RIG-a-nitis: how to put stuff together

[visualbrother]

Some people have asked me: what shoulder rig should I get for the 7d, well this depends on what you want to shoot. To be honest, I think one of the coolest things about the 7d is its size and portability. Not just because you can now walk in with a backpack full of lenses and a 7d, but its size lets you put it anywhere. After years of shooting with broadcast cameras, this little package has a huge "chuckle" factor. It just makes me smile every time I walk around and shoot something silly.

The stuff:

There is lots of stuff available, but over the years I just happened to have collected a lot of RedRock micro pieces. Not the best quality or superior to anything else, in fact the locking mechanism leaves a lot of room for improvement, but most of all it makes it possible to walk into my local bank without getting arrested.

Recently the RRM Chaps have come up with a bunch of DSLR additions to the range, as usual they are over designed, not very light or subtle but to the job.

Here is a few combi's I managed to build out of the stuff:


Basic chest support to give you a nice mobile setup, not as complex as the one RedRock wants you to buy. Then again there are a zillion ways to configure these.
I like mine as light and simple as possible.

The camera is attached to one of the tiny screw rods, no baseplate adapter needed. Saves you another $295 I think

This is how the thing can be popped in and out for quick handheld shooting. Not very handy if you plan to build a tripod based rig next to it though.

Ordered some black versions of the handgrips, to be honest I really dislike the candy blue, not just because it has a large "my first handycam" feeling to it (the red from Zacuto puts me off just as much to be honest) but because I just want everything to be black.

Monstercam:

You can go crazy and add a V-mount, Zylight, Follow Focus and the big shouldermount. Combined with the chest piece this gives a very solid but portable solution. But the more you add to this, the more you should consider using a EX-3 with 35mm adapter...

For some more detailpron:

How to combine the stuff:

As you can see this makes it a bit more difficult to quickly switch to a tripod setup.

Side view to show you how the Zylight was hooked up with its Cinearm, works pretty well I have to admit.

Might as well add this one as well:

As you can see the big thing missing on all these pics is sound. This is recorded on the popular Zoom H4n. using either the Rode NTG-3 and / or a Electro Voice RE50 for interviews.

But:

Well for now the reality is that in any serious production I still break out the EX-3 with the 35mm adapter for the cine-look. Will have to put the 7d through a lot more before I can trust this as a total package production cam.

Originally posted here: http://www.digital-exposure.com/dslr-cinema/6-rig-nitis.html

 

[Matt Gottshalk]

How does the dedoflex attach to the Zylight?

 

[visualbrother]

Well that is the nice thing of the Zylight: it comes with a assesory adaptor that supports any 3' lighting assesory, like the dedoflex. You can also use thee barndoors etc. For more detail you might want to visit their website, its been ages since I read up on this little gem. Too busy using it

 

[ChuckS]

When I first saw a DSLR outfitted like this it cracked me up. But recently I had the chance to use a 5dMkII on a project, the video quality was much better than I expected and we got some great shots, but after using it once you can sure get an appreciation for why you need this type of support system.

I still can't get over the fact that the support system can cost twice as much as the camera it supports.

Have you shot video with the 5dMkII? If so how well do you think the 7D compares to it? Have you shot with the EX3? If so how well do you think the 7D compares to that?

I realize the 7D is not a "broadcast" video camera, however I have a rather "artsy" project that I would like to develop a certain look for. Here's a frame grab to give you an idea of what I'm trying to achieve.

Anyway I'm interested in your opinion about the 7D.

 

[visualbrother]

Did not shoot with a 5d II yet, but did shoot and combine shots EX-3 / 7d. Here is the video:



The shots of the cars drifing is EX-3 all the other stuff, like inside the car drifitng, is 7d. All hadheld or on a monopod. For really arti stuff where you have time to set up nice lighting and perhaps nice controlled motion, I think it can do very well. The 35mil perspective is still cool.

But when you do a lot of handheld it can get a bit weird because of the rolling shuttter, here is some stuff I fixed slightly with smoothcam in FCP:



Just a bit of fun video, but in a real production the wobbly shots would be unaccetable. Then again, in a real production people would not shoot 200mm handheld with no support

If you do get so use a tripod you can some nice stuff here is... yes another one of mine.. sorry didn't have a lot of time to find stuff from others.

Low light test:



You will need to check out flat presets, grading and some other stuff. hope to put all these experiences on my digital-exposure site simply because I can't find info combined on these huge forums, drowned by all the opinions.. or i'm getting old and like it quiet

Hope some of this info was usefull, let me know how things go?

have fun

 

[johnhafner]

Nice setup!