Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Log in
  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Using Red shoulder plate with ET/Arri bridge plate…simple!

david farland

david farland

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 28, 2006
Messages
1,511
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Sydney
If you mill 1mm off the top of the Red shoulder plate it fits perfectly in the ET bridge plate.
The nice thing about this is, to go from tripod to shoulder mount, you simply install the Red handle bars, remove camera from tripod, slip in the Red shoulder plate, adjust evf and you’re good to go. Actually you’re only milling the 5 mm raised surfaces down the length of the Red shoulder plate.
Also you can still use the Red shoulder plate (perfectly) in the Red bottom plate. I think Arri-guy previously mentioned milling the Red shoulder dovetails so thanks.
Dave,
 
david farland said:
If you mill 1mm off the top of the Red shoulder plate it fits perfectly in the ET bridge plate.
The nice thing about this is, to go from tripod to shoulder mount, you simply install the Red handle bars, remove camera from tripod, slip in the Red shoulder plate, adjust evf and you’re good to go. Actually you’re only milling the 5 mm raised surfaces down the length of the Red shoulder plate.
Also you can still use the Red shoulder plate (perfectly) in the Red bottom plate. I think Arri-guy previously mentioned milling the Red shoulder dovetails so thanks.
Dave,
Click to expand...

Good tip David! Looks about 0.4mm depth to me :innocent:

Do you have a link to Arri-guy's post - couldn't find it in a search.

Are you sure losing the raised side ridges doesn't reduce stability of the shoulder plate with the Red bottom plate on a tripod? Not at all or slightly?

Thanks
Eric
 
Camera is out at the moment. Ill send pics as soon a it comes back (sun).

The first thing I checked was stability on the ET/Arri plate and it's rock solid.
The second I checked was stabilty on the Red bottom plate and it's solid as well.
There's no movement on the bottom plate as the Red locking mechanism provides all the locking force and shaving half a mm off the raised edge of top surface doesn't interfere with this.
D
 
Thanks for the quick info David. It's good to be able to repurpose stuff rather than letting it sit on a shelf or have to buy replacements!
 
you use the lock on the Arri bridge plate which grips the sholder mount dovetail.
you don't use the shoulder mount lock.
D
 
Mark Pugh said:
Hi David
How does the Red shoulder dovetail lock itself into the Arri bridge plate without the help of the holes that are in the Red baseplate?
Click to expand...

Using the bridge plate lock off arm just as if you were securing on to the standard dovetail.

Generally gets tossed to the side in favour of foam padding to keep the height down.
 
eastco said:
Pics?
Click to expand...

taken on a cell phone....but you get the idea.

...white strips are where top of shoulder mount has been milled.
48_1227773581.jpg


...Red shoulder plate combined with ET bridge plate...
48_1227773130.jpg


Will post proper pics when camera is back......

Last thing......for those Sydney siders who want this.

Special thanks to Tama for coming up with this up with this.
Great guy. They do a lot of film/tv industry lighting/engineering/modelling work.
See link here to his company: www.outsight.com.au

Dave,
 
Thanks for the pics!

It's something I wanted to do for a long time as well.

So it's 1mm or 0.4mm? How much did it cost (out of curiosity)?
 
Hey Dave, just flicked through this quickly, but ...

Tama did this for you? Just milled the top of the Red shoulder dovetail, so now it fits the ET/Red Arri 15mm rod plate, rather than having to use an Arri or ET/Arri dovetail plate? Is that right?

If so, I'll give Tama a call to do ours too!
Was quoted about $700 for the ET/Arri plate the other day.....
 
How comfortable is the rig once it's put together? Does the RED shoulder pad have enough softness to it? Is there plenty of sliding room to balance for different configurations? Do you think you could go most of the day handheld with this setup?

Thanks. Great idea BTW.
 
Just want to confirm that David's advice works really well. Just got back from the workshop and now my RED shoulder dovetail does fit very nicely with my ET baseplate. Joy!

All we did was sand the raised bits on the top side edges back so they were flush with the rest of the topside. Bit of a buff after sanding and it worked first go. Took about 5 mins and cost a 6 pack of beer. My mate said it wasn't necessary to go through the time and expense of milling - sanding worked perfectly well.

Thanks heaps for this info David - I'd been scratching my head for ages over why the two elements wouldn't fit properly. I think this will work nicely for handheld.

Cheers

Cam
 
Cam Crowley said:
Just want to confirm that David's advice works really well. Just got back from the workshop and now my RED shoulder dovetail does fit very nicely with my ET baseplate. Joy!

All we did was sand the raised bits on the top side edges back so they were flush with the rest of the topside. Bit of a buff after sanding and it worked first go. Took about 5 mins and cost a 6 pack of beer. My mate said it wasn't necessary to go through the time and expense of milling - sanding worked perfectly well...
Click to expand...

Interesting - was just about to investigate the milling route. So what kind of sander did you use. Did you use a jig of some sort to keep it straight and neat?
 
ericyoung said:
Interesting - was just about to investigate the milling route. So what kind of sander did you use. Did you use a jig of some sort to keep it straight and neat?
Click to expand...

Long story short is I took it to an expert. Small heavy duty handheld sander - not my thing so I couldn't tell you exactly.

Anyway, he did it without clamping it or anything, just stuck it on the bench and held it with one hand, and (I shit you not) managed to smoke a ciggie all at the same time!

Literally took him as long as it took to finish the cigarette and like I said, after a quick buff it fits perfectly. Which makes me wonder why it wasn't just made like that in the first place because it will still work with the RED base.

He told me milling would do the job but take a while to set up and hence cost a bit to do so I was quite happy to let him sand away for beer money!

Mill if you want to but you certainly don't have to.

Here are some pictures:
 
Cam Crowley said:
Long story short is I took it to an expert. Small heavy duty handheld sander - not my thing so I couldn't tell you exactly.

Anyway, he did it without clamping it or anything, just stuck it on the bench and held it with one hand, and (I shit you not) managed to smoke a ciggie all at the same time! ...
Click to expand...

Got to love those old school guys - no messing! :)

Agree, that RED should just make them without those raised ridges! Thanks for the pics.
 
Tama fixed up our plate too... he does nice work.
I've had other stuff made by Tama in the past and can highly recommend him as an all round nice guy and good engineer.
OUTSIGHT
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top