Help! 15mm Rods

[Chris Freilich]

Hi all,

I'm about to shoot a short film with the RED and we will be using special lenses that require 15mm rods (it's a bellows system).

We'll be renting the lenses from Clairmont in Los Angeles, but we have been unable to find the RED baseplate and 15mm rod system anywhere. The rental agent at Clairmont told me that for the proper rise for the matte box and follow focus (and presumably the bellows), we need to have the specific baseplate/rods designed for the RED.

So:

a) Is that true?
b) If it is true, is there anyone out there that could loan/rent us for really cheap this accessory, that we could pick up in the morning tomorrow (Friday), and return in one week's time?

If there's anyone out there, please e-mail me directly at chris (at) virtuosofilms.com.

Thanks!

-- Chris

 

[Evin Grant]

They are correct, can't help you with the rental though, sorry.

 

[donatello b]

have you tried other rental houses ?

http://www.indierentals.com/
or http://www.birnsandsawyer.com

you need this
http://www.elementtechnica.com/products/view.php?p=6

 

[Albert Malvaez]

You just need the baseplate. Indie has it. Clairmont doesn't subrent. Maybe Indie can subrent the swing and tilts from Clairmont for you. Call Indie first thing and run it by them. Mattebox is a pain and kind of useless with the swing and tilts. Better to use the included series 9 clip on rings with series 9 filters. I think it also comes with a 3X3 clip on filter holder. Tape some blackwrap onto that and you've got a nice little mattebox. But it's easier to get filters that you need in series 9. 15mm rods should come with the swing and tilts-make sure they do. If it is becoming a pain call Camtec. They have swing and tilts and 15mm Red AKS.

 

[Mitch Gross]

Two choices:

- Buy a Zacuto Jeep which will allow you to realign from your 19mm rods to 15mm studio rods (it also lets you align to 15mm lightweight). Available for purchase from Abel.

- Rent an Arri Shift & Tilt system from Abel. Our system can mount to either 15mm or 19mm studio rods.

 

[Anders Yarbrough]

Just buy the base plate from element technica. You'll be better off in the long run. Most cine accessories are 15mm bases.

 

[Mitch Gross]

Not really true. 15mm is still big in LA because Clairmont and Otto Nemetz had several hundred thousand dollars of investment in 15mm rod accessories so they didn't want to change over to 19mm in the late 80s when Arri introduced the larger rod size. Lenses like the Zeiss Master zoom and the Angenieux Optimo 12x really need 19mm for proper support and LA rental houses have had to resort to some oddball support rigs to try to keep their 15mm rods still correctly functional. All the rest of the world has embraced 19mm and slowly but surely 19mm is making inroads in LA. I know that even Panavision is using some 19mm rod systems for some of their video gear and they NEVER used 15mm but instead their own proprietary 5/8" siderail system.

 

[Ted Chu]

15mm

15mm

The Camera House and Keslow Camera is set up for RED 15mm...or you can purchase a bridgeplate from ET. All you really need is the bridgeplate and Clairemont will supply the rest (rods, balance plate, etc.)

 

[Peter Sensor]

Or, go a much cheaper route - Buy a PL mount Lensbaby. I put one up on the RED and it was great fun.

 

[Anders Yarbrough]

Bottom line is that the real world doesn't use 19mm rods, generally if they need more support we use solid steel 15mm rods. 5/8" side rod and 15mm bottom rods are the standard. The 19mm never really caught on, it introduces more crap to carry at your rental house/in your aks. Panavision only uses them on the video equipment they acquired from plus 8 digital(because it came with that stuff). Most likely, none of their film equipment will ever go 19mm.

 

[Mitch Gross]

Everywhere outside of LA is not "the real world?" Charming.

 

[Florian Stadler]

Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Detroit, New Orleans, Phoenix, Seattle, Kansas city, charlotte, indianapolis are some cities I have worked in where the rental house had 15mm Studio as a standard. New York seems to be the exception in the us. The rest of the world (excluding japan if memory serves me correctly) is 19mm based. I have run into problems with this standards difference only once when using a Clairmont image shaker (with 15mm rod set up) in Prague. The assistant had to resort to some funky rigging. Vantage films carries the shaker in 19mm now I believe.