Johnathan Holmes

I recently operated on a shoot that was 90% handheld with the SR3. We had Cooke lenses and an MB-18, making the setup very front-heavy. Even with the S-3 Shoulder Set (which is an absolute must for going predominantly handheld), the camera was still terribly unbalanced making it very difficult to hold a steady frame or move with an actor. The eyepiece as well is poorly designed and comes a little too short of where it should, causing the operator to have to strain forwards to keep an eye over the eyepiece. I suppose one advantage I can see that the Elaine has over the SR3 is the ability to rear-load the magazines to allow better balance. But aside from that, it's far too old and complicated of a camera for what it is. And having seen the condition the student package ships out in, I would say without a doubt go for an SR3, though I'm not sure Panavision offers them as part of their student package. Still, they are fairly popular cameras and you will probably easily find one for fairly cheap at any rental house. Some things to definitely consider for a predominantly handheld shoot: lightweight matte box and follow focus (like an FF-4 and clip-on), and a wireless transmitter like a Modulus 3000 or CanaTrans to a shark-fin diversity tuner. This makes moving around a lot easier, not having to deal with wrangling BNC. As well, a whip has worked fine for me, but if there is an excessive amount of running or complicated movement, you may want to look into a wireless focus setup, like a BarTech or C-Motion.