Mounting Firestore FS-CV on Canon XL-H1

[Rob Bruijgoms]

Last week I purchased a Focus Firestore FS-CV 100GB (PAL) for my Canon XL-H1. With the FS-CV came a bracket from Focus (see picture 1).
As you can see in this picture (the bracket lies upside down), there is a u-shaped clamp at the bottom of the bracket. But...this u-clamp won't fit on the handle (where it's meant to be) of the XL-H1 (where the playback controls are)! It's just not wide enough to fit on it (pic no.2). Although it's just about 1,5 mm too tight, you need a hammer to get this thing round the handle...

I wanted to have things different anyway, so I asked my dad (Ad Bruijgoms) to help me make a clamp (pic no.3). I wanted to have my FS-CV mounted at the back of my XL-H1 to make a better weight distribution of the camera in total. On the bracket that comes with the XL-H1 (pic no.4), which is mounted on the shoulder support, I have placed my Canon CH-910 charger/holder. I wanted to have my FS-CV mounted above the CH-910. So my dad and I made a metal clamp (3mm thick, made of metal, corner shaped), which could hold the FS-CV. The clamp is mounted on the upper two screw holes of the XL-H1 bracket (pic no.5). The clamp is fitted high enough so the CH-910 can be unmounted (pic no. 6). We used the Focus bracket (without the unusable u-shaped clamp) to fit on our clamp. To have a solid mount, we used the two screw holes in the Focus bracket (which are there for the u-clamp), and drilled two holes in our clamp. Then we tapped a screw thread in these holes and screwed the Focus bracket on our clamp.

The total construction is placed just right from the middle of the camera (when looked at from behind, pic no.7). This is done to give it besides it's front/back weight distribution a good left/right spread as well.

A simple clamp gave me a better balanced camera and it just looks cool. Thanks dad!

PS1: The pictures are taken with a Canon Powershot S80. Due to it's wide angle, objects may look a little sheared);
PS2: This clamp is usable for an FS-5 as well (same size).

[Rob Cook]

Hey Rob,
Can you take a picture from the CU back and CU looking at the left side, can't really see the Firewire cable plugged in and how its routed very well. Thanks for posting.