Zhiyun Crane

I had a 13 hour shoot yesterday, most of it using the RX100IV on the ZC. Just set my ZC batteries to charge: they were still at 75%. My N4000 would have needed at least two sets of batteries to survive the day. Impressed.

edit: oh, I forgot, another cool thing: I needed to do take an aerial shot, but I don't have a drone. I put the ZC at the end of a monopod, set the camera at 24mm, and held it as high as I could, while I walked around my actors. They were on a bridge, but the camera was clearly "flying" outside the bridge, above them and above the water. Made me a bit nervous that my camera could fall down, but it worked great, and it does kind-of look like it was shot with a drone or, more accurately, a very big crane.
 
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I just ordered the Manfrotto 323 RC2 Rapid Connector with the 200 PL14 plate. For a little over $30.00, we'll see how this works. Not having a QR plate has become tiresome when I need to change batteries or cards. Just finished a big documentary shoot in Brazil, shooting a lot of musicians in the studio recording where I needed to roam around and weave my way through mic stands and lights/cables, the Crane worked really well for this shoot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JLK5PU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Manfrotto_323_323_RC2_System_Quick_554141.jpg
 
puredrifting said:
I just ordered the Manfrotto 323 RC2 Rapid Connector with the 200 PL14 plate. For a little over $30.00, we'll see how this works. Not having a QR plate has become tiresome when I need to change batteries or cards. Just finished a big documentary shoot in Brazil, shooting a lot of musicians in the studio recording where I needed to roam around and weave my way through mic stands and lights/cables, the Crane worked really well for this shoot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JLK5PU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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I saw you are flying a 7-14mm at times. May I ask how you put a ND filter on your 7-14mm? I'm struggling to find a solution. Thanks.
 
Sheldon Charron said:
I saw you are flying a 7-14mm at times. May I ask how you put a ND filter on your 7-14mm? I'm struggling to find a solution. Thanks.
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Hi Sheldon:

You must have me mixed up with someone else, I am currently using a Canon 80D on the Crane. I beleive the 7-14 is an M43 lens?
 
I am experiencing occasional jitter with my crane using a Sony 6300, 10-18mm f4 lens and a manfrotto quick release plate (501). The jitter looks almost like a frame is being dropped and it only occurs during movement, not when the camera is still. Also the gimbal indexes as it pans sometimes...not smooth. The camera is in perfect balance. What remedies should I try or is the unit defective? I've already returned one to B&H, so I am wondering if is me. I also own a Came-TV Single and the same thing happens with that.
 
puredrifting said:
I just ordered the Manfrotto 323 RC2 Rapid Connector with the 200 PL14 plate. For a little over $30.00, we'll see how this works. Not having a QR plate has become tiresome when I need to change batteries or cards. Just finished a big documentary shoot in Brazil, shooting a lot of musicians in the studio recording where I needed to roam around and weave my way through mic stands and lights/cables, the Crane worked really well for this shoot.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JLK5PU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

View attachment 122739
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I ended up sending this unit back to Amazon, it was too heavy and made the 80D too tall. The Crane did not behave as it should when using the 80D with this QR plate, battery, card and 10-18 STM IS lens.
 
Can someone help with this....it doesn't look right!
:

https://vimeo.com/213752441

its a sony 6300 on the Zihyun crane

can it be improved and how? to start the gimbal seems to be hunting from side to side, then walking to the driveway entrance it suddenly jumps to the side. Pans are not smooth. They jerk around as if the camera is on an indexing tripod! Towards the end it does a little hiccup as I pan to the road.
I really tried to get a good balance at the outset. I did not do any sudden moves. I walked gingerly and took my time moving my body around for the pans.
 
puredrifting said:
I ended up sending this unit back to Amazon, it was too heavy and made the 80D too tall. The Crane did not behave as it should when using the 80D with this QR plate, battery, card and 10-18 STM IS lens.
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I have a feiyu MG lite, which is similar in design to the crane, and spent a while figuring out an easier quick release system. I tried some smaller QR plates like the Manfrotto, and it raised the camera and made it too top heavy and unable to balance. It seems counter-intuitive, but what ended up working was a bigger, heavier QR plate. While it raised the camera the same height, with the heavier QR plate the overall balance shifted lower and I was able to balance the camera again. So try a heavier, solid metal qr plate and see if it works. Makes your rig heavier, although not too much to handle in my case.
 
Just had my first shoot with the crane, awesome device, changed the way I shoot dramatically, I did not use my cinevate duzi not even once, which is a first.
flying a sony a6500, 60p slowmo looks superb, I need to work on 24p circles around something or someone, I am using these settings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3k8hXF34ak
and they are great for slomo shots which hide your mistakes but on realtime stuff I can see the flaws that show up specially on circles , does anyone have settings for this or do I just need to practice?
 
Batutta said:
I have a feiyu MG lite, which is similar in design to the crane, and spent a while figuring out an easier quick release system. I tried some smaller QR plates like the Manfrotto, and it raised the camera and made it too top heavy and unable to balance. It seems counter-intuitive, but what ended up working was a bigger, heavier QR plate. While it raised the camera the same height, with the heavier QR plate the overall balance shifted lower and I was able to balance the camera again. So try a heavier, solid metal qr plate and see if it works. Makes your rig heavier, although not too much to handle in my case.
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When I was using the a7S on the N4000 I had this problem too. Instead of going for a heavier QR system, I went even-lower-center-of-gravity: I attached the QR base to the gimbal using a longer screw, and on the lower side of the gimbal plate I introduced some heavy washers. Cheap and effective. The only downside is that it brings you closer to the gimbal's maximum weight limit.
 
Samuel H said:
When I was using the a7S on the N4000 I had this problem too. Instead of going for a heavier QR system, I went even-lower-center-of-gravity: I attached the QR base to the gimbal using a longer screw, and on the lower side of the gimbal plate I introduced some heavy washers. Cheap and effective. The only downside is that it brings you closer to the gimbal's maximum weight limit.
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I tried weights but they ended up restricting the tilt axis, also like the cleaner appearance of just the bigger QR base. The weight limit of the MG Lite is 4.4lbs. I haven't hit the limit yet, and I've mounted a Rokinon Cine lens, speedbooster, rail and electric follow focus motor on it.
 
In order to get a quick release to balance on my crane, I disconnected the mounting plate from the crane and flipped it so that it was underneath the lip of the tilt arm and then reattached the plate. It works really well for the 577 style quick releases.
 
cpreston said:
In order to get a quick release to balance on my crane, I disconnected the mounting plate from the crane and flipped it so that it was underneath the lip of the tilt arm and then reattached the plate. It works really well for the 577 style quick releases.
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Picture?
 
It looks like the QR portion could theoretically be retro'd onto an older one. The actual arm doesn't look very different.
 
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