Movcam Odyssey 7Q bracket mini-review (lots of pictures)

Pgale

Well-known member
Just got my Movcam O7Q bracket and have fitted it to my Camtree Hunt FS700 rig. This is the same as the Movcam power bracket but without the V-Lock or AB battery plate and power disribution. I just wanted the bracket so I could use the Movcam rosette extension arms to position the O7Q.

So far, for the price, I think it's great. OK, so it doesn't have the clutch system that something like the Solid Camera mounting solution has but it's absolutely rock solid and actually easier to adjust to various positions than I was expecting. With the rosettes, it locks solidly in place. For the type of filming I do with the FS700 (tripod mounted), this is perfect. I use other cameras for handheld.

The one downside I've noticed so far is that the bracket hasn't been designed to fit around the CD battery plate. The rosette attachment that screws to the edge of the bracket overlaps slightly too far, fouling the battery plate. I think there could be several simple fixes for that but I'm just going to mill a little of the battery plate on my mill. I guess you could also build up the rosette plate with a couple of washers maybe, although not tried that yet.

You can also see a second rosette extension to extend the O7Q even further. Currently I've tried the rail rosette adapter on the top rails where it works best. Fitting to the lower rails tends to get in the way too much although if you mount it with the O7Q hanging down that would work for certain scenarios.

Overall, very happy with it indeed. The parts I ordered in the UK are:

http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/movcam_306-0218

http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/movcam_rosette_rod_clamp

http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/movcam_303-1108 x2

Total price £210.63 + VAT, so pretty good I think.

I did ask whether the battery power distribution plate could be added later but Movcam said no. I'm not sure I really believe that as I would have thought the power plate just bolts to the bracket. There are several holes for fixings. Maybe there's some vital component missing that would allow that. I was tempted to buy the power bracket and see if I could simply unscrew it when not needed as it does look like it adds some extra bulk:

http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/movcam_odyssey_7q_bracket

You can also attach handles to the rosettes but I've not ordered any as I rarely have the need to hand hold the O7Q.

The rosette extension arms and thumb screws operate well in the upper part of the FS700 rig. The thumb screws do interfere with the body of the camera if you want to have the O7Q in a lower position. To have unimpeeded operation, maybe a rosette spacer would be useful, moving the O7Q and bracket away from the FS700 a little more. Something like:

http://cvp.com/index.php?t=product/movcam_303-1107

Although I'm not sure how that would attach as it looks like you'd need a much longer thread on the thumb screw. I have seen rosette spacers that have a captive screw on one side if that makes sense.

I hope this is of interest and helps someone that wants to do similar to me.

Paul.


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Thanks for the review, just what I was looking for. Is there anywhere in the US to get the main bracket? $30 shipping is a bit rough but I can only seem to find it at CVP.
 
Yeah, I tweeted this review and 16x9 retweeted, so I guess that was the reason :)

It is brand new kit (or at least the mounting plate is), so you might need to contact them for pricing and availability.
 
Thanks for the review, just what I was looking for. Is there anywhere in the US to get the main bracket? $30 shipping is a bit rough but I can only seem to find it at CVP.

Talking about crazy pricing for shipping - I wanted to buy some more TrekPak dividers for another Peli case but they wanted £80+ to ship via UPS and it's super light stuff. The other option is USPS which last time, took 6 weeks on an International Priority shipment!!! Complete $%^^ ;)

Crazy when I got my Camtree Hunt rig shipped FREE on a 2 day Fedex priority from India! Amazing.
 
Well there's only an SDI cable and a power cable so not much to show really. Need to work out the best routing too.
 
For SDI I would suggest using one of our 36" Ultra-Thin SDI cables. You can wrap it around the mounting arm and through the top handle on the camera. The length gives you the freedom to reposition the monitor as you need and it is great having such a super skinny and flexible cable that doesn't get in the way on your camera.
 
Awesome, this is the same set-up I'm building (but only one extension arm and a cheaper lanparte rail to rossete mount instead of a movcam one). http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-LanPa..._Movie_Camera_Accessories&hash=item41836fb7f0

I thought the same about taking the battery plate off, can anyone confirm this?

Have you decided on a rear battery mount yet? I'm looking at the movcam with a sony battery to v-mount adapter added on.

also, re the camtree, where did you get those shoemounts from?
 
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Hey Pgale, thanks for the post !

What do you mean about simple fix for mount the CD base plate ? Because I am just buying the CD plate 2 weeks ago and would like to save my choice of the CD plate :)

Thanks !
 
Shoe mounts from a couple of places but coollcd was the best. Pretty handy.

Lanparte rosette rail adapter looks ok. The only thing I'd be a little wary of is if they're fully compatible with the movcam version. They probably are but the rosettes on the camtree are rubbish and don't work/lock with the movcam rosettes. Let me know when you get them.

Not sure if anyone has the movcam O7Q battery bracket yet as they're so new. As you say, would be interesting to find out if they're removable. On balance I didn't go with it as I don't think it's the right place for me to mount a heavy v-lock battery. Would make the rig even more side heavy than it is.

I was thinking of either the tilta or movcam battery plate but not ordered yet (spent too much recently!). I use IDX V-Lock batteries on my other ENG camera so would use those. They should provide great run time. I did get a lemo to FS700 power cable with the camtree rig for some reason. Not sure why as it wasn't listed or needed! So might go for the lemo version of the movcam battery plate. Lemo cables seem excessively expensive but I'd only need the d tap O7Q cable to complete the setup.
 
Hey Pgale, thanks for the post !

What do you mean about simple fix for mount the CD base plate ? Because I am just buying the CD plate 2 weeks ago and would like to save my choice of the CD plate :)

Thanks !

What I mean is that the movcam O7Q bracket has tapped holes all down the sides to fix the rosette to. When the rosette is fixed, the metal base part of the rosette overhangs the area where the CD battery plate is positioned when attached. You probably could just attach the rosette on top of the CD battery plate but I think it would be a bit wobbly and not very secure. Might take a picture if I'm still not explaining it clearly?

paul.
 
Paul,

Thanks for your fast and complete feedback. It could be intresting to looking a picture as you said because if I have in mind is correct, maybe I can custom my CD plate for match with the Rosette fix.

Thanks !
 
Here are some pics with the CD battery plate attached and the Movcam rosette. A few things to note:

1) It actually does fit, although not ideally but it's more secure than I was thinking it would be. The rosette seems pretty firm and the plate is solid against the O7Q
2) But: As Mitch said in another thread (about the Camtree Hunt IIRC) - the battery plate and Movcam Bracket aren't really designed to fix together through the same holes/thread. It does work though and feels / looks pretty solid. One of the other solutions Mitch was talking about has separate threaded holes for the CD battery plate and still used the O7Q mounting holes for that plate. He mentioned that there could be a risk of the screws shearing under extreme load (if the whole unit was dropped) - I think that's possible but unlikely.
3) The supplied Movcam screws are countersunk. The Battery plate is not, so ideally you should obtain and use pan head screws - although again, it works as you see in the pics.
4) you can see the overlap of the Movcam rosette over the CD battery plate. As I said, it's actually not bad when screwed down and seems very solid. You can see the gap from the end on picture. For extra security it might be best to trim away part of the CD battery plate if possible - or pad the gap with a shim or washer (although not sure a washer would fit)

I'm going to send this info to Movcam (for what it's worth) to see if they are interested in modifying the bracket to address these issues.
 

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I think that if you're going to rig out this way it would be best to shave away a few millimeters of the battery plate. A Dremel or proper mill could do it in a few minutes.
 
I think that if you're going to rig out this way it would be best to shave away a few millimeters of the battery plate. A Dremel or proper mill could do it in a few minutes.

Thanks Mitch,

Yes - I have a CNC hobby mill :) Although for that kind of thing, a manual mill is way easier!

Alternatively, shaving a few mm as a step in the Movcam rosette would also work and still be secure and solid I think.
 
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