PL Mount and Tripod General Advice

D

dtzfilms

Well-known member
I'm gearing up for my feature and I'm considering renting a set of CP2s
I'm considering renting or buying a PL Mount, a Tripod and if needed, lens support.
Here are my questions.

1. What's a better than decent PL mount?
2. What's a good Tripod - I'll be mounting rods, Redrock FF, MBox.
3. Will I need lens support for the CP2s? I don't want to pick these off the floor!
4. What are people using for Director's view finders? Artemis, GH1/2?

This is fantastic but pricey to own:
http://www.photocinerent.fr/en/rental/camera-accessories/denz-pl-adapter-for-panasonic-ag-af101
 
Best overall, IMO, is the Vocas. Reasonably priced, excellent construction, perfect collimation, includes baseplate and rails, and is easily used without the baseplate and rails.

Best budget option might be the Atomic. Also includes the baseplate and rails, and can be easily undocked. I think it has spot-on collimation but I haven't worked with one.

There are literally a dozen, or more, PL mount options for the AF100. I've tried many, and seen more. The Vocas is my overall favorite.

Now, if you're only using it with CP's, you don't truly require rails. I still like to have some support under the lens when using CP's, even though technically they do fall within the rated specification of weight allowable on the mount. But the lenses cost almost as much as the camera does, and so a little support wouldn't hurt. If you absolutely do not need the focus measurings to be accurate, you can get something like the Ciecio7 PL mount with the support foot. It's much less expensive (Vocas is around $1200, Atomic is around $900, the Ciecio7 is about $300). It has a metal support foot that you can use with a longer tripod baseplate to get enough support for CP's, while not having to bother with the additional size & bulk of rails. But the Ciecio7 adapter isn't properly collimated (at least, mine isn't, and I don't think any of them are) so the focus marks on the lens aren't going to be accurate. You can still hit infinity, but you can't trust the distance markings to line up.

The CP's are so light that you really are flexible with your options. If you were using something like an Angenieux 24-290, I might say to go with the Solid adapter, it seems indestructible and would easily handle the heavy weight of such a huge lens. But with CP's, you can use almost anything, including (technically) a completely unsupported system -- although I would still be a little wary of doing that.
 
I haven't bought a tripod in years, so I don't know what the current hot items are. A good tripod will last decades, so ... get a good one. With that rig you need to be looking for something that will support probably 20+ pounds. Not that your rig will come anywhere near that, but who knows, you might want to use a big zoom someday like an Alura or a Cooke, and those can easily weigh 10+ pounds by themselves.

For a director's viewfinder -- the GH2 is not perfect because there's a 5% difference in sensor size between them, but ... man, for all that it does, it's just crazy for an AF100 owner to not have a GH2 also.
 
Good point. Good for location scouting, good for B-roll, etc... I'll get one. So does that 5% give the GH2 a FOV that's wider than the AF100 or?
 
I've been using the hot rod set up. It's solid but has two things I don't like: not simple to remove from base (so I've been looking at the vocas) and limited range for balancing, which isn't a huge deal if you use an attached ext recorder and/or external batt at the rear.

Here is a thread comparing them: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?252209-Hot-Rod-vs-Vocas-PL-mount&

I've been using the cartoni hd head(26lb cap.) with miller vj solo legs (about 2000) it's nice and the price is right but is borderline with a full rig...much prefer an 18 head(about 40lb cap).

I use the Artemis app on the iPhone. But havent tried anything else. I like it because you can take pix that also record lens size.
 
marlontorres said:
If it's the same sensor, why is it 5% wider?
Click to expand...
Because it's *not* the same sensor. The pixel count is different, the size is different, the rolling shutter/skew is different, the aliasing performance is different, the "blue line" is different...

The only thing the GH2 shares with the AF100 is the lens mount. Not the sensor.
 
RJS said:
I've been using the hot rod set up. It's solid but has two things I don't like: not simple to remove from base (so I've been looking at the vocas) and limited range for balancing, which isn't a huge deal if you use an attached ext recorder and/or external batt at the rear.

Here is a thread comparing them: http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?252209-Hot-Rod-vs-Vocas-PL-mount&

I've been using the cartoni hd head(26lb cap.) with miller vj solo legs (about 2000) it's nice and the price is right but is borderline with a full rig...much prefer an 18 head(about 40lb cap).

I use the Artemis app on the iPhone. But havent tried anything else. I like it because you can take pix that also record lens size.
Click to expand...

I looked at Amazon and found two stage leg system - http://www.amazon.com/Cartoni-Ultra...2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1310835208&sr=1-2

I also looked at BHP, they have one stage legs under essential accessories. Is it a matter of preference or what's the advantage of having single stage legs versus 2-3 stage legs? http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/687140-REG/Cartoni_F125_Focus_HD_Video_Tripod.html
 
Min/max height, weight, portability, capacity, cost! More stages generally means that you can go lower and higher thanone stage and the storage length is shorter

I would highly recommend borrowing/renting/using sticks before you buy. Tripod rentals are pretty cheap and it will benefit you greatly when making a purchase. It can come down to more than specs...such as position of lock and drag levers/knobs, style of plate, how plate locks in, etc.
 
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