Should I counter balance my shoulder rig?

[Lee M]

I have a heavy shoulder rig (red clutch, dragon, cooke 25-250 zoom lens, focus, lights, mic, battery, etc) that is super front happy. The only thing behind the red is the battery. I am guessing it already weighs a good 30-40 pounds. Would adding a counter weight in the back make things more comfortable? I am thinking I would have to add a good 10-20 lbs to even it out but I guess it could be less depending on how far back it goes. Also, any recommendations for a counter weight?

 

[Mark Spraker]

Looking at the RED Clutch it's not really conducive to balancing a system because all the weight is forced to be in front of the shoulder instead of over it. In my opinion, needing to add a ton of counterweights is a sign that something isn't setup right in the first place.

If you would be willing to humor my (extremely limited) experience putting (non RED) cameras on my shoulder, I find having my camera built in a way that makes it shoulder friendly without needing counterweights typically involves having the sensor sitting at or slightly behind the shoulder. I'm also typically setting the monitor or EVF very close to the matte box for the weight to even out. Hand position can play a role too; A slightly front heavy camera can feel a lot heavier with your arms up higher.

 

[Chris Santucci]

You should probably abandon that clutch thing and get a simple baseplate that allows for iris rods behind the camera. Then get an external battery plate and position it at the end of the rods to the rear. This would also allow you to position the camera/lens further to the rear. If you still needed more counterweight after that, I'd suggest the Redrock Micro counterweights if you can configure them to fit on 19mm iris rods.

 

[Nick Gardner]

Cooke 25-250 for hand held? Ditch that right off the bat. You are never going to balance that unless you a ridiculously long arm sticking off of the back of the rig, and at that point, what's the point of shooting hand held if you are as big as coffee table?

Nick

 

[Björn Benckert]

Cooke 25-250 for hand held? Ditch that right off the bat. You are never going to balance that unless you a ridiculously long arm sticking off of the back of the rig, and at that point, what's the point of shooting hand held if you are as big as coffee table?

Nick

To me hand held looks better the bigger and heavier camera you use. Especially really long camera rigs. But nodal point for the lens should still be somewhere around the cheek. The weight and the length of the rig improves the momentum a short lightweight camera get a totally different feel. Kind of difference between shooting cell phone and heavy old 65mm. But then of course a heavy camera is difficult to handle so there needs to be some sort of balance between those two.

A shit heavy cat on the shoulder is to strive for if you ask me

 

[Nick Gardner]

Bjorn, I totally agree with you, one of my favorite hand held cameras was the 35 BL with a 1000' mag. But there are limits.

Nick

 

[Hal Long]

Yeah, balancing that 10:1 will be next to impossible or impractical from a weight standpoint. I'd look into using an easyrig with a longer arm. The anchor point may take some work but that would be the simplest form.

 

[Matt W.]

To me hand held looks better the bigger and heavier camera you use. Especially really long camera rigs. But nodal point for the lens should still be somewhere around the cheek. The weight and the length of the rig improves the momentum a short lightweight camera get a totally different feel. Kind of difference between shooting cell phone and heavy old 65mm. But then of course a heavy camera is difficult to handle so there needs to be some sort of balance between those two.

A shit heavy cat on the shoulder is to strive for if you ask me

What do you lose by having a lens with its nodal point maybe 8" forward? I have a very front-heavy camera rig that I've counterbalanced with 8lbs of weight to balance it out, and it seems to be fairly steady now, but the lens is poking out pretty far.

What are the issues with a nodal point that's further forward than the center of gravity of the rig? More camera shake?

 

[Aaron Lochert]

What do you lose by having a lens with its nodal point maybe 8" forward? I have a very front-heavy camera rig that I've counterbalanced with 8lbs of weight to balance it out, and it seems to be fairly steady now, but the lens is poking out pretty far.

What are the issues with a nodal point that's further forward than the center of gravity of the rig? More camera shake?

Centering the no-parallax point on your shoulder means the only shake influence you have is in axis rotation and not axis translation. In other words, unintentional micro-pans/tilts from walking will not also have the unintended effect of a dolly or crane maneuver combined with it. It'll feel less bouncy.

 

[Matt W.]

Centering the no-parallax point on your shoulder means the only shake influence you have is in axis rotation and not axis translation. In other words, unintentional micro-pans/tilts from walking will not also have the unintended effect of a dolly or crane maneuver combined with it. It'll feel less bouncy.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense and is clearly articulated. How important is this? My camera feels a little floaty like the end of this sequence:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UozhOo0Dt4o

 

[Aaron Lochert]

How important is this? My camera feels a little floaty like the end of this sequence

I know it's a cop-out answer, but it's only important if it matters to your tastes/aesthetics.

I imagine it's not going to make a huge difference to the look on it's own, but it's one of many small things you can do to steady out your handheld look, the other important thing being mass, like Bjorn mentioned.

 

[Blair S. Paulsen]

IMO, balance is far more important than total weight.

Cheers - #19

 

[Chris Santucci]

IMO, balance is far more important than total weight.

This, all day long