail plate which works great on the tripod for getting good balance. Had a recent issue with one of their new wooden handles that has a start/stop trigger that wouldn't allow me to turn off the camera properly, but they've been really professional about dealing with the problem and shipped out a replacement part very quickly.
 
got the movcam and I like it! It's sturdy, solid and matches perfectly to the camera.

Nevertheless I found some minor issues: one of the screws at the bottom to connect the camera is under the
rig and has no straight access for a screwdriver. You have to be careful that you get it right straight and avoid
damaging the thread at the camera body.
Baseplate plus shoulder pad has a weight of almost one kilo. With the movcam cage, a recorder, mattebox and
viewfinder you quite close to the limit of your fluid head (e.g. FSB6 )
 
brotherlan, clermond,

Thank you both.

I have the tilta baseplate at the moment which is similar, sounds like it's a similar weight as well and i was trying to lighten the load a little. The attraction of the movcam was the top handle really, which seemed very flexible with rigging monitor and EVF off it.

Is the shoulder comfortable? And in the right position?

Could you measure from the base to the top of the handle vertically for me?

in both cases the sliding dovetail plate goes on the tripod and the rig mounts onto that? Is that a sturdy connection?

Many thanks
Paul
 
Paul, I dont have a dovetail plate, I use a Sachtler quick release instead. Size from bottom without tripod plate to top of top handle is 24cm. Well, shoulder pad is quite close to the camera. For my personal use it would be better if you could slide it some centimeters back and have some flexibility. I use it with an TV Logic view finder but not for hours. I think there a better rigs for shoulder mount. But for me its perfect as it keeps the rig on the tripod small.

I also demounted the front part of the top handle - I dont need it and it doesnt fit in my case ;-)
All screws are 5/32 inch but inside the top handle is a 5mm. You need an extra long hex wrench. Hope this helps ;-)
 
As with Clermond I took off the front part of the handle (I ordered my rig from CVP and it came with an extra long Movcam branded hex key to remove it), and have replaced it with their cold shoe mount, onto which sits a Kinotehnik EVF. I don't shoot onto an external recorder so my set up is a bit front heavy and I have struggled a little bit with hand positioning for the start/stop movcam grip, but I tried out the way the guy has it set up in this vid - http://www.newsshooter.com/2013/08/06/get-a-grip-movcam-wooden-handles-with-startstop-trigger/ - and I can see it working well for my purposes. I come from DSLR shooting, usually in quite contained spaces, so being compact and nimble is good from my point of view.

The dovetail plate I really get along with. I use it on a Sachtler DV6 head and don't have any issues really. Once it's on, there's a catch at both ends to prevent the camera from sliding off. It locks in place on the right hand side with the same sort of screw as is used to secure the 15mm rods. I don't have any complaints with it.

With my top handle I've adorned it with a few Wooden Camera cold shoe mounts so I can attach radio receivers. It's a little bit cramped in there I guess but it's the only place I can mount radio mics at the moment.

Here's a couple of not-so-great photos...
IMG_3876.jpgIMG_3875.jpg
 
I have got the movcam rig with handles and the 4k recorder. As you place the 4k package on the backrods you notice that the shoulder needs to be moved backwards. the whole set-up is now maybe 57 cm long with the motorizrd zoom lens and fits into katas banana bag 3 with kinotehnik evf and follow focus installed. i use batterys with d-tap to power the recorder and the evf so as the battery runs out on the recorde the evf shuts down and through that i know it is down. otherwise it is easy to mis th battery runnign out on recorder.

Few things i still need to change on the set-up:
Get a better shoulder pad, movcams is a bit on the tiny side
get maybe a top rods handle since movcam original handle does not come far enough to get any balance on the rig when lifted from that. Tilta would work better since their handle can be moved, but i decided to get movcam since it felt more compact.
Maybe get some angled hd-sdi connectors for the camera side, if those excist
 
Sami2 said:
I have got the movcam rig with handles and the 4k recorder. As you place the 4k package on the backrods you notice that the shoulder needs to be moved backwards. the whole set-up is now maybe 57 cm long with the motorizrd zoom lens and fits into katas banana bag 3 with kinotehnik evf and follow focus installed. i use batterys with d-tap to power the recorder and the evf so as the battery runs out on the recorde the evf shuts down and through that i know it is down. otherwise it is easy to mis th battery runnign out on recorder.

Few things i still need to change on the set-up:
Get a better shoulder pad, movcams is a bit on the tiny side
get maybe a top rods handle since movcam original handle does not come far enough to get any balance on the rig when lifted from that. Tilta would work better since their handle can be moved, but i decided to get movcam since it felt more compact.
Maybe get some angled hd-sdi connectors for the camera side, if those excist
Click to expand...

I wouldn't mind seeing that set up, you're running with the Sony 4K solution as part of the rig all the time then?

I found the i could get the movcam top handle separately, so i'm going for that and sticking with the tilta base plate for the time being, i'm not sure the movcam version will offer that much more. The shoulder pad seems pretty insubstantial and i know from the tilta one that after a while it can really get awkward. Unless the movcam version is substantially lighter, which i don't think it is.

I like the fact that the movcam handle comes forward so far, i always found an issue with rigging monitors forward from below, because it gets in the way of the follow focus.

For angled connectors i have some from cinecoil, perfect and i'm no way related to them.

Now to revisit the follow focus. I have a lanparte one which is a solid performer but heavy, wondering whether the arri mff2 is that much lighter/better or the redrock black series...

cheers
Paul
 
fs700_setup.jpgsorry about the horrible picture, i just took it quickly with a phone. I removed the handles for the photo
 
Hey Sami,
You've made the 4k monster rig look relatively compact compared to some of the bazookas we've seen on here.
Out of interest, what bits and bobs are you using to attach your Kinotehnik EVF to the rig?
Cheers,
Ian
 
i used top rods, zacutos zwivel and konitehniks own carbon fibre rod for mounting the evf. You can also use kinotehniks mount directly on rods by removing the parts that mounts to a cold shoe. I did not want to use that bit hence it is so heavy and i am trying to keep the set up as light as possible. All i still need is a top handle to place above the lcd for picking up the set up. I will run power to evf from v-lock battery or from r5 so i can then know when it runs out of battery.

By the way tested the 2k raw today, man it has a lot of moire...

http://www.creativevideo.co.uk/index.php?t=product/zacuto-usa_z-mo-zw mounting zwivel
 
After trying various cinema style rigs i settled on the movacam rig with quick release plate for use on sacthler carbon fibre legs and ronford baker fluid head. I extended grip with zacuto extender and mounted top mic and evf on small carbon rods which match the kinotech mounting rod. In addition to this i have the vlock adaptor and battery on the rear bars to act as counter balance.This for me is as near as perfect an eng type rig you can achieve with th Fs 700.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top