dmpsk8
Well-known member
Awhile back I did a bit of a rebuild of my indislider mini, it wasn't quite right outta the box. The past two weeks I made another round of changes and thought they might be worth sharing.
My big push lately has been to keep transitions quick from sticks - to shoulder - to slider. Changing plates or disassembling parts of your rig can be a major pain, and it looks unprofessional. So, it all started with the 357PL plate for my tripod (heavy duty Bogen 316). I wanted to make a tiny "core rig" that could share a quick release system between all three possibilities. the Manfrotto 357 pro quick release did the job, and the plates are long enough to allow for balancing / adjusting the placement of the "core rig" on any of the setups. I can't tell you how valuable this is, especially for adjusting the cam's distance from your face while on the shoulder rig.
I could go on about the rig itself, but you'll get the idea from the pics.
And now for the indislider mini. This little guys has paid for itself a million times over, and I'm really loving it now. You can see the old setup I was using here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?203532-Getting-more-out-your-indiSLIDER
Since then, I've added two adjustable feet to one end that help stabilize it when its not on the sticks. I'd really like to just get some Kessler outrigger feet, but I haven't wanted to commit $150 for 2 $10 parts yet. (yeah, we know they're overpriced Kessler). I also pulled the puck-style plate off and replaced it with an $50 Manfrotto 494 Ball head. The carriage actually uses a 3/8" mount under the puck. With some brief dremmel-ing, it was good to go. Adding the ball head opened a whole world of quick possibilities - very quick dutch, vertical, tilted positioning.
FYI, Manfrotto also makes a larger ball head, model 496 and its about $70. Had I known the 496 existed I may have gone with it for the extra 20 bucks; might still trade up at some point.
Finally, I threw my extra 357 PL plate on the opposite end of the slider. I know, some of you are probably terrified by this, but with some love it works awesome for jib like vertical moves. I can mount the slider vertically to my tripod as a base, then rest the top feet against a wall or whatever for some extra support. There is some risk here if the cam is heavy, so be careful of this setups limitations. Its a crazy handy option though.
So thats the story in a nutshell. Hopefully this helps inspire someone to get more outta what they already have around, and think through your quick release setups.
Happy shooting!
My big push lately has been to keep transitions quick from sticks - to shoulder - to slider. Changing plates or disassembling parts of your rig can be a major pain, and it looks unprofessional. So, it all started with the 357PL plate for my tripod (heavy duty Bogen 316). I wanted to make a tiny "core rig" that could share a quick release system between all three possibilities. the Manfrotto 357 pro quick release did the job, and the plates are long enough to allow for balancing / adjusting the placement of the "core rig" on any of the setups. I can't tell you how valuable this is, especially for adjusting the cam's distance from your face while on the shoulder rig.
I could go on about the rig itself, but you'll get the idea from the pics.
And now for the indislider mini. This little guys has paid for itself a million times over, and I'm really loving it now. You can see the old setup I was using here:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?203532-Getting-more-out-your-indiSLIDER
Since then, I've added two adjustable feet to one end that help stabilize it when its not on the sticks. I'd really like to just get some Kessler outrigger feet, but I haven't wanted to commit $150 for 2 $10 parts yet. (yeah, we know they're overpriced Kessler). I also pulled the puck-style plate off and replaced it with an $50 Manfrotto 494 Ball head. The carriage actually uses a 3/8" mount under the puck. With some brief dremmel-ing, it was good to go. Adding the ball head opened a whole world of quick possibilities - very quick dutch, vertical, tilted positioning.
FYI, Manfrotto also makes a larger ball head, model 496 and its about $70. Had I known the 496 existed I may have gone with it for the extra 20 bucks; might still trade up at some point.
Finally, I threw my extra 357 PL plate on the opposite end of the slider. I know, some of you are probably terrified by this, but with some love it works awesome for jib like vertical moves. I can mount the slider vertically to my tripod as a base, then rest the top feet against a wall or whatever for some extra support. There is some risk here if the cam is heavy, so be careful of this setups limitations. Its a crazy handy option though.
So thats the story in a nutshell. Hopefully this helps inspire someone to get more outta what they already have around, and think through your quick release setups.
Happy shooting!
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