Noah Stout
Well-known member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2014
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- 150
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Hello, I've been mostly a Sachtler person for a long time but I'm now using OConner more, in particular the 1030D head. There's a lot I like about it, like the smoothness, and the concept of the stepless balance and friction, and I'm starting to get used to the knobs being different from Sachtler. Though the functionality of the head is pretty self explanatory, 2 things are confusing me a bit in the balancing process. Nothing is keeping me from getting the balance perfect, but I'm curious what other 1030D users do that keep them loving this head so much.
1. I find the stepless balance makes balancing the tripod a bit slower for me. I'm used to very quickly zeroing out the Sachtler counterbalance to adjust fore/aft distribution and then quickly dialing my counterbalance in to a number right away. On the Oconner you need to spin the dial many times counterclockwise and there is no readout scale to remember different setups (like there is when you adjust the pan/tilt). I wish there was a way to disengage it quickly or at least know where you were on the scale. Do you guys have a preferred method or something I'm missing? Also, how careful do you have to be of cranking too far in either direction? I'm scared to go too far, are there hard stops eventually?
2. There are "platform scales" on the base to keep track of fore/aft balancing, but there is no notch on the plate that slides with in it or on the camera plate to balance and remember in relation to the scale. I'm using the side loading plate (the non-euro style) and it looks like their euro plates have a notch on them to position in relation to the scales, but not so on the side-loaders because you couldn't see it anyway, and it's also not on it's carriage that moves. Am I supposed to use tape or just use my focal plane mark or something like that? Also there are scales on both the Op and AC sides of the platform but the ones on the Op side are covered by the side loading plate making them useless (but I assume this is just because the euro style plate does not cover that if you go for that option?).
Cheers!
1. I find the stepless balance makes balancing the tripod a bit slower for me. I'm used to very quickly zeroing out the Sachtler counterbalance to adjust fore/aft distribution and then quickly dialing my counterbalance in to a number right away. On the Oconner you need to spin the dial many times counterclockwise and there is no readout scale to remember different setups (like there is when you adjust the pan/tilt). I wish there was a way to disengage it quickly or at least know where you were on the scale. Do you guys have a preferred method or something I'm missing? Also, how careful do you have to be of cranking too far in either direction? I'm scared to go too far, are there hard stops eventually?
2. There are "platform scales" on the base to keep track of fore/aft balancing, but there is no notch on the plate that slides with in it or on the camera plate to balance and remember in relation to the scale. I'm using the side loading plate (the non-euro style) and it looks like their euro plates have a notch on them to position in relation to the scales, but not so on the side-loaders because you couldn't see it anyway, and it's also not on it's carriage that moves. Am I supposed to use tape or just use my focal plane mark or something like that? Also there are scales on both the Op and AC sides of the platform but the ones on the Op side are covered by the side loading plate making them useless (but I assume this is just because the euro style plate does not cover that if you go for that option?).
Cheers!