dovetail stuck

[Nelson Goforth]

Well, no way to slide it out now ! The lever would do nothing to help, however pushed or pull !

Here's a solution I found, and it's a little scary.

I'd noticed this 'sticking problem' before but it somehow resolved itself. But I was at a machinist friend's place and we were playing with the baseplate. Dovetail got jammed. We pushed and shoved, etc. Then I got an idea and picked up a screwdriver and lightly - lightly! - rapped the baseplate with the handle of the screwdriver. The dovetail slid right off - bam! onto the tabletop. No camera attached or I wouldn't have tried it.

We repeated this several times and discovered that if the locking pin isn't exactly in the hole it will jam. A light tap on the side of the baseplate or the dovetail is enough to dislodge it. If the camera isn't attached you can just press straight down on the rubber-covered locking pin and it easily releases.

If the pin and the hole are not at ALL aligned this doesn't happen. If the pin is exactly aligned with the hole it locks properly (the lever goes all the way over). But if the pin is half-on and half-off of the hole it can easily jam and the lever doesn't quite go all the way over.

The scary part is if the camera were mounted on a tripod, it jammed, and someone lightly rapped the head. Camera slides smoothly and easily off the dovetail and onto the ground. There are no stops on the dovetail (such as you find on Arri dovetails).

We're looking at ways to better secure the camera (safety stops) or fixing the locking pin. The question was whether it was just our bottom plate or was this a broader problem. I guess it is a problem for at least one other user.

So, securely grasp your camera (if attached), turn it over and rap on the dovetail or baseplate. Please respond with your results.

Nelson

[Nelson Goforth]

How can I attach the whole set up securely, then...I don't quite see a way to prevent it "rotating", if can't use a second screw...

So the reason I was at a machinist's was to work out putting in a second screw to keep the camera from rotating (and make it more secure as well).

It actually took a bit of doing, since the threaded holes in the shoulder dovetail are not at the same spacing as the holes in the camera, etc. One additional hole in the Cartoni quick release plate wouldn't serve both places and with the 15mm bridge plate and with a re-worked custom plate that allows us to use existing 15mm Lightweight accessories. It took a bit of figuring and we never came up with an ideal solution, just something that worked. You may have to find a clever machinist to help with your specific setup (as we had one non-standard plate we were using for the lightweight gear). If you're near Denver I know just the guy

Nelson

[Denis Buhot]

great help, thanks to all... Meanwhile, John at Red sent a message offering help...Great forum, great customer service.

[Paul Leeming]

In case anyone wants to know exactly how the internals look, I wrote a thread with pictures here showing the mechanism.

HTH

Paul