Adam Paul Posted January 19, 2007 Share Posted January 19, 2007 I saw a picture of one of those heads and it looks like a sort of mini geared head. It seems to have gears for operation. What are they used for? I wonder if it's a good head to convert to a geared head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Paul Posted January 20, 2007 Author Share Posted January 20, 2007 Is it that stupid of a question? :( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dzyak Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 A "lock off" head is really any head that you just use to frame the shot up and lock it off. At least as far as I know, there is no such thing as a dedicated "Lock off head" except maybe for some crappy old Cartoni. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 21, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted January 21, 2007 I have no idea what you're talking about either, Adam. Heads are usually either friction heads, fluid heads, or geared heads. You'll need to show us a picture of what you saw. "Lock-off" just means to lock-off the tilt and pan fuction of the head for a static frame. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dzyak Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Otherwise known as the "Gaffer-head." :P Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Paul Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 (edited) Ok. I found this picture and the description said just ?lock off head?. http://www.3dg.de/7M9Kg It doesn't look to be a fluid head. Looks more like a geared head, but it has no gears :lol: I couldn't manage to post a picture so I hope the link works. Edited January 21, 2007 by Adam Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 21, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted January 21, 2007 I couldn't manage to post a picture so I hope the link works. The link didn't work for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Dzyak Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Ok. I found this picture and the description said just ?lock off head?. http://www.3dg.de/7M9Kg It doesn't look to be a fluid head. Looks more like a geared head, but it has no gears :lol: I couldn't manage to post a picture so I hope the link works. It looks more like a tilt-plate with a panhandle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Bowerbank Posted January 23, 2007 Share Posted January 23, 2007 Looks more like a geared head, but it has no gears :lol: Ha ha...rrrrrriiiight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Paul Posted January 28, 2007 Author Share Posted January 28, 2007 I hope the picture shows this time. It doesn't look like a tilt plate as you can clearly see it also pans. Maybe it's just a friction head? Not sure why they called it a lock off head though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Drysdale Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 (edited) Looking at the picture it's what you'd use when you just want to "lock off" the camera on say a car mount. It's not intended that you'd pan or tilt with the camera on the head. It's got a low profile, so it would be ideal for use on cars etc, when you want to keep the camera as close as possible to the actor's eye line. People commonly just lock off their normal heads for these types of shots, but with bowls etc., these can be quite high, so compromising your shot on some camera rig set ups. This head would be a lot cheaper than a normal head. However, I wouldn't consider modifying it to a gear head, although in the past you could get your Arri friction head modified to a fluid head Edited January 28, 2007 by Brian Drysdale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member David Mullen ASC Posted January 28, 2007 Premium Member Share Posted January 28, 2007 Yes, it looks like something for a car mount to me, or perhaps something for dutch angles. It would be stretching to call that a "tripod head" versus a camera mounting device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Onno Perdijk Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 This is what some manufacturers call a rockerplate (e.g. MovieTech.de) It is commonly used for lowangle shots without the need for a Ronfordf7 or other type of underslung-head. You could use it on car-rigs as well as in underwater circumstances. You can pan and tilt with this heads but they are defenitly not fluids! Rebuilding it to a geared head could be not this cost effective... Good Luck, Onno Perdijk Solid Grip Systems Amsterdam Netherlands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Paul Posted January 28, 2007 Author Share Posted January 28, 2007 (edited) It seems to me a rocker plate would be slightly different. More like a tilt plate, like this: But the other head seems to tilt and pan. I was thinking if you could put some gear drives underneath to drive the pan and tilt and connect them to driver wheels on the sides, it could work as a geared head. Most likely only one speed and for sure not as good as a real geared had but I think this could be done for much cheaper than the price of an used geared head which is in the 3-4k range. This head seems to have the right shape and the right space for the conversion. Edited January 28, 2007 by Adam Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Drysdale Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 (edited) The lock off head looks a lot smaller than a gear head and the arc on a gear head the tilt section is shallower than the head you've illustrated. Not having costed it, but from past experience from getting off one components manufactured in a machine shop I suspect it would cost you a lot more than buying a used gear head to modify this. Edited January 28, 2007 by Brian Drysdale Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Paul Posted January 29, 2007 Author Share Posted January 29, 2007 (edited) Yeah, you may be right. It may be actually cheaper to just make the whole thing from scratch. A simple geared head shouldn't be that hard to machine. Specially that you can find the gears ready to purchase. By the way, is the arc of the tilt gear that important? If instead of the shallow type of geared heads there was a more steep one like a half circle, how would it impact usability? Edited January 29, 2007 by Adam Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Drysdale Posted January 29, 2007 Share Posted January 29, 2007 Unless you're an engineering student looking for a project I wouldn't bother. There's quite a lot of precision machining and given how much fussing there is over the flaws of the manufactured gear heads, you'll be into quite a lot of trial and error with prototypes before you'd be happy. Off the top of my head, I think the deeper arc would the same as pushing a car up a steeper hill. You could also find the tilt could override the gears, so you couldn't leave the tilt wheel unlocked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Paul Posted January 31, 2007 Author Share Posted January 31, 2007 Yeah, after some thought I gave up on the whole idea. Seems like too much work after all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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