help setting up panasonic hvx 200 for handhed

Iga Mikler · June 5, 2007

hey there!

i am trying to prepp for a shoot i have in two weeks. But as the rental company only lets people come prepp the day before the shoot, i feel uncomfortable to leave my theories to last minute.

My thought is to use the panasonic hvx 200 with the P+S adapter and the 35mm lenses and mattbox- heavy lifting if you cant rest it on the shoulder and not the same camera flow I am looking for, so my idea is to put the body on my shoulder, but doing so i cant get access to the viewfinder or lcd screen, so i was thinking of using an external small monitor that i would somehow attach to the camera. then is the issue of the rods that come with the P+S adapter in the bottom, not that comfortable on your shoulder, so would like to pad that somewhat- suggestions?

and lastly i would like to use two sticks in the front, to hold the camera with, but am worried how all of that will attach together. if anyone has prepped this camera in a similar way, please give me advice- Also to be added i am a small girl, so for any grown man it might not make a difference to put the hole construcktion on some kind of shoulder pad and have the hole weight in the front, but for me i dont think that is the way i want to go.

thanks,

iga

Alexander pueringer · June 6, 2007

Hello Iga!

I?ve once had to prepare a similar package for a DOP on a very low to no-budget project - so i was improvising hard to even get it somehow working. I have to say that?s surly not the way it?s supposed to be, but caused by the fact that I wasn?t told that there?ll be need for handheld, I wasn?t prepared. Nevertheless it worked somehow.

So what I did:

1.) For some reason we had the two handgrips that are available for the mini35, so that was no issue.

2.) As a monitor we used the HVX-built in monitor and I had to extend the rods for a better viewing position. Don?t blame me, I just used what was on location to do so. So finally we had a hammer strapped to the rods wrapped in black cloth (for comfort).

3.) Nevertheless the biggest issue was to balance the package, because it?s very very front heavy. Again, I have to confess I didn?t really solve this problem in a convenient way.... I just gripped some magic arm to the back end of the rods and let it hang down the operators back...

By now I found out that a other possible solution would be to attach a LCD monitor with a small magic arm to the top of the camera (see Picture), or instead of the left handgrip, for a better viewing position. But that would´nt help balance.

Recently heard rumours about a kind of breakout box available for the hvx. It´s said to be mounted on the back of the camera, equipped with some sort of big battery (Anton Bauer sort of thing) and provides power for the adapter, the camera and a monitor if needed. I think that could improve the balance of this combination immediately.

If you find out some pro solutions, please let me know.

Greetings,

Alex

P.S here?s one picture of my funny rig with DOP Rainer Fritz holding it...(still front heavy, but less ;) )

Alexander pueringer · June 6, 2007

Hello again!

After searching the web, I found the solution to all the problems on the p&s technik site.

http://www.pstechnik.de/en/digitalfilm-mini35.php

Here you can buy a breakout box and mini35 shoulder set....now you just have to find a rental house that provides all that extra mini35 equippment..

greetings alex

Alex Haspel · June 10, 2007

strangely i was thinking about the same glorious gig as i read the topic title..

don`t forget to thank the friendly grip department for borrowing you a magic arm ;)

oh, and script girl looks really pretty here.

Edited June 10, 2007 by Alex Haspel

June 17, 2007

Also check out the red rails from Zacuto in Chicago.

Heres their website http://www.zacuto.com/

June 17, 2007

And here is a link specifically to their system with a 35 adapter attached (happens to be the Redrock m2)

http://www.zacuto.com/redrock.htm

Edited June 17, 2007 by Paul Wizikowski

Alex Haspel · June 17, 2007

i think i found a better picture of our fantastic rig..

(my photoshop skills (or skillz, as i dare to say) are simply out of this world!)

July 16, 2007

i think i found a better picture of our fantastic rig..

(my photoshop skills (or skillz, as i dare to say) are simply out of this world!)

alex I think you are now ready to work in postproduction as well.... your skills are amazing...

David Auner aac · July 24, 2007

Wow, now this is amazing! Must be a nest of guys living in Vienna somewhere! We could almost do a cinematography.com user meeting :D

Cheers, Dave

Dror Dayan · July 24, 2007

Hey,

On a shoot a couple of months ago we used an a shoulder system from P&S with HVX200 and P&S, and a Sony viewfinder because you really can´t use the LCD or the HVX Viewfinder with this rig. the only problem was that the viewfinder shuts out the composite-out cabel, so you can´t get pure HD signal to your Director´s monitor. but the rig worked perfectly, I had it on my shoulders for a whole week. we attached NP1 batteries to the shoulder System to power up the Adaptor. I´m attaching a picture of the whole system, supported by the "Easy-Rig", another nice supplement for hand camera.

I hope that helps and all the best,

dror