Transcript

This is the module for building the handheld rig.

So, starting with the basic layout of the camera that we’ve kind of gone through, we’re gonna go and attach the hand grip and the shoulder brace and also the LCDs.

Hand grip and shoulder brace

So, you got your hand grip and you got your shoulder brace. The shoulder brace has to fit in a certain way in order to fit it into this case, so once you get it out you’re going to want to adjust it to your body shape. But the first thing is to get the shoulder brace into the camera itself. It’s really simple. There’s an existing rig plate that’s already built into the camera and it just stays on the camera and we will slide these rods into this.

I noticed working with this that the left rod on this particular rig is really tight. Really really tight, actually; very, very difficult to get in. So, you want to make sure that this is loose, this little nut right there. And we’ll slide it in. There you go. And unfortunately whoever designed this did not design it for fat fingers because I can’t tighten it; my fingers are too big to get in there. Which is to me a major design flaw, because how do I get it? Maybe – there – okay, I just was able to get it out and now I can tighten it.

We’ll discuss this area here, but there’s really no reason that I can think of to get these out a little further except for one instance which we may get to. But for now, I’m just going to rig it up like that. Make sure it’s tight there. Make sure that this knob is also tightened. And now we’re in securely and I will put on the handheld grip.

There we go. And I’m gonna slide this forward just a little bit, so I can put the hand grip on – I didn’t have room for the hand grip – so we’re gonna go ahead and put the hand grip on here. Again, you want to make sure that this screw is loose. Now, I want to tighten that screw down. I’m going the wrong way, I guess. Oh boy, it’s getting hot in here! Okay, now we tighten that down, nice and tight. And I’m gonna go ahead and just test it out.

Okay, it’s pretty compact. I’m not gonna stand up, cuz you’ll cut my head off, keeping the elbows in really tight, but’s totally up to you. If you want to adjust these, this is really cool, these big red knobs here, you just push it in and you can adjust them, which is very handy. And so depending on how you want to do it you have that adjustment. There’s a couple of other adjustments here. Obviously, you can loosen this and move it back. And you can loosen this and make a wider shoulder thing; you might want to put a towel under your shoulder. But this is pretty soft. It’s actually got good padding.

Rigging the LCD

Now, we got to get to how we rig up the LCD. You can see that I’ve left it built from the previous modules and I kind of adjusted this a little bit. This actually works pretty well but I have to kind of look up. Ideally, I would want it right here. In order to do that I’ve got a couple of choices here. I can move this piece over – and actually when I originally got this camera opened it was over here on this side – but there’s this little wooden camera piece here, a little attachment. Let’s loosen this. Alright. Be careful with the cables.

Right here we’ve got this little implement here that allows you to attach things to the camera. I’m gonna go ahead and unscrew it. And the reason why is because I can’t get that monitor any further around than what I showed you just a second ago. So, I’m gonna bring it over here, attach it to this side. I know you can’t see me but it’s basically just a screw hole with a screw. Very straightforward. Get it nice and tight. And then what I’m gonna do is I’m going to take this and attach it to this side. You may actually want to do this without all this the cables attached, because it gives you more freedom of movement. But I’m gonna go ahead and do that, get that tightened down And I can rotate these around and you know probably right there for me works pretty good.

In the normal kind of mode I would probably want to get rid of some of this cabling – or at least tidy it up, not get rid of it, but tidy it up, so that I don’t get snagged by any cabling. So, I’m gonna gently put this in here. And then let that get put back in there. There we go.

And this cable, which is the power cable – you remember – the power cable I’m also gonna sneak through here, just to get it out of the way so that I’m being careful with it. You don’t want to pull it too tight. Keep it loose, but the idea is to keep it out of your grabbing range so that you won’t accidentally grab it in. So I’m gonna go ahead and do that. As long as you’re not tightening it too hard, the cable’s gonna be fine. I’m gonna reattach it and I’m pretty happy with that. Close that back up.

So, that kind of streamlines it. I’ve got the monitor up. Go ahead and turn the camera on. And I actually have the lens cap on; let me take the lens cap off.

I may want to make little minor adjustments, but that works really well. I might lower it a little bit. I could under-sling this arm; flip the arm around and under-sling it so it comes down, sits more right here. But for this purpose, you know, it works.

What I like about these is they’re lighter. These are pretty heavy and with the articulating arm, this, the power supply, and all that stuff, it adds a lot of weight. If I’m doing a lot of handheld, I might consider rigging this one.

You’ve got this one with the hole that looks like it would fit the pipe for the 15-inch. And then you have this one which is a screw that attaches to these areas here on the camera. Let me show you. This one is pretty straightforward to put on. In order to put this one on you got to take this off, so I’m gonna go ahead and do that.

And actually before I do that, I’m just gonna undo all this cabling that I just rigged up nicely.

Again, being very careful with these cables – yes I am looping them and stuff, but I’m not pulling them taut, I’m treating them gingerly. Take this whole thing off. This thing has got some weight to it compared to the Panasonic’s. So, you take that off. Okay, you kind of stripped it down, but I still have this little holder. I’ve got to switch it over to this side if I want to put the monitor.

Okay, now you can see that it’s made this area available. You can see the two different ones: you’ve got this one which has got the screw and then you’ve got this one which is really more for fitting a 15 millimeter rod in there. But let’s go ahead and attach this.

I can tighten that down real good. Okay. Open it up. Have my little power cable here. Gonna do the same thing I did with the other power cable and kind of snake it through. If you remember, it goes in right there. And so you could, if you wanted to, you could snake this a little bit, get it out of the way. Up to you how you like to work. But there you go. There you have the kind of slightly lighter version.

I’m just gonna really lower it down like that. Okay, and then I’m going to use this piece – I know it’s hard for you all to see – but there’s a screw here on this one. It’s gonna rotate up. Now I’ve got a little better. Oh yeah, I’m liking that a lot.

That is easy if you have this version. For the other version, I’m gonna send this guy all the way through, way out there. I’m gonna make sure we tighten it down. I’m gonna make sure that this is tight. You want to make sure that your rod here is not going all the way out and make sure it still has enough to bite on.

So, the idea here is to maybe use this rig. So, this one is a little different. It’s got the hole instead of the screw knob. So, let’s see if we can get that to work…

Yeah, it’s not really tightening down.

That’s a bit of a problem.

Okay… that is a bit of a problem.

Well, at least I have a screen!

Let me see if I actually see myself, which I probably do. Again, like I said, I did not try this before I started this one. It’s a little more complicated than I thought it would be. Yeah, so this may even be too short to do this. Okay, so I come up through here. No. No. I can’t get that in there.

Okay, that doesn’t work.

So, if you have this version of the LCD without a whole other assembly up here, which we don’t have, you won’t be able to use this monitor. You’ll have to go with the LCD here. This one is nicer. It is a little heavier, and it’s not that much heavier, but it is nice, because you have a little bit more flexibility with the adjustments. But this is not gonna work. Sorry I’m taking you down that rabbit hole, but tried it on-camera, does not work, that one with the hole in it. This one however works like a charm.

And that is the rig. I would move this back a little bit if I wanted to. And pretty straightforward, pretty cool. And it allows you to do some nice handheld work.