BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

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Isaac Protiva

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BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue Feb 12, 2019 1:25 am



I hope this can give you guys some ideas with your rig builds

Cheers
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Ryan Humphrey

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue Feb 12, 2019 2:52 am

That looks really slick.
If it's not too much trouble would you mind linking to the actual pages for the smallrig parts? They have so many variations that I'm having trouble figuring out which base plate/dovetail and shoulder mount you have there. Specifically I can't figure what part has the mounting holes the v-lock plate is screwed onto.
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Isaac Protiva

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue Feb 12, 2019 3:05 am

The shoulder plate is SmallRig part number 1954, it comes with the dovetail and shoulder plate. https://www.smallrig.com/smallrig-vct-1 ... -1954.html
You can see the mounting holes I used on the main image there.
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Ryan Humphrey

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue Feb 12, 2019 3:10 am

Ah, that's where I was confused. They don't sell that Manfrotto 501 plate separately so I couldn't find any plates with mounting holes in their offerings. Thank you very much.
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Cooper

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue Feb 12, 2019 12:03 pm

I have been ordering lots of parts for 15mm shoulder rig aswell (smallrig and camvate mix) + what appears to be some manfrotto quick release plate type 15mm base for camera, seperated from shoulder pad, and some knockoff v mount plate (batteries have all the needed plugs). No cage or top handle for the moment. Hard figure out lenghts for hand grips etc before hand, probably need to get some extendable handles still..... long delivery times makes planning tedious +chinese spring holidays.

Now i should have parts coming to make rig where i can adjust the angle of the battery and remove 2/5 th lenght of the bottom rails, hopefully the rails parts are long enough.. yet to see how well articulating arms work for the 7 inch recording monitor and where/how i attach normal ssd. Oh and no matte box ....and hopefully it wont get too heavy and balances nicely.

btw doesn't the straight pointing handle show up in wide camera shots?
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Isaac Protiva

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue Feb 12, 2019 12:54 pm

I don't have any lenses wider than 17.5mm
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Denny Smith

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostWed Feb 13, 2019 12:55 am

Slick idea using the Smallrig shoulder plate setup.
If anyone is interested, I have anew Smallrig 1954 Shoulder plate kit with Manfrotto camera plate available, $140, PM me if interested.
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Denny Smith
SHA Productions
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Shawn Convey

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostMon May 27, 2019 6:11 pm

@ Isaac Protiva
What is the 3+ month user review of your setup... have you made any significant changes to your rig or found any pitfalls???

I am thinking of building a similar rig but also want to use an external monitor with an EVF viewfinder attachment (PortKeys LH5 HDR - 1500 nit + EVF Cage 501s) so I can use it like a more compact ENG or Aaton "cat on the shoulder" type config... similar to this:

Image

On top of needing the monitor to double as a viewfinder I also want to figure out how to mount the forthcoming ZOOM F6 to handle all the audio AND have the shoulder mount easily convert to a mono/tripod config keeping the audio on the same rig.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome!
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Brad Hurley

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostMon May 27, 2019 6:45 pm

Shawn Convey wrote:On top of needing the monitor to double as a viewfinder I also want to figure out how to mount the forthcoming ZOOM F6 to handle all the audio AND have the shoulder mount easily convert to a mono/tripod config keeping the audio on the same rig.


When you're using a tripod, the Zoom F6 will be no problem as it can either be mounted directly on the tripod head below the camera or on top of the camera. But with your shoulder rig I'm not sure. You might want to mount it on an arm attached to the camera cage. The F6 is compact but not tiny; check out Curtis Judd's recent video review on youtube to get a sense of its size in comparison to a tripod head or a person's hand.
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Shawn Convey

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostMon May 27, 2019 7:48 pm

Brad Hurley wrote:My solution for audio recording is to have a separate tripod with a small-but-great M/S microphone rig mounted on top (Sennheiser 8050 for the mid mic and Ambient Emesser for the side mic), which fits into a very small Rycote blimp for wind protection.


OK - So your audio solution is blowing my mind a bit as I have not seen anything like that in practice and now I have something that I need to talk to my audio buddy about next time I see him for beers... I am wondering if you happen to have (or could possibly take) a pic of your rig?

I am currently gearing up for a year long shooting trip in Sri Lanka (currently in Chicago) so I will not have the resources I am used to here and I need to get my rig configured and tested before leaving. I will be doing observational documentary filming and I too will be a one man band (but in jungles and in densely populated urban environments) and w/o the use of a car to work from. (most likely)

My thinking was a simple rig similar to what Issac here built, but about where he has his battery mounted I would mount the F6 (possibly on a small cheese plate mounted to the dovetail) and then possibly mount the battery next to that (also a v mount) but on a pinch, My hope is if I can get cables to tidy up I could run a camera mounted mic to the F6 + 1-2 Lav's (if need be) also to the ZOOM use the F6 out to mix into the BP4k and use the F6 TC to go into the 3.5 jack on the camera.

I am also looking for examples of a top/bottom rail system (like a rail box) that may also work well with a shoulder mount to attache the F6, Lav's and the Pinch from...

I am just in the beginning stages.
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rick.lang

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostMon May 27, 2019 10:05 pm

Shawn, you’re very brave! I’d hope to find a partner.


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Shawn Convey

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostMon May 27, 2019 10:32 pm

rick.lang wrote:Shawn, you’re very brave! I’d hope to find a partner.


My rig desires are brave or my move to Sri Lanka ;)
I have done a couple of doc's abroad already. For AMONG WOLVES, I lived in Bosnia Herzegovina for 6 years so this will be a short trip.. :D
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Brad Hurley

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue May 28, 2019 12:30 am

Shawn Convey wrote:
OK - So your audio solution is blowing my mind a bit as I have not seen anything like that in practice and now I have something that I need to talk to my audio buddy about next time I see him for beers... I am wondering if you happen to have (or could possibly take) a pic of your rig?


I actually deleted that part of my post as I thought it was off-topic, but since you're interested here are a couple of photos I took just now. It's a bit of a jury rig as the proper way to do this would be to use a Rycote stereo cyclone (which actually has a setup complete with connbox for a Sennheiser 8060 plus Ambient Emesser, but I wanted to use the 8050 instead since it's much smaller and more versatile (good for indoor interviews as well as outdoors although of course it's not a shotgun so doesn't have as much off-axis suppression. I have an 8060 but wanted the smallest M/S rig I could set up while getting high-quality audio so opted for setting this up with my 8050 instead. Cinela makes a blimp for my combination but since I already had this tiny Rycote blimp and didn't want to blow another thousand bucks on the Cinela I got everything to fit. It's a little tight, and without a connbox I have to be careful to avoid the cables making noise in windy situations but so far it has worked well.

The classic M/S rig for field recording is the Sennheiser MKH40 cardioid and the MKH30 figure 8, which would actually be your ideal setup for Sri Lanka as those mics don't mind high humidity environments, but that's going to be a bit bulkier and more expensive.

DSC02814.jpg
DSC02814.jpg (885.73 KiB) Viewed 3452 times


And here it is without the blimp. The Emesser clips on top of the Sennheiser. You do need a special 5-pin XLR connector for this, which was a bit of a trick to find (Sound Devices sell them).

DSC02811.jpg
DSC02811.jpg (636.48 KiB) Viewed 3450 times
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rick.lang

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BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue May 28, 2019 5:32 am

Shawn Convey wrote:My rig desires are brave or my move to Sri Lanka...


How you fare can depend upon
when you move and stay
where you are going from and to
more than
why you are here or there or
who you are or were and
what you mean to be.


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Shawn Convey

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue May 28, 2019 3:41 pm

Brad Hurley wrote:The classic M/S rig for field recording is the Sennheiser MKH40 cardioid and the MKH30 figure 8, which would actually be your ideal setup for Sri Lanka as those mics don't mind high humidity environments, but that's going to be a bit bulkier and more expensive.

Thanks so much for sharing that Brad! Very interesting you have given me a lot to think about for sure. Audio has always been my most troubling blind spot in my "one man band abroad" exploits... I keep on promising myself that once I have a bit of money I will actually take a week off from life and pay a local location sound guy to get me up to speed... but that has yet to happen.
rick.lang wrote: How you fare can depend upon
when you move and stay
where you are going from and to
more than
why you are here or there or
who you are or were and
what you mean to be

Very philosophical Rick... yep that is the beauty of it and in the past I have always emerged a better version of self than how I entered... I should point out that I will have plenty of safety nets as I will be traveling with my wife who is there on a Fulbright and we already have friends there so it is all pretty exciting.
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Brad Hurley

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostTue May 28, 2019 3:57 pm

Shawn Convey wrote:
Brad Hurley wrote:The classic M/S rig for field recording is the Sennheiser MKH40 cardioid and the MKH30 figure 8, which would actually be your ideal setup for Sri Lanka as those mics don't mind high humidity environments, but that's going to be a bit bulkier and more expensive.

Thanks so much for sharing that Brad! Very interesting you have given me a lot to think about for sure. Audio has always been my most troubling blind spot in my "one man band abroad" exploits... I keep on promising myself that once I have a bit of money I will actually take a week off from life and pay a local location sound guy to get me up to speed... but that has yet to happen.


I hear you. There are so many things to focus on when you're filming solo, and audio adds another layer. This is a big plus for the new Zoom F6 as you don't need to worry at all about setting levels. You can be confident that you won't get clipping even from extremely loud noises (explosions, thunderstorms overhead, whatever) and you won't get noise even if you have to boost extremely quiet sounds. It's magic...it means you can focus your attention on filming rather than glancing over at your audio recorder's meters all the time. I'll probably get one eventually.

I do think M/S (mid-side stereo) is a good solution for solo cinematographers as it provides total flexibility and can be adjusted to your taste in post: you can use it for mono interviews or stereo ambiance or any combination of the two. I'm sure the F6 has m/s recording and possibly even decoding capabilities; even the little F1 (which I don't recommend) does that.
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Richard Knight

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostWed May 29, 2019 1:13 pm

If you go the M/S audio route just be aware that a lot of figure of eight microphones, which are used for the 's' mic, are prone to handling noise, more than the 'm' shotgun mic.
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Shawn Convey

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostWed May 29, 2019 2:27 pm

Richard Knight wrote:If you go the M/S audio route just be aware that a lot of figure of eight microphones, which are used for the 's' mic, are prone to handling noise, more than the 'm' shotgun mic.

Good to know. Thanks!
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rick.lang

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Re: BMPCC 4K Rig Overview

PostThu May 30, 2019 4:39 am

Shawn, I am feeling more relieved than when I am bought you were on your own and I recommended a partner. In my experience I wife is a ‘partner.’ and having friends there is very important. All good!


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