Thoughts on Shoulder Braces for the Panasonic AF100

This post by Olof is from the dvxuser.com forum.

As you may know I make a shoulder brace for the AF100 and a few other cameras as well.

My favorite current ENG rig is the Sony EX3. The reason is it has an excellent view finder in the perfect place, next to the lens. And it is easy to make a very comfortable shoulder brace for it with your shoulder partially under the camera, and then put a couple AB or IDX batts on the shoulder brace to balance the camera for extended shouldering.

Most other small cams like the AF100, EX1, F3 etc have the VF in the back so it takes an incredible amount of weight to balance a rig for extended shouldering. And the rigs get big especially if you also add a mattebox etc.

Now my own style of shooting is 90% or more on sticks, jibs, dolly, stedicam or sliders. Most of the time I only shoulder for a very short time, so I like the shoulder brace to give me some counterweight, I usually have one or two IDX batts on the shoulder brace. But mostly it makes the shots much steadier because you have the third point of contact, and it is much more comfortable and balanced, but I would not want to shoot with this setup on the shoulder all day.

So I am now designing a rig for the AF100 and other cams as well that puts your shoulder under the camera and ignores the EVF on the camera. Instead it will have an easily adjustable EVF holder that functions like the full size cams or the EX3 EVF. That is, easy to adjust and sturdy. I have had a lot of requests for this type of rig lately. I am designing this for use with the Zakuto EVF or others like it. I just wish I could find a HD-SDI version, I hate the HDMI cables. I bet this will become available soon.

What are your thoughts on shouldering the AF100? Do you shoulder it often for long periods, or just for some quick shots now and then?

I have had a number of conversations with shooters about this and many feel that the AF100 is not really suitable for ENG, I tend to agree, I actually like smaller chip cams for this style of shooting, like I said the EX3 with the 1/2" chip is very nice for this, much easier to nail focus but still capable of some SDOF.

I do know a lot of shooters want to use the AF100 for this style of shooting. The EVF prices are coming down and I think this type of solution may be a good way to go. I still plan to have option for larger batteries, nice for on camera lights, Nanoflash etc. And I would keep the whole rig very compact with the batteries vertical. I also plan to have the option for 15mm rods up front, as well as my wooden handle setup.

What are your thoughts? Would you like to see this type of rig?

Thanks for any comments.