OT: camera brace
 

Just ran across this and thought it might be of some interest to the members hera on this forum:

www.spiderbrace.com

I just ordered one, for $75 it looked like a pretty decent accessory for my PD150.

John

John,

How do you like the SpiderBrace?

Whch model did you order?

I guess John has left the building, so I'll chime in and say I ordered the Spider Brace 2 for my PD150, and I think it's great for modest price. I don't know what you can get that will be any better for a lot more money. I loaned it to a friend who was shooting a sitcom series for the FX channel with a DVX100. The production bought the two operators DV Rig Pros, which were quickly abandoned. When my friend tried out the Spider Brace, it took me a week to get it back from him with some arm twisting.

It's made out of pvc pipe and other plastic material, which means it weighs nothing. The foam padding is fine, but you may want to trim some off to add a zoom controller. The unit comes with a good shooting tips sheet, and here's my free advice: try placing the back end of the shoulder brace in your armpit, and squeeze a bit to hold in place. Great for getting slightly lower angle shots.

This is the best money you can spend to improve your shooting. Go for it.

Wayne Orr, SOC

Wondering what they didn't like about the DV Rig
Pros?

The short answer, Dave, is that they immediately dumped the ab support, and that left them with a device that they felt was too heavy for a light weight camera. One operator opted for a monopod, while the other continued with the DV Rig Pro, until I let him test out the Spider Brace.

With the Spider Brace, he was impressed with the light weight of its PVC construction. He also liked that the right hand still supports the camera if you release the left hand in order to reach the lens to focus. With the DV Rig, if you release either hand, the camera will tilt on you since there is no support beneath the camera.

BTW, I will be shooting some video for a feature film that is in current production, and the DP, Robert Elswit, was shooting some additional footage using a PD 150 supplied by another friend of mine, who is the video co-ordinator for the film. Elswit had no prior experience with the small format video cameras, and when he saw the "dailies" of his shots, he liked the image quality but hated the rocky hand-held work he had done, as well as some shots that were done using a "$200.00" brace my friend owned, so I got this panic phone call for "something better." I turned him on to the Spider Brace, and Elswit is very happy with it. Now Elswit wants a better zoom controller than my buddy's Canon ZR1000, so I pointed him to the ZOE-DVL.

You have to help these "film guys" out when you can. ;-)

Wayne Orr, SOC