Nate C

Ken, first off congratulations on what looks like a really well thought out idea to product. While I’m not in the market for one of your cages at the moment, I can see so many ways how this can work or be customised to work on the cart or insert mode. Really like the rods approach, that I imagine allows adjustment of the size of the sections and pivoting of panels. It kind of reminds of a Well built up camera. This is something I’ve tried to work into my cart but not as eloquently as you sir. All the best and cheers Nate.

Revaluating the original question I would probably have to say one of my Panamic poles. Don’t ask me to pick a favourite child. Coolest sound gear, well it’s not cool and it’s not sound gear. My sewing machine, tachit gun, soldering iron, Dremal, even a stick have all been instrumental in finding ways to capture better sound. Cheers Nate.

For me I would have to say the Nova. Such a beautiful little beast. Once work picks up again I’d love to add a second 414. The ZMT-ph still makes me smile. So light and not having any cables to the bag is so freeing. Except for the days that you can’t remember where you just put your boom.

Thanks for doing this David. For anyone who is considering getting a greyhound, do it. I didn’t want another dog but my wife did. I’m more of a cat person. Greyhounds are giant cat dogs. They are not like other dogs. So glad I let my wife talking me into getting a grey 4 years ago. We try to foster a couple each year. I would of kept a couple of the fosters but our boy is a bit of a loner and only tolerates the fosters for so long. This Is our boy Victor doing what he does best. We live in a small apartment and despite his size he is the perfect apartment dog. Cheers Nate

Besides large wheels I've found the height of the cart and having handles up higher are the biggest factors in making stairs easier. My current cart is about half a foot shorter then my previous cart and my back feels it. For everything else I prefer it being a bit shorter.

The Rosettes didn't come with the cart. I sourced them from smallrig.com. Sorry I don't recall the part no's. Went with smaller rosettes that are about 1inch diameter instead of larger ones. There was a reasoning for this which eludes me at the moment. In hind sight larger Rosettes like the Arri would of been better as there are more options in handles available. The 1 inch Rosette handles have been on two different carts over the last few years and I've single handedly lugged them up many steps without any issues. Alas I live in a fourth floor walk up apartment with no elevator.

It's easier to push the cart on four wheels as your not carrying any of the weight. In the case of hitting cracks I simply wasn't aware of they were there. I use camera handles with rosette that i can change the angle of on my carts. This is as I have to lay the cart down to fit in my car.

My preference is to have the patch panel separate to the monitor mount. Its all about ease of getting to. The DD-Cart doesn't fold like the Fold Up cart. I modified mine to have 16 inch rear tyres and by doing so I had to use larger 100mm front casters. Rastorder carts normally come with 75mm front castors. I've found this sufficient but occasionally a crack in the footpath can catch you up and the cart tends to want to fall forward as they are inherently top heavy. Never had either of my carts actually face plant.

Hi Mark. I use the Black Magic Duo monitors on a vertical (Rastorder DD) cart which is a different design from what I believe you are working on. Tiltable is very useful but not 100% necessary if set up to correct eye height. I've added a folding sun hood to mine which I find essential on sunny outdoor shoots. I also added a small easily detachable BNC patch panel to the rear of my cart as the BNC on the smart Duo are soldered straight to the mother board making it a week point.

Hey Scott. I have Beldon 9258 on my cart in 3m lengths. Had failures on the ones I made using cheaper cable I got from Jaycar, so I ended up getting Lemac to make some up for me. They've been rock solid.

Hey Chris I got the Singer Heavy Duty from Spotlight. If you are a member it's half price. It's not the fanciest machine but it does what I need. The only thing I don't really like is the only way to control the speed is by the pedal and i find it a bit touchy. Oh and get good Jeans needles. I bent a couple 70 and 80 needles. https://www.spotlightstores.com/sewing-fabrics/sewing-equipment/sewing-machines/singer-4423-heavy-duty-sewing-machine/80304571?gclid=CjwKCAiAlajvBRB_EiwA4vAqiLyQ2hhvpxqa-VrrgSZJGPIbdF35_9sSgna0l-Ucn06PA6MHoQqZfBoCQtkQAvD_BwE

Not sure why the photos repeated themselves . For got to mention intend to add a second zipper the the front pocket as things can fall out if not full closed at the moment. Haven't gotten around to sourcing the correct sized zipper repair kit as yet.

After a week of using my modified Condor bag, I'm happier with it the I expected. Honestly I thought it might be a bit of a stop gap bag but I think I have it to a point where it's the right compromise between super light weight and functional. A few people have asked what mods I made so here goes. First off my wifes 20yo sewing machine died so I had to go out and buy a new one. Luckily a found a heavy duty Singer on sale for half price. I'm self taught at sewing so I'm sure I did most things the hard way and nothing is straight or perfect. First off cut out the zipper and most of the top material, leaving enough to raise the side walls approx 5mm and sewed ribbon around the top. I then cut out the mesh pocket from the back interior wall and used that mesh to make two small pockets to go inside the side pockets to hold a Zaxcom LTS on the right and a G3 on the left. For the G3 pocket there is a snap lock in order to open the mesh pocket and be able the door on the G3 and turn it on and off with out having to pull it out of the bag. Also burnt a small hole in the top of the side pocket for the antenna to stick out. On the interior of the pocket I added a small elastic loop to hold the cable out of the way. Sewed 3mm Neoprene wrapped in felt into the interior base and rear wall of the bag to add a little padding and stability. Unfortunately velcro on the Nova didn't really hold to the felt so had to add soft velcro to rear wall. There is also soft velcro sewn into the top the front wall. Cut out the wall between the side pockets and the main compartment in order to get to cards, connectors etc. I like to have a pen and sharpie handy, so added a double elastic loop in the front pocket to hold them. While the front pocket is small it's still large enough to hold 3 or mr ZMT and a Countryman case with a few lavs and a small contingent of accessories. At first it bugged me not having a secure way to hold the cans when not in use so i sewed a loop on the top left hand corner that has a Nite-eze locking carabiner (cut off the locking thingy) to hold the cans. could be used to hold tape or something else light. The way I configured the bag, I found the D-rings/attachment points put a little more pressure on the Zaxnet antenna then I was comfortable with so I removed the D-rings and added smaller plastic D-rings (From an old Petrol LED strip) closer to the back wall but still on the side and at the same height. This had the added bonus of enabling me cut out another inch of the interior wall between compartments. Also added D-rings at the bottom of the bag as I found the bag bounced around to much if you needed to run. That could also have a bit to do with my over forties belly. Weather/dust cover. Needs a little redesigning. Lastly the material O-rings/attachment points on my Orca harness so as to have top and bottom clips with out the need of the waist section. I leave the harness attached to the bag and put the whole thing on at once kind of like putting on a shirt or how I used to do it with my old petrol harness. To be honest its not quite right. The bottom straps dig into my ribs slightly and the top straps could be a little higher. Going to have a go at building my own harness. Between the local scrap material store and all the straps and buckles I've built up over the years I reckon I could probably do it for under $10. This may be pushing my sewing limits but hey it will be an adventure. Cheers Nate.

What ever puts the least amount of strain on the SMA connectors on the receivers/Z-net. For me, best practice is is what puts the essential parts of the gear at the least risk while still being able to preform at the optimum. That may not be best RF practice but we don't work in a theoretical best practice environment. For my Nomad cart/bag rig I use short jumper SMA to BNC leads in a hobby box as a patch panel. On the cart bulky good quality coax run to the antenna mast. When I need to be more mobile I have short leads to attach to the patch box. Short SMA to BNC jumpers work well to SNA600 on my Maxx rig. As for the Nova, by all the positive reports, I believe I'll keep it simple and go with whips. That said I am thinking of remoting the Z-net antenna by a several inches. This is more due to how I have conceived a bag design and reducing stress to that connector. Cheers Nate

Incredibly neat and slim lined bag.. of the soon to be past. Imagine how much easier it is going to be weave through crowds or slip through doorways with a rig much smaller rig protruding from your tum tum. No more pregnant woman waddle.

I remember just before the Nomad first came out, being amazed and excited by this new product. I read/watched every bit of info I could find. The Nova and todays announcement of the 414 has me back in that place, only amplified by a really big number. Now to rethink my bag design.

Manual attached. Cheers Nate. Panamic Manual.pdf

Your description sounds like an intermittent TC connection. If the TC cables you are using are good, I would suggest checking that the centre pin on the Maxx TC BNC hasn't been pushed in. Then I'd open it up and make sure the wiring looks good.

It's been a while but I've boom around horses a number of times. They have always been film trained horses for the hero horses. They were fine with the boom with a fluffy on, just no erratic movements. The wranglers will let you know how to work with their animals. My experience has been the AD's are more skittish about the boom being around the horse then the horse is. With non film trained horses, only ever really used in BG, so usually no cast on them, the wrangler had me and my boom spend a bit of time with the horses before hand to get them familiar with me and the furry mic. I think other members of the crew were jealous of this horsey time. Cheers Nate

Love it.

Thanks Jack. Guess I'll have to wait and see. Look forward to adding a Nova to my workflow.

Thanks Glenn, I've been meaning to ask about this. For the most part I don't imagine using more then two banks. Will the autopick feature also be able to be applied to extra QRX200, TRX/ZMT attached? This is one of my favourite features on my RX12. Also recall reading that track names will be able to be sent to the TRX/ZMT with corresponding Z-net ID, or was I dreaming. If this is possible, pretty please could it also work with external QRX hooked up to the Nova. I'd be a super happy soundie if it could also be implemented into the RX12 and Nomad.

Thanks for the offer but I'm good. Still using the same cut down anti glare phone cover that I put on my nomad back in 2012.

I've used an old soldering iron to make holes in bags in the past.

It's a home made job. Perspex and the hinge parts are from Smallrig.com