I have a shoot this Friday and I want to use the CAME-TV Single with the a6300 but the only image stabilized lens I have that is wide is the 16-35 f4. It’s a fantastic full frame lens and that’s part of the problem. It’s very heavy and full frame doesn’t give me that much of a wide shot. At 16mm it’s more like a 24mm. Not bad but at 16mm it also extends out and that is making it hard to balance.
As you can see in the image the CAME-TV quick release plate won’t clear the lens barrel of the 16-35. The lens is actually goes past the bottom of the camera making it harder to get the plate far enough forward. I need this extra length in order to balance the camera on the gimbal. I grab a couple large nylon washers I have and with two stacked the plate now clears the lens. Not the best solution but the QR plate has a solid connection and won’t twist. That’s why I used large washers because they cover the entire surface of the plate.
Now that I got the plate on it was time to try and balance the 2.1 lbs. camera. The weight limit is 2.6 lbs. so I’m getting close and this is also heavy to operate for a long period of time.
I was able to balance the camera with the 16-35 at 16mm even with a added ND filter on the front. In this test run I asked the guy to just keep walking. It was a one take. I got three very usable shots. Not bad at all.
The a6300 was set to “Continuous Autofocus” in “Wide Mode” I’m very impressed with the AF performance of the a6300 in video mode. This is a big advancement for Sony. My shutter was accidentally set at 60 not 50. Bummer because I can see a little staccato from it being higher.
All in all I like the CAME-TV Single and the a6300 but the 16-35 is really not a good match so I ordered the Sony 10-18 APS-C IOS f4 zoom for setup. The lens is smaller and much lighter at .5 lbs. compared to 1.14 lbs. of the Sony 16-35. Big difference when you are holding in front like this.
A couple of thing I like a lot about the CAME-TV Single is I didn’t need any tools to balance it and no software tweaks to get it to work right. This is a huge time saver in the field. With other handheld gimbals I found the up and down or bounce to be an issue. Yes you have to learn to walk smooth when operating but with this model it seems like I see much less of the issue.
Now lets see how long I can go on Friday without my arms falling off.
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the footage almost looks like it’s from a two hand gimbal system, which is good! not too much vertical bounce, maybe the heavier lens actually helps a little in that regard 🙂