Ordering the 7Q. Accessories.

[ChadN]

Hey all, i'm thinking of ordering the 7Q. A couple things i'm not familiar with, i've looked for threads about all these. But perhaps we can make a topic out of this for those ordering a 7Q and looking to get all they need for it.

SDI Cable - I've been using a Marshall monitor with HDMI, not familiar with SDI. What's a good cable to use? I may get a couple, a shorter 3' one and perhaps a much longer one for placing the monitor in different spots.

Battery Plate - Which Sony L battery plate would you recommend?

Thunderbolt? (not sure) What's a good option for transfering the footage from the SSDs to my Windows PC? I don't have an SSD card reader, i take it you need one?

Hood - I kind of like a longer hood that blocks out the sun pretty well.

Also, about what is the recording time of 4K2HD Prores to two 256MB CD SSDs? I'd rather have 512, but they're a bit expensive. I figure i'll shoot RAW in pretty short bursts only for certain effects shots, so 256mb might have to be good enough.

 

[jshbckr]

1. Make sure the cables are 3G-SDI rated. That's the important thing. I have a couple cinecoil cables (nice for mounting the monitor on the camera) as well as the high-flex cables from Blue Jean Cables, in various lengths (10ft, 25ft, 50ft, 100ft).
2. I have Olof's WestsideAV battery plate. Can mount to either the left or right on the back of the 7Q. Works really well for $98. That said, I actually bit the bullet on Solid Camera's ULTIMATE 7Q rig, which has a TON of rigging options, as well as quick release Sony, V-mount, etc. plates.
3. You can use any SATA adapter, since it's just a standard SATA hard drive connector. There are SATA USB 3.0 adapters, Thunderbolt ones (from Seagate)... just look around a bit. USB 3.0 is almost as fast and significantly cheaper than the Thunderbolt adapters.
4. I also have Olof's WestsideAV hood, which has worked wonderfully. I have both the 4-inch and 8-inch fabric hoods. Unfortunately, I think the Solid Camera rig will make me unable to mount the hard plastic portion of this hood, so I may have to figure out a solution.
5. Two 256GB SSDs will hold about 5-5.5 hours of ProRes. Personally, I opted to buy four 256GB drives. This allows me to still shoot high FPS on SSDs 3+4 while SSDs 1+2 are offloading to a computer. This is far more ideal than spending the same amount on only two 512GB SSDs and having nothing to shoot on while it takes TWICE as long to copy the footage to a computer.

Once I get the Solid Camera rig, I may be looking to sell the WestsideAV battery plate (and maybe plastic hood, might keep the fabric portions). I can keep you posted if you're interested. They work perfectly, I'm just always shooting in changing environments so the flexibility of the Solid Camera rig takes priority.

 

[Pgale]

Hey Josh,

I presume you've pre-ordered the solid camera O7Q rig? I don't believe it's shipping yet?
I've been following that with interest via twitter. Looks great although my initial concern is that's it's quite bulky and not sure about weight. Will be interesting to see what you think when you get it.

Have you also gone for their EVF support arm? Or some other camera mounting option?

cheers.

 

[jshbckr]

Hey Josh,

I presume you've pre-ordered the solid camera O7Q rig? I don't believe it's shipping yet?
I've been following that with interest via twitter. Looks great although my initial concern is that's it's quite bulky and not sure about weight. Will be interesting to see what you think when you get it.

Have you also gone for their EVF support arm? Or some other camera mounting option?

cheers.

Yeah, I preordered it, ships in about a week. I also use the Alphatron EVF, so I ordered their Alphatron EVF support with it. They have a piece with the 7Q rig called IP cradle, and it's essentially the cradle portion of the EVF support with a 15mm rod that the 7Q rig can clamp onto. My previous solution was mostly 15mm rods, so while it was incredibly flexible (could rotate and position infinitely) it was a main to always loosen multiple blocks to move the EVF and I technically never knew if the EVF was perfectly level to the camera. So the Solid Camera support will give me a perfectly level mount. I have two Berkey blocks bolted to the left/right sides of the monitor, which have worked great but they are a bit limiting. I'm looking forward to being able to move the Solid Camera 15mm blocks anywhere on the dovetails.

Here is what I was using before:


Basically, Berkey top plate to SmallRig NATO Rail w/ handle. I bolted a 15mm Berkey block to the front of the handle, which is the main mounting point for my support arm. From there it's just a couple 15mm rods. This one is a little harder to see, but I could adjust some parts to form a "C" shape instead of a "Z"-ish shape, and get the monitor more centered over the camera:


EDIT: weird, it did a really tiny pic and a sideways full res... oh well, you get it.

 

[rx8pilot]

Looks great although my initial concern is that's it's quite bulky and not sure about weight.

The basic cage is only 300 grams (10oz) - really lightweight. The complete wraparound design protects the screen and the connections while also providing a myriad of options for mounting and carrying, batteries, wireless, etc.

 

[ChadN]

Hey Josh, thanks for the information. Clears up some things for sure.

I ended up ordering the 7Q last night, along with the CD Battery Plate for Sony L, CD USB3.0 to SSD cable for transfer, and the Cinecoil all on Ablecine. Kept it all in one free shipment so ended up going with those.

Next i'm looking at Olof's sun hood. Will probably get that before long. Actually ordered 2 CD 256gb SSDs from him. I may get 2 more down the road after i see how things go.

Everything has already been shipped so i might be enjoying the 7Q much quicker than i thought!

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[jshbckr]

The basic cage is only 300 grams (10oz) - really lightweight. The complete wraparound design protects the screen and the connections while also providing a myriad of options for mounting and carrying, batteries, wireless, etc.

Hey Carlos, nice to see you posting here. Excited to get my full kit and EVF arm. I'll be sure to post some pictures when I get it!