Sony F35 and Steadycam

rbirnbaum

rbirnbaum

Well-known member
Has anyone flown an F35 before?

What was your setup?

What would you recommend as a lower budget option?
 
rbirnbaum said:
Has anyone flown an F35 before?

What was your setup?

What would you recommend as a lower budget option?
Click to expand...

I’ve flown it.

If you can find one, the Raptor is about the best bang for buck... but it is also a good rig.


In a stripped down 10bit mode, or a mini modded F35, you can go with a Zephyr.

With a prime lens, i was able to fly one on a glidecam V25.
 
James0b57 said:
I’ve flown it.

If you can find one, the Raptor is about the best bang for buck... but it is also a good rig.


In a stripped down 10bit mode, or a mini modded F35, you can go with a Zephyr.

With a prime lens, i was able to fly one on a glidecam V25.
Click to expand...

Thanks James, I'll check those out.
 
There are several other alternatives, like some of the off brands on ebay.

The tiffen Aero30 arm might fly, and you could demo one in NY.

The cheapest possibility i’ve seen is a glidecam V16. I’ve not used one yet, but they are bery cheap for the amount of weight they cna handle. But if you run the battery down on the lower sled stage, could work out.
 
rbirnbaum said:
Has anyone flown an F35 before?

What was your setup?
Click to expand...

Can't resist this one...here's the F35 on my old Steadicam, back in 2008 when the camera had just been introduced. Having flown the Genesis since 2006, I had my methodology down of keeping the massive tape deck off the camera and in a backpack, so I was always tethered by two not very flexible BNC's. We were still two years off from the Alexa changing the game to internal recording for good (yes, the Red ONE was around but I saw it on very few high end sets for various reasons).

F35full.jpg

F35right.jpg

F35left.jpg

andybarker.jpg

Looking at these pictures, there was remarkably little mounted on the camera. It's fun to see the little Modulus transmitter mounted on the right side of the body, this was a few years before the first viable HD transmitter (Camwave) and I'm a little curious where the downcoversion to standard def is happening in these setups. It was during this show that we got one of the very early Decimator units but I don't see it mounted on the rig.

This picture was a promotional one I did for Decimator (then called Redbyte, as can be seen on the box), I became a distributor for them around this time.

decimatorFINAL.jpg

I stopped doing Steadicam a few years later so I'm not in great position to advise on the low budget options any more, I haven't kept up with the alternative rigs. It is best to get a rig that can easily handle the load you are planning with some wiggle room so you aren't struggling if a heavier lens or additional accessory needs to be added. Older offerings from Steadicam (Tiffen) or PRO should be looked at. Most important factors are the gimbal and arm--the notably lower cost rigs will often be deficient in the performance of one or both, with the overall rigidity (to avoid vibrations) and ease/speed of adjustment as additional factors.
 
Thanks Charles! That’s quite the setup there. With the Solid State recorders we can really strip this camera even more. I mean you have the side and top handle at the same time! I would be shooting 10bit 422 so no iF Box... but yeah man, those photos are so awesome. Thanks for sharing your insights. Do you remember the steady you were using in those instances?
 
That was the last iteration of my personal rig before I sold it in 2011, it had evolved over the years with parts from several manufacturers. About half and half PRO and XCS parts, with a customized lower junction box and battery hanger. Klassen vest and PRO arm. It was a very good rig!

sledtest.jpg

With the camera being brand new, we had a lot to learn about configuring it. Plus there were far fewer manufacturers making accessories then, so the choices were basically whatever the rental house had on hand for other cameras. This is a bloody mess, but at least it is entertaining:

F35handheld.jpg
 
Ha, well, I think my friends Kat, Timber and Lisa would have something to say about that...!

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Of course I was joking... hahaha. Plenty amazing kick ass females in our biz. Are you kidding me?

I just think it is funny when today people complain about shouldering a stripped down Alexa... soooo heavy... c'mon!
 
Mate, I read complaints about DSLR rigs being heavy!

I don't have to carry cameras any more and honestly I don't miss it, but I am always amazed at how many hours some operators are required to shoot continuously with the beast on their backs or shoulders--and I'm also seeing the widely under-reported injury rates once they have been at it for a decade or two (or three...) It's a problem.

I managed to dodge the dual-camera 3D rig craze some years back, but I had my fair share of heavy cameras over the years. That sled once carried a 43 lb IMAX camera! Yoinks.
 
CharlesPapert said:
Mate, I read complaints about DSLR rigs being heavy!

I don't have to carry cameras any more and honestly I don't miss it, but I am always amazed at how many hours some operators are required to shoot continuously with the beast on their backs or shoulders--and I'm also seeing the widely under-reported injury rates once they have been at it for a decade or two (or three...) It's a problem.

I managed to dodge the dual-camera 3D rig craze some years back, but I had my fair share of heavy cameras over the years. That sled once carried a 43 lb IMAX camera! Yoinks.
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Would you say that Steadicam distributes weight better than shoulder mounting and thus is less prone to injuring one over time than shoulder mounting heavy cameras? Or you find Steadicam ops also have lots of under reported injuries?
 
CharlesPapert said:
Ha, well, I think my friends Kat, Timber and Lisa would have something to say about that...!

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Click to expand...

I know Lisa. Just goes to prove that you don’t have to be some big, muscular guy to run around gracefully with a metric ton of gear on you. And as a side note, whenever I’ve done classes, it always seems like the girls are the best out of the gate with form, posture and control. I’ve wondered if it’s because of their extra muscles/body/muscle geometry for childbirth.
 
Hi Eric, very good question.

I do believe that the body distribution for Steadicam is an improvement over classic handheld, even though the payload is at least twice as much. Steadicam related injury tends towards long term wear and tear of carrying a burden day in and out, which means knees, hips and back (from compression). The rotational stress from handheld seems to be more pronounced in back injuries and adds shoulder as well. This is just anecdotal, I'm obviously not an orthopedic surgeon!

This is on my mind as I am about six months out of introducing a product to market that combines Steadicam support for handheld application...you'll be hearing about it soon enough!
 
I have seen the same in workshops so there may indeed be something to the idea that the female form was designed to bear weight on the hips. And indeed, I have often seen big buff dudes puffing and panting with the rig while a whip-thin 5'0" woman all but runs circles around them! I think part of that is that dudes who have a lot of upper arm strength tend to want to muscle the rig into position with their arms, when it should be exactly the opposite.
 
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