FS7: My FS7 rig as of Summer 2016

[Mitch Gross]

Ideal handheld on the shoulder position creates a triangle with the right arm. Three points of triangle are hand, shoulder and elbow. If elbow is tucked against stomach, then shoulder & hand are parallel. Elbow against stomach gives rest to arm so biceps are not taxed.

I operated Aaton, betacams and other cameras for decades this way. Very stable, never taxing. I had plenty of Aaton days where the camera only left my shoulder for a change of the mag or the battery -- and usually I didn't pull it off the shoulder even then. A well-balanced camera and well-positioned handgrip & viewfinder makes handheld a joy.

 

[markfpv]

+1 Mitch. Well said.

 

[JPNola]

Here is the classic handheld camera / Aaton position-



and again here only this time with an Ursa-



The hands are relatively high yet you are still able to place the elbow portion of your arm against your body for added stability. For really long-lens handheld shots, I found that swinging my right elbow outward and upwards acts as a sort of outrigger that makes for the most stable handheld. Elbow on the same horizontal plane as your right hand, as the lens. Similar to the position of a salute. Arm tight against the body is good for relieving fatigue but, imo, not good for long lens shots where you have to be extra stable. You inevitably end up introducing movement from the expansion of your chest / ribs as you breathe and also transmitting mid-body movement to the lens. Even if you hold your breath. Better to have lower arm independent of body, up and out when you need to be your most stable.

fyi- A company called Movi Grip is making some lovely wood grips with trigger option for the Fs7:



Even offer a grip in black ebony wood that is really sweet looking-




I have wood grips from KinoGrip and also from Ergo Cine.

I have no affiliation with any company. Just sharing some cool toys with you all.

 

[Grug]

How are you riding focus with your arms positioned below your chest and, I assume, your left hand on some sort of grip instead of on the lens?

Well, 99% of the time I have people to do that for me.

What happens when, in shot, you switch your left hand from a grip to the lens? Seems it would cause your right hand / arm to have to torque to the right in order to prevent the camera from tilting to the left and losing horizontal plane.

At times when moving a hand up to the follow focus is necessary (to correct focus) I never really have any issues, because my right elbow (and tricep) are wedged firmly up against my stomach, and the camera weight is as close to centred as I can get it - so it's quite stable and I'm never fighting it to prevent it from tipping forward, aft or off to the side.

 

[JPNola]

Well, 99% of the time I have people to do that for me.

Ahh, I see. A focus-puller. You know that's cheating, right?



Damn primadonnas. :grin:

 

[Ben Scott]

Ideal handheld on the shoulder position creates a triangle with the right arm. Three points of triangle are hand, shoulder and elbow. If elbow is tucked against stomach, then shoulder & hand are parallel. Elbow against stomach gives rest to arm so biceps are not taxed.

I operated Aaton, betacams and other cameras for decades this way. Very stable, never taxing. I had plenty of Aaton days where the camera only left my shoulder for a change of the mag or the battery -- and usually I didn't pull it off the shoulder even then. A well-balanced camera and well-positioned handgrip & viewfinder makes handheld a joy.

Aatons and Beta/Digibeta cameras were borderline works of art in their balance and ease of use. Ever since the Red One form factors and weight distribution of cameras has been all over the place and for me anyway, it's always been a battle. With the FS7 especially, unless I'm counterbalancing with heavier v-mounts the camera is always going to be substantially more front heavy due to lens weight so I find I usually need to offset that somewhat by having grips a bit lower and arms relaxed and steady. I can also balnce the camera fine with one grip if I am also operating FF.

 

[morgan_moore]

Here is my setup, Takes lenses from 10-300. by sliding the camera fore aft on the rig.

In terms of balance one may note that the lens mount is about aligned with my ear making the camera fully behind me.

IMO one needs an external monitor as the wire on the internal version is not long enough to get it far enough forward.

When I need to pull focus I would use my right hand, placing it very much in the position that it would be on an ENG camera..

 

[MartinF]

This is my shoulder rig right now. After having not so ideal workarounds for almost two years I recently got the new wooden camera baseplate system and I really like it. The whole rod block moves back on the shoulder pad, so no more problems with adapter support and followfocus not reaching the lens. And it quickly goes on the tripod without the shoulder pad. Vocas handles, evf support and top plate. Switronix V Lock plate and the Gratical eye is nice as well. C7 positive locking EF to E adapter is also great.


And this is my shoot it like a Hasselblad configuration, lightweight and quick for solo operating. Dual Sennheiser AVX on the xlr hot shoe thing.

 

[Ben Scott]

Looks great.

 

[JPNola]

Red flange on the CN-e, anodized red knobs on the matte box, red trim on the O'Connor FF, and, the cherry on the cake, the red eye piece chamois on the red-trimmed Gratical!

That is one color coordinated rig, folks! Nicely done. Even despite the slight point deduction for the shoulder strap not being red.


Who makes the triggered wood handle? Vocas?

 

[MartinF]

Wait until I put on a red mic cable
The grip is Vocas indeed, it has a start/stop and one additional button which you can program like the other user buttons.

 

[JPNola]

You could bleach your Rycote and then dye it red!

But seriously, that's a well put-together rig.

 

[brianc1959]

Perhaps you should be asking how much the Otus is *improved* by the Speed Booster:

 

[Ben Scott]

Is that a graph from Metabones?

Only over the years they have said A LOT of things about their adapters...

 

[Bubble]

my simple set up

 

[FrameFarmMedia]

Is that a graph from Metabones?

Only over the years they have said A LOT of things about their adapters...

I do believe Brianc1959 is Brian Caldwell who is the optical engineer/designer of the Speedbooster for Metabones (Brian please correct me if I am wrong)

 

[Bern Caughey]

Is that a graph from Metabones?

brianc1959 is Brian Caldwell, designer of the SpeedBoosters' optics.

 

[Ben Scott]

Cool. I still don't want to put another piece of glass between my Otus and my camera's sensor

In fairness it was Metabones' rather optimistic claims about AF in the early days i was getting at

 

[JPNola]

give us the dirt!

give us the dirt!

my simple set up

Details please! Matte Box is made by...? How are you powering the accessories? The box riding on the back in the ball mount? Is that for some sort of wireless follow focus? How do you go shoulder-mount with that rig? I don't see any shoulder pad. The Paralinx is for...wireless video? I don't see any video cable inputting video into the xmitter.

Nice rig, for a backwards focuser.

 

[JPNola]

'amember when the crazy folks at Metabones claimed they could make a lens faster?!?

( I can recall telling some boys in a feature film camera dept. that there was a new device out that could increase the speed of a lens. They became indignant and said that such was impossible. "If a lens is a 2.8 it is always a 2.8!", they rebutted defiantly. A DP chimed in to say the notion was balderdash. Technically, they were and are correct. Oh, and I don't think the DP actually used the word "balderdash". That was must me using poetic license in the retelling. )