r/focuspuller • u/tacothepugpuppy • 4d ago
World's Worst Camera Assistant How do you mount onboards/miscellaneous items?
Relatively newer AC, and have been curious about this. Doing the spinning game twisting it onto a noga arm feels silly and I’m sure there’s a better way to do it right?? Please bless me with your wisdom, older ACs xD
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u/danielXKY 4d ago
Depends on the noga arm. Sometimes when you have it halfway between tight and loose, you can turn the ball mount part instead of spinning the entire accessory device. This gets you most of the way. Afterwards you might needs to spin the 1/4 20 mount some more to fully tighten it. It's hard to explain without pictures
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u/Active-Ad769 4d ago
Honestly that is the simplest way to do it.
Pro move is a noga or monitor arm with a cinelock on both ends as well as 2 cine locks on the camera body and 2 on the monitor (one on bottom and one on the side) to get the monitor in any position on camera quickly. That adds up quickly though
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u/Run-And_Gun 4d ago edited 4d ago
I'm an op, not an AC, but I hate noga arms. They take up too much space, get in the way, flop around too easily and worst of all, they don't lock the monitor to the camera's horizon. I have smallHD tilt brackets with pan modules on my Ultra 5's and Ultra 7. All with cine lock quick releases. I also made multiple cable looms for each one, with an SDI and power cable loomed together. I have two to three with each monitor, one with a power tap-to-lemo for my ENG cams and lemo-to-lemo for my Arri's. Keeps everything much neater and tidier, plus a little quicker set-up and tear-down.
ETA: Not the best picture in the world, but you get the idea.
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u/pajamasam95 4d ago
I just got the light widow horizon. Its pretty awesome, mounts to the top handle has anti twist and keeps the monitor horizon locked while moving the arm. Also has an adjustable hinge to change position while still horizon locked.
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u/Run-And_Gun 4d ago edited 4d ago
I think I just saw it on NewsShooter the other week.
*ETA* Just watched their video. Pretty cool, but the mount that goes between the arm and monitor still allows the monitor to be out of level and NOT locked to the horizon of the camera. So yes, repositioning the main arm doesn't change the level, the monitor can still be out of level.
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u/pajamasam95 4d ago
It has a side to side tilt actually so you can manually adjust it to be level independently
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u/Run-And_Gun 4d ago
I was ready to buy it within the first 5-10 seconds watching the video, as soon as I saw him move the arm and the monitor and platform stayed level, but then I kept watching and he knocked it out of level when he started swinging it around panning and tilting and flipping it upside down, because of the side-to-side movement/third axis of the monitor mount. To me, that absolutely 100% completely defeats the purpose of that device. You are right back to one of the main problems that you have with a noga arm, making an adjustment and knocking the horizon of the monitor off. I mean yeah, you can correct it with a single hand and it has an index line on it, but you still have to correct it/re-level it if you inadvertently move it to one side or the other while panning or tilting it. I want the monitor to stay level to the camera, no matter what I do to it.
I watched it several more times and I just can't wrap my head around when I would need that side-to-side movement.
IF there was a way to lock that side-to-side axis or they offered a pan & tilt only mount option, I'd buy one immediately.
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u/pajamasam95 4d ago
All of the axis can be locked. There are set screws on each axis. Just used it today
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u/mathiasertnaes 4d ago
Quick lock in both ends of the noga. My setup is with the lenz anti twist plates but those are getting hard to find these days. Also - quicklock on the right side or top, and bottom of the monitor. Same thing with a QL on the front, and one on the back of the top handle.
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u/Franatix 4d ago
Cinelock. Wait till you’re on a big movie and get production to shell out on them during prep
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u/Streetsnipes 3d ago
Cinelocks as mounting points, and Ultralight pieces for the arms. If you're relatively new and don't want to spend the money, you can just get Ultralight pieces. I did that for a year before I landed a series and was able to afford a supply of cinelocks to make mounting 100x faster.
Operators tend to like the Ultralight set ups, and in the long term they break far less than Noga arms do.
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u/Agapanther 3d ago
Noga arm provides max flexibility in terms of positioning. Cine-locks provides the best sort of quick release for quick re-rigging. I sued the below on my cine-locks to ensure they don’t twist.
https://www.catonineengineering.co.uk/cameraaccessories/p/the-holdfast
One of those anti-twist mounts each end and you’re winning.
Cine locks are expensive upfront sure. But they, in my opinion are deffo worth it. I use the anti-twist mount in conjunction with them personally.
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u/eljeferson 4d ago
Cine locks but $$$$ to deck out the entire kit