Bridge Plate needed?

[John Desay]

Hi Guys,

i recently purchased Wooden Cameras Easy Riser and LW15mm Bracket for my Scarlet.
My question is that since i have both,do i still need a Bridgeplate as well as the above mentioned to elevate the camera to the level where a mattebox can be attached onto a set of rails or is that simply a quick release mechanism to switch between tripod and shoulder mount set ups?

Thanks in advance,

john.

 

[Justin Talley]

From the "Seeking Assistance with Rods/Rail system" thread further down the Scarlet thread page. Hope this helps. Short answer, no, you don't need a bridge plate, but I use the Zacuto Recoil plate below my WC Easy Riser to mount my handles and Recoil shoulder pad when going handheld.

My two cents... and sorry, this is going to be long...

I've owned several cameras with rod based systems from film to digital. I've owned a full 16mm system, HVX back in the day, 7D handheld rig, 5D handheld rig (many many versions), FS100 handheld rig, and all of that rigging has taught me what I like and what I don't like.

15mm vs. 19mm - Unless you're doing mostly work where a production company is renting gear for you, or your pockets are deep don't do 19mm for your actual iris rods, and don't do studio spacing. 19mm studio spacing AKS are primarily used with film cameras in a studio configuration or on rigs where you're using seriously large heavy glass.

If you plan to own your own follow focus and matte box some day, or you already do the price difference on the whole between aks designed to work on a 15mm Light Weight Spacing (lws) system are significant. There are many adapters to get a 15mm lws follow focus up to 19mm studio spacing, but they typically raise the height of the follow focus significantly (some manufacturers don't really design their adapters to raise the follow focus to standard height) but when it comes to matte boxes you're often times left with certain choices that exist in the 19mm world and certain choices designed for the 15mm lws world and never the twain shall meet.

Actual gear suggestions: These opinions are all my own, but this is where I went with things:

Wooden Camera Easy Riser with 15mm lws clamp - This set of rods will take your follow focus, any lens support and your matte box.

Berkey Systems (berkeysystems.com) 15mm Rods - They are very, very well made. And they are extremely reasonably priced for their quality level. Seriously. The difference between a really well made, really well anodized AL rod and a cheap one is serious. My iris rods are of the internally threaded variety, meaning you can buy adapters that thread into your rods to extend their length in case you want to use a longer lens, etc. But my base iris rods are about 8". This allows me to get a Zeiss ZF prime on there with a follow focus and I could easily rod mount my matte box, but it is currently clamped on. For a zoom, you might want 12", but if you've got a wide angle zoom or prime in your kit that's relatively short, having shorter rods you can thread in and out of to make them longer is nice. Or, you could just buy slightly shorter and slightly longer rods. Whatever your budget is.

If you are really on a tight budget you can call Modern Studio Equipment. Google em. Their rods are made of steel (heavy but also strong) but they use a non standard threading, so you can only thread Modern rods with Modern rods. Berkey's rods can be threaded together with Element rods, Zacuto rods, etc.

Next - I bought a Zacuto Recoil Lite. It's very useful. I have the baseplate attached underneath my Easy Riser and my tripod plate attaches to that. 'Why do that?' you might be asking. Because the Recoil lite comes with a set of rods attached to it as well. I have my Redrock hand grips attached to those rods all the time. This means if I want to go to handheld mode, my handgrips are already attached to the rig, and they're on a separate set of rods that will not interfere with my actual iris rods. I know you can accomplish the same thing if you've got one of the Red/O'Connor/Arri rosette style rigs, but the difference in price is hundreds of dollars. Like over a thousand bucks different.

And, included in that over a thousand dollar savings is the Recoil's quick release shoulder pad which is killer, works great, comes on and off quick and means I bring my quick release along with the shoulder pad, not along with the camera. It's a trade off of functionality, but it works absolutely a treat for me.

Lastly I chose to take the rod clamp off of my old Redrock DSLR 'tripod adapter plate' (a cheeseplate with a 15mm lws rod clamp on it) and attach it to the top of my camera. I found a Redrock alan screw from somewhere that was long enough and bolted it onto my Wooden Camera top plate at the very front center of the camera. I had to throw a couple of little (Redrock brand) shims under the rod clamp, but once I bolted it on, I could throw a couple more 6" rods on top of the camera so I have a spot to slip a wireless follow focus on. I like to mount wireless FF to the top rods to that if you for some aesthetic (or technical) reason you want to switch back to a traditional FF you don't need to pull the wireless motor off, you can just swing it out of the way.

This setup leaves me plenty of room for my Wooden Camera cheese top handle and two Ultralight arm mounting points.

Parting Shot - My Redrock FF does not work with short primes with the Wooden Camera 15mm lws clamp. I don't blame Wooden Camera, I blame my short a$$ Zeiss primes in combination with a non flippable/reversable follow focus. I have since bought the Zacuto flippable and it works terribly well. As does the Arri MFF-1

p.s. - If you have a Redrock follow focus and you're stuck in the same position (short lenses + deep rod clamp = pain) you can mount your Redrock FF upside down on the top rod rig I described above and it works... and if you're using Nikon lenses, they pull the right way. How about that?

I hope this helps. If you have any questions, PM me or find my contact info at www.jtalleydp.com

 

[John Desay]

Thanks Justin...