Blackmagic Forum

So I've got a jury-rigged shoulder setup, which consists of two long 15mm rods, a baseplate, shoulder pad, and an arm/handle. Also on the rails is my follow focus and tilta boom arm holding my SmallHD FOCUS monitor.

My problem arises when I try and center the camera's weight over my shoulder, because then I have the HDMI cord and (when the cable is released) power wire poking me in the face. I can make it work if I slide the camera forward, but then that puts more strain on my arms as my body is not helping to support the weight.

Any workarounds on this? I suppose a right-angle HDMI adapter could be attached, but I'm not so sure that a right angle 2-pin power connector will exist, at least not any time soon. I would prefer to use the 2-pin for power as opposed to a dummy battery.

Dean, care to provide a detailed shot of your rig and perhaps one on your shoulder?


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Ray, the matte box with filters looks like it might be heavy if it’s not carbon fibre. If you push the heaviest battery to the end of longer rear rails, you may be balanced. If you ditch the matte box and use screw on filters, you could be balanced, but not likely if you think you’ll be able to use the camera’s rear monitor. Doing that puts the camera too far forward. I’d add counterweights to the rear rails, perhaps a kilogram will do it.

The total weight on your shoulder is not as important as your need to balance it on your shoulder without using your hands. After seeing Marco Solorio shoulder mount his camera years ago, I managed that stunt with the URSA Mini 4.6K with BM Viewfinder and the big a Cinegears 250Wh battery and the very light Bright Tangerine Misfit Atom. Oh, and I used a bag of rice and hand weights as a counterweight hanging from the battery plate!


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rick.lang wrote:Dean, care to provide a detailed shot of your rig and perhaps one on your shoulder?


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Logic says I should've posted a picture originally, eh? I've just loaned my camera for the weekend, so of course I can't snap one with the BMPCC4K on it, but I'll post a shot of the shoulder setup a bit later today.

Ray, that is a nice looking rig for use on a tripod and som hand holding, when well braced. But for a shoulder rig, all that is missing is the shoulder pad and a EVF.
Cheers

Ray, good news about the matte box. Remember for shoulder mounting, you want it to balance regardless of the weight even if you need to add a counterbalance, unless it’s only on your shoulder briefly. Good luck.


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Ray, that shoulder pad is the camvate, yes? How do you like it?

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Great, thanks. I'll be going with mostly Camvate for my shoulder rig.

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rick.lang wrote:Dean, care to provide a detailed shot of your rig and perhaps one on your shoulder?


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My P4K and lenses are not here at the moment, but I've approximated with the old pocket camera. This is where I'd like the camera to sit, and you can see that any connections would be poking me in the face. Is it just a matter of sliding the camera forward and adding weight to the back? I've had a weighted rig before, and I don't think it really helps unless you can let go of the handles and it stays somewhat balanced on your shoulder as you mentioned before, Rick. In this case I feel like I'd need to add rails at the rear and really have the weight protruding far behind me.

Of course, an EasyRig would solve the front loaded problem but that's just another expense and impractical for throwing it on/off the shoulder.

Dean, I love the big fork. You have the camera back well so it depends on the lenses you have in front. It should balance fairly well easily unless you use a large zoom. A Kg of weight or so may do it. The major issue is plugging anything into the ports on the side of the BMPCC4K. Are you sure you have the right camera? Maybe next year when they do that $3,999 camera we are talking about in another thread, you’ll use that one for your shoulder-mounted camera! You’ll have lots of time trying with the BMPCCK before then.


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