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Small, balanced Shoulder Setup?

Sascha Rossier

Sascha Rossier

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Hej Guys
Has anybody pics of a small balanced Shoulder Setup?
Searching the forums i've seen a lot of DSLR-type Rigs, where the camera isn't balanced
well on the shoulder and the Rig is hugely front-heavy. Any balanced Solutions?

I've been testing with an Scarlet with GMB-160Wh on a QuickPlate, Followfocus and a smallHD DP4 EVF,
all on a cool JAG35 Shoulder pad (which i love) but ran into a few issues:

1. Followfocus Wheel is pretty close to the Nose/Face (which isn't a problem) but
2. Space gets thight when i try to mount the DP4 above the FF-Wheel
3. DP4 sometimes visible in frame when shooting on a Wide Lens
4. Mounting a handle is tricky when using right hand to hold camera and left hand to pull focus
 
I recently came across this:

http://vimeo.com/27561261

I haven't used it but I think the handle looks awesome and very stable. I like that it's all the way down by your hip. My thought is it gives you more control when you have your hand on the FF.
You'll probably need a bigger base plate though as this is made for a DSLR.

I'm sure it's not as good as the Red/OConnor/Zacuto rigs, but it's cheap and it's American made :-)
 
thanx Isak ... although this doesnt really look balanced ;-) the Recoil from zacuto doesn't look bad (http://store.zacuto.com/recoil-for-c300-scarlet-epic.html) but
with those two spider-legs i have my hands too far away from where all the controls are happening ... just not really run&gun ...
 
I'm using the Recoil Lite w/Redrock hand grips on the Zacuto plate rods. It's nice having them down there out of the way of your follow focus/matte box pathway. The camera balances rather nicely with the 160wh GMP batteries on the back and a lightweight/stills lens on the front. Shoulder pad is comfortable and the quick release function is rad.
 
I use a shortened Gini-rig. Almost all the camera weight is on my shoulder, almost none on my arms. I use it with the DP4 EVF.

REDGini.jpg


Clearly, there is no room for a FF as configured. However, I think I can make room by pulling the EVF back and the camera forward, and still have a reasonably well-balanced rig. I also need a more "standard" baseplate for this, which will be lower and more stable.

In any case, I rolled on three scenes with this last week, two of which I had to sit and stand repeatedly while rolling and it worked well. I find that it's not my arms that need strength (at least not with this rig), it's my abdominal muscles which, at this point, are abominable.

I never saw the monitor in frame but with the Tokina 11-16 my hand crept in a couple of times while trying to find focus. I think I could probably live without a FF for this type of setup.
 
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Cannot wait for that wooden camera quick back mounting plate... Go from shoulder to battery back on camera in seconds... Genius.
 
There is one setup that is very much in balance. To me you should pretty much be able to let go of both hands and still be in balance. These cameras are to heavy to have on a from weighted rig. they are also way to heavy to have front mounted and then use counter weights. IF your camera ends up on around 10 kilos with all perfinalias then you do not want to add another ten as counterweight.
Also you do not want to have the focus wheel right in your nose / ear like Patrick has it. so to me the FF needs to go on the side handle side of the camera. And to do so you need a quite big FF so it sticks out pass the side handle. To me O'connor CFF-1 and the arri FF4 and such are the only once that actually fit.

The other solution is to run without FF like showed in this setup where the client wanted a POV cam with DOP's hand in picture...

http://www.syndicate.se/Files/~usr/film/EPIC POV-CAM.mov

And here is a balanced epic with a 180mm Master prime. This was before we got the quad with balance out the camera even in a bit further forward position.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...0210701128043.327323.543523042&type=1&theater

The quad atcuallt makes the camera more balanced when just using side handle and top handle. the longer body makes the camera move much nicer if held in front of you like a rifle. I think that is superb for short takes like when shooting short commercial handheld quick takes or such. would not work for a long time though:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150616501098043&set=a.10150210
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...0210701128043.327323.543523042&type=1&theater
 
Björn Benckert said:
Also you do not want to have the focus wheel right in your nose / ear like Patrick has it. s
Click to expand...

In both setups, I do myself the focus. They weight about 7 to 9 kg. They are not perfectly balanced and both need a clutch type "chest mount" to put the pressure on the chest instead of the arms.

The brain is so small that in fact the camera is essentially glass, ff, matte box and power.

It is impossible to have it balanced on a shoulder and still have a view in an EVF or LCD, as we would be in picture on wide lenses ;-) without pushing the camera in front of the shoulder/head.
The solution is to put a shoulder pad (I usually use one from action product) between the head and the "tail" : batteries, outputs, HF transmitter...
AND use an home made "chest mount", so the "tail" of the camera doesn't have to be too counterbalanced.


Now the question is what tail could we bring on the maket (make one?) that put the camera like a cat on the shoulder?
We used to have 16/35mm roll and tape recording mechanism that had this particular purpose.

The problem is not only counterweight to balance it but also lower the center of gravity of the rig to have it well positioned on the shoulder. It's not nice to have a Pisa tower on your shoulder...

Until today all my shoulder mounts are some puzzles of different kind.

I would love to see something light, small, easy to transform without being a Transformer monster.

Pat
 

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