GH3 My GH3 With My New Carry Speed

Ok, I just tried turning a free standing 1/4" screw into the base plate but from the side that is under the sliding camera plate.
The 1/4" screws go in smoothly and will turn multiple times but stop and will not exit the base at the bottom.
I think the 1/4" holes were milled the wrong way.
 
Maybe the screw holes just weren't tapped far enough and the threads aren't complete. I'm wondering if you could use a screw tap tool and rethread the hole.

mmaller said:
Ok, I just tried turning a free standing 1/4" screw into the base plate but from the side that is under the sliding camera plate.
The 1/4" screws go in smoothly and will turn multiple times but stop and will not exit the base at the bottom.
I think the 1/4" holes were milled the wrong way.
Click to expand...
 
VF4 baseplate pad

VF4 baseplate pad

I replaced the original red rubber pad on the VF4 with a thicker one (1/8" thick) and it solves the tight fit problem with the GH3. I can now leave the baseplate on the GH3 and quickly install/remove the VF4. The mounting screw allows about 1 1/2 turns into the GH3. The hold is pretty good, but I will look for a slightly longer screw.


VF4 baseplate mod.jpg
 
Nice Modification davidp158. Where did you get the thicker rubber piece and did you glue it in place?
I am going to be returning my 717 plate. I may try another plate as I think mine was defective. Maybe I will attempt to do what you did.
I know MBPRODUCTS likes it snug, but I'm just a little uncomfortable with that.
 
The only downside I would see with davidp158's solution of replacing the rubber with a thicker one is this:

The mounting screw allows about 1 1/2 turns into the GH3. The hold is pretty good, but I will look for a slightly longer screw.

1.5 turns is a bit shallow - I'd be slightly nervous. I think he's wise to look for a longer screw.

I have a meta point about the whole thing though - the VF plate is positioned sideways. That does not always translate into optimal positioning if you need to get the whole GH3+VF unit on and off, because you still need to add a QR solution to this if you want to keep the GH3+VF together. And at least on the VF3, the holes to attach a QR to the bottom of the VF plate are both way off-center, which is a problem for many rail and matt box solutions etc.. YMMV.
 
The rubber came from the bottom pad on a guitar effects pedal that I no longer use. It just happens to be the right thickness and density. The original, red pad is 2.2mm thick, and the rubber pad I put on is 4.1mm thick.

Regarding the screw length, the connection is more than adequate for holding the VF4 in place. However, I feel it doesn't have enough grip for mounting the whole assembly onto a tripod. A slightly longer screw will fix that.

FWIW, you can get the VF4 to mount without any modifications. You just have to tighten the baseplate screw after attaching the VF4. The downside is that you can't easily remove the VF4 unless you loosen the baseplate.

mmaller said:
Nice Modification davidp158. Where did you get the thicker rubber piece and did you glue it in place?
I am going to be returning my 717 plate. I may try another plate as I think mine was defective. Maybe I will attempt to do what you did.
I know MBPRODUCTS likes it snug, but I'm just a little uncomfortable with that.
Click to expand...
 
I just got the battery grip for the GH3. It works pretty well with the VF3 I have. The one slight adjustment that has to be made is that you have to completely remove one of the screws (there are two) on the bottom of the VF3 adjustment rail, otherwise you can't slide the viewfinder along the slot far enough to overlap the LCD. But the good news is that it holds very well with just one screw anyhow, and there is enough height adjustment left in the rail to comfortably fit over the LCD. So I can attach the VF3 directly to the battery grip, and don't need any intermediary plates.
 
Just got my $99 VF4 today. Some observations:

Does NOT fit GH3 without batter grip - you could add some shims etc, piss about but come on ........
Eyepiece is funky, not designed to fit flush on a normal eye socket!
Does ONLY works with battery grip
Built ok but as soon as you tighten and move screws or move em around paint comes off.

Ok, so it's a $99 dollar Chinese made eyepiece and remember a good eyepiece / electronic one can be $5k or more so we are getting what we pay for here. Better option would be a separate hdmi driven monitor with eyepiece but at 10x more we'd expect it.

Is it better than the eyepiece on the GH3, not sure yet, was mainly hoping to get my eye more snugly on the GH3's eyepiece but looks like it has a funky rubber eyecup like I said earlier.

Will get back to you, I need this due to the bloody sun always shining here in Colorado, bloody sun :)
 
Ok, just read the post about the rubber spacer, that looks like it will work.

Also, does anyone think that this is a step up from the GH3's viewfinder?

I think that the camera EVF is not too bad and can't really see a difference in resolution with it and the VF4. The VF4 in theory has an eye cup but as I stated above it's really uncomfortable almost as much as me trying to press my eye socket agains the EVF of the GH3. Perhaps I'll try to find an old binocular rubber eyepiece and glue it on the outside of the GH3's EVF.

What amazes me is how so many folks can have some many varying opinions / reviews of the same object, not just a $99 loupe - oh the joys of the inter webs.
 
If you use a Manfrotto tripod with a 501PL compatible head (501, 501HDV, 701, 701HDV, 503, 503HDV, and maybe others), the simplest solution is a Hoodman Hoodloupe 3.0 with the 3x eyepiece and eyecup. Place the Hoodloupe properly positioned over the GH3 LCD and tighten a 501PL plate on the bottom. This creates a friction/"jam" fit between the plate, the bottom of the loupe (hard rubber), and the top of the loupe and bottom of camera eyepiece.

Camera can be handheld or the 501PL slid into place on the Manfrotto head. Quick removal is done by simply pulling the loupe off out of the "jam" fit. Because the Hoodloupe is hard rubber no damage of any kind occurs. Replacing the loupe is as simple as sliding the eyepiece cover of the camera up a bit, positioning the loupe over the LCD, and pushing the eyepiece cover back down firmly.

I keep the Hoodloupe with neck lanyard in the bag and can either use it attached to the camera as above or let it "dangle" from the neck until I need to check something quick, hold it over the LCD briefly then drop it to hang from the neck until I need it again.

No mounting frame, no extra bulk or anything complicated. But then I use the Manfrotto 501PL compatible tripod heads, and their 577 quick release adapter on my SpiderBrace so I can go from tripod to shoulder brace in seconds.
 
thabo said:
Just got my $99 VF4 today. Some observations:

Does NOT fit GH3 without batter grip - you could add some shims etc, piss about but come on ........
Click to expand...

Strange, I am able to get mine to fit the GH3, without the battery grip, by gentley rocking it back and forth while depressing the plastic frame on the VF-4 where it meets up with the EVF frame. Here is a close up showing it installed on the GH3 and fully rigged:

IMG_2307.jpg

And here is a side view showing that it is tight, but can fit:

IMG_2312.jpg
 
John, perhaps I wasn't patient enough but I couldn't get it to fit easily, strange. (Nice follow focus! - what brand is that??)

Also I've just gotten back for an outing to a pumpkin patch - very bright sun and lots to film. I'm not convinced there is really a need for this on the GH3, the eyepiece has more resolutions as per the specs: Eyepiece on GH3 1744k vs 614k for the LCD monitor. Now, after I got some new contact yesterday I appear to be able to get focus ok with the eyepiece on the GH3. The screen via the VF4 look pretty pixilated in comparison and it does add bulk to the camera.

Am i missing something here? Are people really happy with this for run and gun stuff? Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Perhaps I'd appreciate it a bit more if I had a follow focus and needed to get some distance between me and the camera. Just got one of those Cowboy studio $30 cheesy shoulder rigs and it works great with the GH3 for the price.
 
thabo said:
John, perhaps I wasn't patient enough but I couldn't get it to fit easily, strange. (Nice follow focus! - what brand is that??)

Also I've just gotten back for an outing to a pumpkin patch - very bright sun and lots to film. I'm not convinced there is really a need for this on the GH3, the eyepiece has more resolutions as per the specs: Eyepiece on GH3 1744k vs 614k for the LCD monitor. Now, after I got some new contact yesterday I appear to be able to get focus ok with the eyepiece on the GH3. The screen via the VF4 look pretty pixilated in comparison and it does add bulk to the camera.

Am i missing something here? Are people really happy with this for run and gun stuff? Perhaps I'm doing something wrong? Perhaps I'd appreciate it a bit more if I had a follow focus and needed to get some distance between me and the camera. Just got one of those Cowboy studio $30 cheesy shoulder rigs and it works great with the GH3 for the price.
Click to expand...


The follow focus is a Karerar FF-3. Here I am using a vacuum cleaner drive belt to make it work with the tiny 20mm pancake lens.

If a loupe is needed for manual focus is somewhat of a personal preference. Where I find it most useful is in dimly lit environments (think wedding reception). On a bright day where your lenses is stopped down and the DOF is large, hand focusing with the EVF is pretty easy. But when your at f1.7 trying to track a moving target I find the loupe to be much better then the EVF.
 
Yeah, I didn't think about the low light thing and it's strange that the LCD is so low resolution compared to the EVF. Look at C100 specs and the GH3 has a higher EVF resolution that it does but the screen has 900k vs our 614k.
 
A cheap and quick solution for those whith problems fitting the Carry Speed to GH3 because of the evf , you can do as I did.
Cut out a piece with same dimesions of the baseplate from a aprox 1mm thick kitchen cutting board ( cut out a hole for the screw) and put between baseplate and camera and thighten up.
Now I can easily fit my Carry Speed to my GH3 with no problems.

Patrick
 
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PatrickN said:
A cheap and quick solution for those whith problems fitting the Carry Speed to GH3 because of the evf , you can do as I did.
Cut out a piece with same dimesions of the baseplate from a aprox 1mm thick kitchen cutting board ( cut out a hole for the screw) and put between baseplate and camera and thighten up.
Now I can easily fit my Carry Speed to my GH3 with no problems.

Patrick
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip. I made the mod today and it works great (I glued them all back together). Here is a shot of the baseplate taken apart and the new insert:

IMG_2322.jpg

And here is the final fit, you can see the slightly thinker pad in this shot:

IMG_2327.jpg

With this slight increase in height the Loupe installs/uninstalls much smoother.
 
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