Will someone please explain dovetails to me?

[HumanHighlighter]

I can't find any information on how Arri standard dovetails work, especially with lightweight set ups. I have deduced that's it's essentially for long lenses, like studio zoom lenses, so you can balance properly on a tripod. But what If I'm using a lightweight cine zoom, like the Alura lightweights. How would you use a dovetail for a lens like that with 15mm lightweight set up?

Thank you very much for any info!

 

[txdp]

They allow the camera to be balanced easily. For example, i have 2 dovetails. One lives on the tripod. One is separate and has a shoulderpad mounted to the bottom. I slide the camera off the tripod dovetail and slide the shoulder pad one onto the camera. When I put it on my shoulder, I slide the camera around on the dovetail until I'm happy with balance then lock it into position. It doesn't matter if you use small primes, a dovetail is just a really quick way to get alot of adjustment and switch between multiple rigs quickly. For example, you could also have a dovetail mounted on a jib, and one on a Steadicam. So now, you just slide the camera off whatever dovetail it is on and right onto another one without changing anything else. Easy and quick.

 

[CharlesPapert]

The idea behind a dovetail and baseplate setup is that you can quickly and easily slide the camera fore and aft to ensure that you are balanced on the head. Some heads incorporate a similar mechanism but generally it is limited in the amount of adjustment whereas the dovetail system will allow for a foot or more of travel. With my studio Aluras for instance, I use a 24" dovetail with the 45-250 (which has an integrated front bracket to stabilize the 15 or 19mm rods) and an 18" with the 18-80. The same 18" stays in place with the lightweight Aluras.

Whenever a dovetail is in use there will always be a mating baseplate, which will have channels for either the 15mm or 19mm studio rods. This would give you the option of using either 15mm minirod or studio rod configuration, the difference simply being their placement relative to the lens. Some accessories are meant to mount to mini-rod spacing, others to the studio spacing.

So, if you are using the lightweight Aluras with minirods and your follow focus, mattebox and all other front end accessories all work on the minirods, and your head incorporates enough travel to balance all possible configurations of your setup, the dovetail and baseplate would be optional. Indeed, if you are doing a lot of handheld on the same shoot and you are able to keep the quick release plate on the bottom of the camera in that mode, this should allow for faster changeovers.

Hope that answers it.