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Using a film camera without a video tap on a steadicam


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Hey all,

I've been doing a lot of 16mm stuff lately with my K3 and I really wanted to try it on a steadicam. While its light enough that balancing isn't too much trouble there is one issue that's preventing me from trying it, it doesn't have a video tap so I can't run it to a monitor & obviously I can't look through the viewfinder when its on the rig.

I guess this would apply to any camera without a video tap like a bolex or older arriflex. So has anyone tried this on a camera like this? What was the solution?

Do you stick a small camera in the viewfinder? if so what kind of camera works best?

Do you stick a camera on the top or side and approximate framing?

Something else?

Thanks

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Hi Jake, I don't know if this is helpful but there is a cinematographer on YouTube called Lewis Potts who shows in one of his videos how he uses his phone, taped over the eyepiece of his Bolex. He uses the phone camera as a type of video tap.

If you don't mind me chiming in on this topic: If anyone can help with advice, I also have a question related to video tap.

If you have the older style of video tap, that was later added to the viewfinder system of, say, an Arri SR, in a conversion, does the video tap make the SR optical viewfinder significantly darker? If the video tap is taken off and the attachment point plugged, does this then render the viewfinder just as bright as it would have been without the video tap being attached?

 

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11 hours ago, Jon O'Brien said:

If you have the older style of video tap, that was later added to the viewfinder system of, say, an Arri SR, in a conversion, does the video tap make the SR optical viewfinder significantly darker? If the video tap is taken off and the attachment point plugged, does this then render the viewfinder just as bright as it would have been without the video tap being attached?

 

with video taps one has a beamsplitter prism (most cameras) or a pellicle (for example Aatons) which directs some of the viewfinder light to the video tap. Removing the tap itself and plugging the hole does not affect the beamsplitter so it does not make the viewfinder brighter. With some cameras, one can move the beamsplitter out of the way (for example the Aatons) to get full brightness to the optical finder. With most other cameras this is not possible and one would need to change the viewfinder optics to remove the beamsplitter out of the light path if wanting to get more light to the finder

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