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  • 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 :)

GearNext....

Ok prepping location today ....... Tomorrow I'll be shooting
And will take some pictures and report tomorrow night or tues

Stay tuned!
 
Obin,

If you can, please post your experience with the Gearnex today. The special offer ends today. Your comments would be helpful.

Pete
 
Pete said:
Obin,

If you can, please post your experience with the Gearnex today. The special offer ends today. Your comments would be helpful.

Pete
Click to expand...

Pete,

I just got off the phone with Obin, he said he was beat and probably won't be able to post tonight. I would tell you what he said but I don't want to put words in his mouth, so instead, I have extended the "gearnexnab" special until Monday evening at 11:59pm pst.

The best part, we never intended to let the beta unit out because it wasn't ready for primetime but...... I will let Obin tell you. Also, the unit shipping in late May or early June has already been modified to be almost 35% better then what Obin used. :)
 
Thanks Joseph for extending the offer another day.

What are the improvements?

Pete
 
Improvements to expect when we ship GearNex in late May or early June

Improvements to expect when we ship GearNex in late May or early June

Pete said:
Thanks Joseph for extending the offer another day.

What are the improvements?

Pete
Click to expand...

The ones I can tell you now are,
  • Bushings have been replaced with bearings

  • Worm Gears and other gears have been properly burred

  • Swivel Tilt Arm will be available for shipping with an upgraded system to prevent backlash

  • Better rear tilt angle distance

  • Smaller gear housing boxes

  • Hand wheels will be balanced and have finger impressions on interior of wheel, No chrome all black anodized

  • Pan in Neutral will be smoother

  • Key locks have been replaced with bearings
and much more we cannot talk about YET, thanks legal dept :( But we will soon.
 
yea, first off thanks Joe for letting me 'steal' it from you.... Had a great shoot!

Let me get some ' pics in action' and get on a normal computer('off the iPhone) and I'll follow up.
 
a few "grabs" from the camera...not that this says anything about this head...lol

behind the scenes pics coming as soon as I can get them from our set photog ;)
 
I really enjoyed working with this unit. I can't say I am an "expert" gear head geek or do I have much in the way of background when it comes to working with a gear head but I will says this, when your on a dolly shot and your dolly grip is hitting marks in a circle shot off track this head gives you a whole new dimension in terms of shot control. It's NOTHING like working with a fluid head...many of you will be in for a supprise in the amnout of shot control your going to get working with a wheel head. it's really different but once you "lock in" with your brain and motor skills your going to love it. Pans are super smooth, camera moves are coordinated with no hiccups and misses because you can't just start and stop a move due to the nature of the wheel system. I am really excited to master this technique because I can see a big advantage to shooting this way for following action and shooting off a dolly. The moves you get off a dolly match what a dolly does, smooth linear shots - when you nail a shot with the dolly, and the head it's like magic.

This head is really small for a gear head and that makes it a nice fit on a large or small tripid. I think it's the perfect size for the RED. I can see that the improvements that Joe is listing will take this thing over the top and I can't wait to try some of them out, namely the bearing upgrade should really improve the overall fluid movement of the head, especially when your camera is off balance on the unit incorrectly mounted for-aft

This particular unit has the typical beta unit stuff going on, some of the parts like the way the unit engages in the gears with the lever are a little sub par and the bushings really need to be bearings for silky smoothness but the cool thing is I think the basics are solid and with the tweaks that Joe is going to do and any other small things I find that he will improve I am REALLY excited to get a final unit from him and keep it in my RED kit for many years.

With the little things fixed I think this will become a very popular head and one that you can feel good about shooting on next to an Arri any day of the week.

THank you Joe! Thank god you are spending the time and effort to make a unit like this so I can buy one instead of design one myself!

more pics from set when I get them.
 
Joseph Mendoza said:

The ones I can tell you now are,
  • Bushings have been replaced with bearings

  • Worm Gears and other gears have been properly burred

  • Swivel Tilt Arm will be available for shipping with an upgraded system to prevent backlash

  • Better rear tilt angle distance

  • Smaller gear housing boxes

  • Hand wheels will be balanced and have finger impressions on interior of wheel, No chrome all black anodized

  • Pan in Neutral will be smoother

  • Key locks have been replaced with bearings
and much more we cannot talk about YET, thanks legal dept :( But we will soon.
Click to expand...

Hello Joseph,

I see you have gone from a bush to a ball bearing. Have you seen these teflon/bronze self aliging bushings? They carry heavy loads and need no lubrication. The self aliging feature relaxes demensional requirements and speed up assembly thus keeping costs down.

http://www.spyraflo.com/products/teflon_bronze.php

Oh and you can use hard or soft shafts with a relativily (16RMS) coarse surface finish.

I just rememberd why I wrote this in the first place. Bushings do not brinell like ball bearings do and can stand much more abuse then either ball or Timken type bearings. Cheaper too. lol
 
obin said:
shit!

obin, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

1. Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
2. If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.


I can't post images!
Click to expand...

me too
how did you fix it ?
anybody ?
by the way it look's like amazing gear .thank for sharing Obin
 
I'm diving in. I just placed my order. I think this has great potential and am excited to see where it goes.
 
I am wish I could get in on the pre-order. Sadly I would be a smudge too late.
 
chuck colburn said:
Hello Joseph,

I see you have gone from a bush to a ball bearing. Have you seen these teflon/bronze self aliging bushings? They carry heavy loads and need no lubrication. The self aliging feature relaxes demensional requirements and speed up assembly thus keeping costs down.

http://www.spyraflo.com/products/teflon_bronze.php

Oh and you can use hard or soft shafts with a relativily (16RMS) coarse surface finish.

I just rememberd why I wrote this in the first place. Bushings do not brinell like ball bearings do and can stand much more abuse then either ball or Timken type bearings. Cheaper too. lol
Click to expand...

Chuck,

Thanks for the advice, I have forwarded this to our engineers and will get their feedback.
 
chuck colburn said:
Hello Joseph,

I see you have gone from a bush to a ball bearing. Have you seen these Teflon/bronze self aliging bushings? They carry heavy loads and need no lubrication. The self aligning feature relaxes dimensional requirements and speed up assembly thus keeping costs down.

http://www.spyraflo.com/products/teflon_bronze.php

Oh and you can use hard or soft shafts with a relativily (RMS) coarse surface finish.

I just rememberd why I wrote this in the first place. Bushings do not brinell like ball bearings do and can stand much more abuse then either ball or Tim ken type bearings. Cheaper too. Lil
Click to expand...

Chuck and everyone interested,

Our engineers agreed with you about your suggestion. We are not sure if we will use the exact product you spoke of but we might or one we feel is better.

We learned if we did do a bearing, we could potentially have to many negatives for the GearNex since we are building for longevity. Just some of the negatives described to us by our engineers;

  • Noise
  • Pre-load
  • Need of lubrication
  • Brinell (Flat Spotting)

So, we will be going with Hi-Tech Teflon type bushings. Thanks for the blog Chuck.
 
Joseph Mendoza said:
Chuck and everyone interested,

Our engineers agreed with you about your suggestion. We are not sure if we will use the exact product you spoke of but we might or one we feel is better.

We learned if we did do a bearing, we could potentially have to many negatives for the GearNex since we are building for longevity. Just some of the negatives described to us by our engineers;

  • Noise
  • Pre-load
  • Need of lubrication
  • Brinell (Flat Spotting)

So, we will be going with Hi-Tech Teflon type bushings. Thanks for the blog Chuck.
Click to expand...

Also you Steadicam users might consider these for your arms. They don't rust Hell you can use them under water! lol If I ever get around to finding financing for the follow focus unit I've designed I'll use them in it also. One other use I can think of is having it on the non locking side of a matte box or lens support bracket.
 
I'm uploading a bunch of stills from set..i'll post when the upload from cs4 LightRoom finishes making the site.
 
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