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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 :)

Prototype ET shoulder brace pics & info

Steve Gibby

Steve Gibby

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Here’s a quick look at the prototype Element Technica shoulder brace I’ve been field-testing. Obviously the shipping version may have significant changes, but here are my initial brief impressions of the prototype:

It is very light – seems to be made of aluminum alloy. It has loads of rosettes and adjustment knobs, so I’ve been able to re-adjust the geometry and form factor of the rig quickly. The shoulder pad bracket has right/left (sideways) adjustable cant, and a lot of roll adjustment to compensate for the slant of your shoulder trapezious muscle. That makes it easy to level the camera on my shoulder. A sliding lever locks and un-locks the shoulder bracket adjustment.

The camera mounts via its ARRI bridge plate onto the V plate on the brace. Once on the plate, the camera can be adjusted forward and backward along the plate to adjust the balance point of the rig weight.

The handle grips on this particular prototype have finger grooves, and have been coated in sticky rubber grip. Just above the right grip ET installed a View Factor Origo start/stop switch – a great addition to the rig because it obviously allows me to start /stop RED One without having to reach around for the on-camera start/stop button.

I’ve been able to take the brace apart easily, and also collapses quickly with the twist of a few levers for easy transport.

I do a lot of mobile shoulder held camera work in the genres I shoot in, and the one key accessory I’ve been missing from my RED kits is a good adjustable shoulder brace. This ET brace may just be the ticket.

Tomorrow sometime I’ll post on this thread some of my field testing pics of RED #8 on the brace, along with some of my impressions of how the brace/RED #8 combination has performed in the field.

So far I’m really happy with how this brace was designed and how it performs in my real-world use. A big thanks to ET for letting me torture their prototype!

More pics and impressions to come tomorrow…
 
OoooOooOoooo... that's what they meant by telescopic extensions! Niiifty! Of what material is that shouder pad made of? It looks comfy. Just looking at the picture makes me want to poke it.

EDIT : Added a smiley :D
 
Looks great. Simple, and great. What is the approximate weight of the prototype? Also, the handles look to be a little far from where the body of the camera would be. Will there be an option for shorter handle rods maybe? I know that it's a preference, but I know that I like to have my elbows resting on my stomach/chest so you're not always taking the weight of the camera in your arms and shoulders.

Cheers, can't wait.
 
Here are some answers to those questions about this prototype:

Shoulder pad
Shoulder pad material is a medium hard, high density foam. For my shoulder it feels very comfortable. At the ET factory I also quickly tested another pad with a slightly softer Tempurpedic-style memory foam. Both felt comfortable to me. Neither of the prototype pads I've tested were finished versions. On this proto rig the pad is anchored to the shoulder bracket with strips of velcro so that the pad is easily replaceable. Hopefully that quick change-out capability will be in the shipping versions, because foam wears out and it would be nice to have the option to simply buy a replacement pad when needed, or better yet, have the option to purchase a couple of different density and materials of pads for different field use needs.

Handles
At the ET factory I quickly tested out three different versions of handles: finger molded bare aluminum, finger molded rubber dipped aluminum, simple round handles with a slightly bumpy rubberized coating. All three felt good to my hands, but I chose the finger molded, rubber coated version for these field tests because I shoot a lot out in the natural elements and they felt like the most secure grip for me in rain, sweat, etc. I have no idea if ET will end up offering different handle options when you order the brace, but I do think it would be a good idea to do so.

Weight
I don't have a micro-scale at my office, but I would estimate the weight of this proto rig to be around 3.5 pounds. When I first picked it up, the lightness of the rig surprised me. In field use I've been matching it up with a lightweight RED One configuration: camera, ARRI 15mm bridge plate, EVF, ET EVF mount, ET transverse aluminum battery mount, ET shock mount with RED Drive, no rods, short shotgun mic, and a RED 18-50 zoom. I'll post pics of that rig in use later today. I'd estimate the shoulder weight of the entire rig with that setup to be somewhere around 26 pounds. That's quite a bit lighter than a lot of the shoulder held rigs I'm used to, but heavy enough to sit solidly down on my shoulder for doing good shoulder held work. The rig feels light but solid on my shoulder. If I was to use rods, follow focus, and a matte box on this rig, which I'm not for this field testing, I would use 15mm aluminum or CF rods, a simple lightweight FF, and a lightweight clip-on MB, thus holding the weight of the rig down.

Handle and arm adjustments
The black telescoping portion of the rig arms is about 7" long it can telescope the full length of the aluminum tube arm it rides on. With rosettes on at the top of the handle and where the arms meet the cross bar, there are tons of different ways you can adjust the length of the arms, the angle of the arms from the crossbar, and the degree of outward/inward angle of the handles. Beyond that, the little turn handles on the outer arm black tubes enable outward/inward angle adjustment rotation of each entire arm individually. With all these length and angle adjustment points I think any user can quickly find their comfort zone for the setup, and then quickly re-adjust the rig for the individual shooting needs of each scene or shot. sequence.


Hope this answers your questions. More info and pics later today...
 
This post and the one to follow have some more pics of my field testing setup with RED #8 on the proto ET shoulder brace.

The rig was well balanced on my shoulder, back to front, and left to right. To balance back to front I simply slid the camera backward in increments on the brace V plate and kept testing it on my shoulder for front/back balance and left/right cant so it would fit flat on my shoulder. When I had it right, I locked it down with the shoulder bracket lever just below the V plate.

For left/right balance, I chose to mount the RED battery with the new ET V plate bracket on a Quick Clamp mounted to the lower rod. I also mounted the RED Drive in the proto ET Shock Mount on a low 15mm rod using another Quick Clamp. Both the battery and drive were mounted opposite the EVF to counterbalance the weight of the EVF.

The EVF was mounted in the lowest possible configuration of the ET EVF mount. My strategy in mounting the EVF, Drive, and battery as low on the camera as possible was to keep the vertical weight of the camera, and thus the entire rig, as low as possible - the best setup choice for shoulder held shooting.

I fed the View Factor Origo cable from the Origo switch on the right handle, all the way through the 15mm rod to the 12v auxiliary bus on the back of the camera. The Origo has the stock 2.5' cable - plenty long for this use.

For ambient audio I used the ET mini-cheeseplate anchored to the full-size ET Cheeseplate to hold a Rode shockmount, which in turn held my Sennheiser shotgun mic. A custom standard XLR to mini-XLR cable from Coffey Sound connected the shotgun to the camera.

As mentioned earlier today, to keep the rig as light as possible, I didn't use a matte box or follow focus with the RED 18-50 zoom for this round of field tests. If I was to use a MB and FF with this rig, to keep the weight down it would be a lightweight clip-on MB and a lightweight FF.

I had zero dropped frames from the RED Drive/ET Shock Mount combo - even though I purposely jostled the camera a lot at times.

The overall weight of the rig is about 26 lbs - and easy load for shoulder held shooting. After a few adjustments and tweaking of the handle rosettes and levers to fine tune the rig, I shot a lot of footage: people at a carnival, some skateboarding half pipe action, a walk through between rows of a vineyard, street scenes downtown, and tons of other shot sequences.

The rig has performed very well. It was balanced and comfortable. One caveat: make sure all rosette and twist knob levers are tightened down. If you have them tightened they shouldn't loosen up. Also, make sure the camera ARRI base lock lever is pushed tight, to keep the camera from sliding down the V plate. When I took the rig off my shoulder for a rest, I simply set it on the ground in a safe place, as it is in some of these pics.

Hope this info helps those who are curious about the ET shoulder brace and how I set it up for lightweight use.
 
Gibby,

Good to "see" you again.. One concern: I noticed from the photos that your head is cocked slightly to the side because the EVF is sticking out a little far to the left of the camera.

This tells me that ET may need to incorporate some sort of offset of the camera on the shoulder pad, pushing it slightly right in order to fix this issue.

with your neck like that for a long period of time, I worry this could become a "pain".

Would you agree?

Jay
 
The photos really illustrate the rig well. I wonder if there's any way to get the EVF mounted closer to the red body?
 
The head position was pretty comfortable for me. If I wanted to slide the EVF inward or outward, it was real easy to do by unlocking the twist knob on the tube rod of the EVF mount and simply sliding the EVF to wherever I wanted - closer to the camera or farther away. It's hard to tell from those pics, but even in the position the EVF mount is in, there is still about 2" clearance between the EVF tightening knob and the camera body - thus moving the EVF inward is no problem.

Though those pictures don't show it, while shooting over the past few days, I tried several different distances of the EVF from the camera body. Some felt better than others, but even the distance pictured felt pretty comfortable. Maybe it's my style of using an EVF - I tend to turn my head outward a bit to get a flat seal between my eye socket and the EVF bellows.
 
What is that cable you have running to the right hand grip? Is it for a microforce of some sort? Does RED have a microforce for their zoom's, or are they electronically controlled through the PL mount? A little off subject, just not sure why I don't know this yet.
 
Gibby said:
The head position was pretty comfortable for me. If I wanted to slide the EVF inward or outward, it was real easy to do by unlocking the twist knob on the tube rod of the EVF mount and simply sliding the EVF to wherever I wanted - closer to the camera or farther away. It's hard to tell from those pics, but even in the position the EVF mount is in, there is still about 2" clearance between the EVF tightening knob and the camera body - thus moving the EVF inward is no problem.

Though those pictures don't show it, while shooting over the past few days, I tried several different distances of the EVF from the camera body. Some felt better than others, but even the distance pictured felt pretty comfortable. Maybe it's my style of using an EVF - I tend to turn my head outward a bit to get a flat seal between my eye socket and the EVF bellows.
Click to expand...

Hi Gibby,

very nice and as I can see in a hot day after a couple of glasses of red wine from my wine bar in Ibiza now all is in balance, Red and arms are in a right position.
 
Matt Garrett said:
no Mattebox or FF?
Click to expand...

I explained that earlier in the thread.

From my Post #5:

“If I was to use rods, follow focus, and a matte box on this rig, which I'm not for this field testing, I would use 15mm aluminum or CF rods, a simple lightweight FF, and a lightweight clip-on MB, thus holding the weight of the rig down.”

From my Post #6:

“As mentioned earlier today, to keep the rig as light as possible, I didn't use a matte box or follow focus with the RED 18-50 zoom for this round of field tests. If I was to use a MB and FF with this rig, to keep the weight down it would be a lightweight clip-on MB and a lightweight FF.”

The RED 18-50 zoom, the lens in those shots, has a threaded inner barrel, which can take 72mm screw on filters, thus going without a matte box when using that lens is an option. There’s an ND8 screw on filter on the lens in those shots, which I used while shooting. The lens is very compact. The gear rings are close together and quite easy to operate without a follow focus. When shoulder held like that, and using a zoom lens, I rarely zoom, but rather walk to the framings or subject matter – thus racking focus is quick and easy – and adjusting iris is also quick and easy. For mobility in the testing, and because apertures were between 5.6 and 8, I easily and quickly sight focused using 2:1 image magnification, and irised quickly using zebras.

With every pound of weight, and width of accessory you put on a shoulder held or hand held rig you proportionally decrease your mobility with the rig. I shoot a lot of hyper-mobile subject matter and situations, thus my rigs have as few of accessories as I can get away with, and are generally outfitted to enable single person shooting. If I don’t have to be quite as mobile, and the lenses I’m using require the use of a matte box, I use one. If I’m sight focusing, I rarely use a follow focus.

If someone chose, they could naturally load up the shoulder brace with a matte box, follow focus, focus whip, etc., and many users will. Even then, for mobility sake, I would use a lightweight clip-on matte box and lightweight follow focus.

To each their own in equipment choices. My hyper-mobile style of shooting requires as much lightness in the rig as possible.
 
Hey Jay and jbeale

I dug up some more pics shot by my assistant where I have the EVF closer to the camera body. As mentioned, the adjustment for that is simply: release the twist lever on the EVF mount rod bracket, slide the EVF assembly whatever direction you wish, and tighten the twist lever back down.

This day I was shooting some paragliders rigging up and testing their gear at an ocean bluff park.

This proto shoulder brace is working very well...

More testing to come...
 
Three more pics of that day...
 
Hello,

Nice rig. I was waiting to see the ET proposal.

For me, the adjustable arms are to far from the body (or too big)... I'm not as tall as you and you allready use them at their minimum length.

I think the round element that attach the handles to the socket/body will or could be the weak point. Why not use a square or non round tube to avoid the handles move when pressure is on this part?

On the ET evf mount "our" T element (wich is a small 20mm rod I think) that links the RED body to the ET mount, is the weak point and flips over when I push too hard on the mont...

Thanks for these pictures!

Patrick
 
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