The pain

[morgan_moore]

So I did a little shoot.. slider with a little boom to show the content of a table from over head - no budget - a shot for a pitch. No prep either last minute for a mate.

GH4.

Oh yeah the GH4 has a micro HDMI - add a converter.. no workee, add a spare converter.. good to go.

Little in cam the battery from the Gh4 goes flat really fast (unusal as the GH4 batt is really good) - I dont have a spare as it is so good and usually power through the Yagh

OK Ill use my BMC micro while it recharges.

I get my titlta focus off the Gh4 and onto the BMC.. but the rod on my bmc (hague) is too big for the titlta focus motor.

right. back to the GH4, Ill use the yagh box and power through Vlock.

yag clashes with the speedbooster. Take the foot off the speedbooster and now dont have a double mount.

focus motor is now popping off as the yagh so flexible

focus motor goes wonk.. turns out to be a low batt on the hand unit.. but the unit has no battery indicator or warning how I supposed to know. new batt. sorted.

get the (v complex) shot, but somehow failed to record onto the camera as gh4 record function is so slow that I often think I have not pressed record and then press the button again cutting the shot.

But I was recording into my atomos too.

Throw the atomos shot into post and atomos has made it 50p, resolve keeps the project at a default 24p - shot now stutters and needs a load of meta jinking to run smooth.

--

Yep all my fault for not testing/prepping. But it does make me want to bash my head againts the wall!

All of this kit is not on ones side. Rods and motors that dont fit, recorders that dont match the frame rate to the camera frame rate, batteries with no indicator level.

 

[Paul F]

It makes you wish you were shooting 35mm again. A camera, a lens, some film, a light meter, go.

 

[Guest]

Ouch!

 

[Jaime Valles]

That was grueling!

 

[Grug]

I could feel my anxiety rising just reading that. This is why I gave up on trying to be frugal with gear REAL early on in my career. And have stuck with big, chonky cameras and grip.

Yes it's all backbreakingly heavy, and power hungry, and did I say expensive?

But at least the crap works, and the connections are standardised, so if something goes wrong, it's rarely too painful to sort out an alternate solution.

 

[morgan_moore]

Yep of course. But can you do a 2m slide (electronic) with the camera pointing down over a table with a big camera?

The super light stuff enables placement of the camera in unusual positions.

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A side note.. Im only using the new to me Tilta focus because my DJI focus is in the bin after 24 months - non repirable I think.

The tilta focus $250 is pretty amazing and really makes remote focus available to people who could not afford a Preston or Arri.

The cheapo kit is a double edged sword both amazing and potentially annoying to the max.

--

The grip kit I make myself never ever breaks or fails - in this case my scaffold 'dana' sitting on two sets of 90s sachler sticks.

When I spend on grip, be that cstands speedrail etc I know I have a tool for life. When I buy an electronic device I know IM buying somthing that may be bricked by the next firmaware.

 

[morgan_moore]

As it happens this can show the value of working for free!

Because I got my big slap on the bum doing a complex shot for the first time as a test. Should a paying client want similare Ill be well prepared

 

[Mitch Gross]

BTW, instead of relying on an internal battery for that Tilta hand control, you can feed it 5v. I asked IndiPro Tools here in the US to make a PTap to mini USB cable with a regulator to drop the voltage to 5v just for this.

https://www.indiproco.com/d-tap-regulation-cables/d-tap-to-right-angle-5-volt-micro-usb-cable-24/

 

[morgan_moore]

Mitch

THanks for telling me that. FYI I have the Nano

When I bought the unit I enquired with someone (dealer or Tilta I cant remember) if the focus unit could be powered with the usb in and was told specifically NO!

Usually the unit is on a 'rig' with my movi mimic.. which I already power with an external 5v usb battery. The thing lives 3 inches from the correct power source!

Ill try and name and shame the provider of duff info.

Thank you much for this info.

---

While Im slagging everything off.. the movi mimic.. its internal batt lasts about 20min without external power. I dont mind running it from a $15 amazon battery.. but I do hate that my life involves another cable and battery to worry about.

 

[Mitch Gross]

Before you throw them under the bus, be aware that it took an inquiry from Panasonic to Tilta to find out for sure. Dealers will only knw what info they get from the manufacturer, and when I first asked Tilta reps they had to check and call me back. Their initial belief was also no until they spoke with the engineers. Since the product was intended to be used with battery power no one really knew if it could be powered otherwise. Another important note is that while the motor can technically be driven with 5v power, it's quite weak when run that way. It works great from a regular 12v or 14.4v source. So even though both the controller and the motor have Mini USB power inputs, one should use a regulated cable while the other should not.

 

[morgan_moore]

Thanks.
Yes I drive the motor with BPU or my MōVI

 

[CharlesPapert]

So given that iris rods have pretty much standardized into 15 and 19mm...which one of the items didn't accommodate those?

 

[Mitch Gross]

I'm guessing he was referring to the tiny little 15mm rod mount plate that's included with the Nucleus N. It's really only usable with DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.

 

[CharlesPapert]

title of this thread is forcing me to post this

 

[morgan_moore]

So given that iris rods have pretty much standardized into 15 and 19mm...which one of the items didn't accommodate those?

well how big is 15mm? everything has a tolerance. Ive never seen that laid out.

14.95-15.05? (mm)

The tilta motor is very very close to a 15mm hole. The rod was bigger than 15. It has a thin anodize coating. My guess is that is they rod is a good 15 with .08 of anodize pushing above the undefined spec.

I was able to scim the rod down in my lathe and it is all good now. Usually such an issue would have come up in prep.

My BM micro has the rod hard mounted as Ive done everything I can to minimise the build while keeping the build rigid

we are I guess one of very few who have actually got the the BM working via RC!!!!

 

[morgan_moore]

I'm guessing he was referring to the tiny little 15mm rod mount plate that's included with the Nucleus N. It's really only usable with DSLR and Mirrorless cameras.

As above - not the plate - the oversize rod from another brand.

That plate works fine with the provided rod and also the rod that comes with the Movi and my own home made rods (!).. its a great little component.

Ive now made a block for that to sit on in many situations and it will work with my GH4/yagh or naked GH4.

 

[morgan_moore]

Rod geeks may enjoy my FS7 camevate rosette - smallrig rodclamp - rod setup which makes focus possible without a rig - good on a Movi or straight onto sticks without re-rodding!

Cool focus gears too!

The smallrig clamp is excellently designed to clamp undersized rods. https://www.smallrig.com/smallrig-15mm-rod-clamp-1995.html

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtOahmfAR4p/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet

rod is from from my old letus horror that I had for my ex1

 

[Greg_E]

Cheap China rods may definitely vary in sizing, but I would expect good name brand rods to always be right in the usable range. I have some cheap China stuff that is good, and some that is not usable because it is too large.