Pics of the F3 on a handheld rig

[Thierry Humeau]

Originally Posted by Andrew Stone

snip.....On Thierry's, the arms are by far the most ergonomically placed. Don't believe me. Thrust your your arms with your hands slightly curled but in a relaxed position. See how your hands are canted? The only problem with Theirry's is length and I have this problem with mine, the Zacuto Z-grips (which I wouldn't recommends in light of these ones). WIth longer ones, you are at an advantage when the rig is on your shoulder but when you go to put it down between takes, unless you have a box or a table to put it on with the end hanging over the end, you have the rig resting on the handles and the heel of the rig. The torque on certain parts of the rig is going to make you wince.

Shoulder pads. It is hard to see what some of you have going on. I have the Zacuto pad with the Z-riser. It's passable but absurdly expensive for what it is. I still laugh 2 years later when I look at the Zacuto shoulder pad knowing what I paid for it. I picked up a GENUS shoulder pad on seeing Andy Shipsides demo it with an AF-100 rig but didn't know the pad would come without the rails attachment piece. The Genus shoulder pad is simple but amazing. I am sure Alister will attest to it. Not sure though if the Genus rig has the ability to get the pad under the camera, if need be.

The Vocas handles can move vertically into their brace so if you slide them all the way up, they become quite short, I'd say about 17cm (7"). I agree with the shoulder pad positioning, eventually, once a good EVF comes to market (neither Zacuto's or Cineroid's have thrilled me yet....), for proper balancing, the shoulder pad should sit under the camera's body or very close. Here is a low cost and versatile shoulder pad, made in India... that will fit any standard 15mm rails. I just received mine today and for 39 bucks, no complain.

(Sh.P) 15mm Shoulder Pad for 15mm DSL RIG shoulder mount rail system

Thierry.

[Andrew Stone]

Hilarious, that shoulder pad from India is a knock off of the Zacuto one.

Here's the Zacuto one for $250:

Shoulder Mounting Equipment - Zacuto

and here's the Q-Release for $175 that allows you to place the pad under the camera:

Q-Release - Zacuto

[Thierry Humeau]

Yeah but you get two 7" rails with the Zacuto DeLuxe pad, that has got to worth a lot of money...

Q-Release is smart but along wiht the pad, it seems to raise the camera quite a bit over the shoulder. Not sure I understand how the quick release works, I only see one tightening knob on each side of the Q-Release.

I am eagerly waiting for Redrockmicro's MicroEVF, the most promising EVF I see coming to market but will they ever deliver it? That is the question. Looks great on paper though.

Thierry.

[Iker Riera]

Originally Posted by Thierry Humeau

The Vocas handles can move vertically into their brace so if you slide them all the way up, they become quite short, I'd say about 17cm (7"). I agree with the shoulder pad positioning, eventually, once a good EVF comes to market (neither Zacuto's or Cineroid's have thrilled me yet....), for proper balancing, the shoulder pad should sit under the camera's body or very close. Here is a low cost and versatile shoulder pad, made in India... that will fit any standard 15mm rails. I just received mine today and for 39 bucks, no complain.

(Sh.P) 15mm Shoulder Pad for 15mm DSL RIG shoulder mount rail system

Thierry.

does it just slide tightly into the rails or does it have any way to tighten it?

[Thierry Humeau]

The pad fits snuggly onto the rails and holds by itself well.

Thierry.

[Andrew Stone]

Originally Posted by Thierry Humeau

Q-Release is smart but along wiht the pad, it seems to raise the camera quite a bit over the shoulder. Not sure I understand how the quick release works, I only see one tightening knob on each side of the Q-Release.

The silver paddles on the Q-Relase under the knobs tighten against the rods. It does form a secure grip that will hold a 25 pound package. On the other side of the Q-Release block are 15mm threaded holes for the 7" threaded Zacuto rods. So if someone were to get the Cine CIty Pad from India and the Q-Release, one would also have to get the Zacuto 7" rods found here:

7-inch rod extensions - Zacuto

[Alister Chapman]

The Genus shoulder pad will slide under the rear of the camera. They have a new wider pad that would be more appropriate for the F3 than the DSLR one I have used on my rig. Under the bottom of the whole lot I have a Genus GAP plate which allows me to use a Sony VCT-14 quick release plate.

[Guy Jackson]

Nice Rig Aaron,
How are you using that Redrock Follow focus? which size Gear or is it another brand.
i actually think weight is good, it's all about distribution.
my only worry about the Zacuto EVF is that the HDMI does not work when you shoot 24 fps if you are using the HD-SDI
i guess you can loop trough the cinedeck..

[Aaron Newsome]

Originally Posted by Guy Jackson

Nice Rig Aaron,
How are you using that Redrock Follow focus? which size Gear or is it another brand.
i actually think weight is good, it's all about distribution.
my only worry about the Zacuto EVF is that the HDMI does not work when you shoot 24 fps if you are using the HD-SDI
i guess you can loop trough the cinedeck..

There's two gears I got with my redrock follow focus. The eng gear works with my Fujinon and Canon ENG lens. The cine gear works with Zeiss and my Sony kit lenses just fine. Haven't tried any other lenses.

[Scott Lovejoy]

Attached a picture of the rig I built for a student who needed hand held and the Ki Pro Mini, using available parts from our Red Rock DSLR rigs.

The weight is pretty even with the CP.2 on the front, and the shoulder pad moves forward when you take it off of the tripod. The position of the Ki Pro is different than in this picture, but in reality it just showed us that having a better mount makes more sense. Really, just ignore the Ki Pro + Cheese on the back there, it's certainly not how I would have done it if I had the ability to purchase some of the solutions.

[Ron Aerts]

I struggled with the shoulder rig as well. with 'medium budget' and continues altering I came up with this vocas rig. Tried to keep it as light as possible and efficient on batteries. This rig runs 3 hours on the cams BU060 and a IDX Endura 7s and charging takes less time then draining.
I use a Marshall 7" monitor and the cineroid (notice the rubber band around it). Due to its weight I prefer the cineroid. Hence, most of the time I use the peaking function and as you see I use the IDX camwave wireless for the director. He gets a clear, uncompressed picture on another 7" Marshall in a comfortable handheld receiver set.
In sunlight nore the marshall or the cineroid works ok. I'm forced to use the viewfinders eyepiece but then you have the problem to keep it in places and (as this is a unique photo me not sweating) you get condens on your glass. Luckely with the peaking at the max, most of the time I come home with the right thing in focus...
I changed the shoulderpad filling from it's original rubberpad to soft foam because the rubber kills skin over bone on your shoulder and you get less sweating. The battery plate on the back with the transmitter and nanoflash as counterweight makes the cam less frontheavy. The grips are close to the body to conveniance in longer runs. grips far from the body is a killer. I have the left handle horizontal to run the starknob at the followfocus. There is just enough room to move the mattebox forward and change the lens. These Zeiss compact primes are great. With bigger lensesn it takes you more time to changes, cause you have to remove the VFarm. It has to be there otherwise it is in the way for iris and focus.

[Brian Drysdale]

Here's the ET rig:

Element Technica F3 Riser & Shoulder Pad Kit | CineTechnica

[Chong Pak]

did a job with red zooms and the ET Mantis, great handheld device!
got pretty heavy towards the end of the day, 2- 5.6 tvlogic monitors, bartech wireless focus, Oconnor Obox,swit96 battery and red plate with anton bauer battery.

[Henry Epstein]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

Here's the ET rig:

Element Technica F3 Riser & Shoulder Pad Kit | CineTechnica

There is un update by Mitch Gross from Abel CineTech.

F3 Solutions: ET F3 Riser Mounting Options | CineTechnica

[Christoph Gelfand]

As a test, I mounted the F3 (along with a Zacuto mini-baseplate) on the EXMount which I love for my EX3.
These are just quick demos, and it does elevate the camera a bit higher than one might like, but without the baseplate, the camera seats perfectly onto the mount (which snaps directly into a VCT-14 plate on the bottom) and gives a tidy handheld rig, minus any bells and whistles like a mattebox and follow focus. In this configuration, if you needed an external recorder, monitor etc- one could use the Berkey top plate...