Birns & Sawyer Dovetail Shoulder Support System

Birns & Sawyer 10143 Overview

The is a redesigned version of Birns & Sawyer's lightweight support system, modified to support larger and heavier cameras.

The shoulder pad is thicker to provide a more robust support, and it securely clamps onto both rods of the curved rail system, as opposed to one side just resting on the rails. The handgrips attach by Arri rosettes, and one of them can optionally be replaced with a Micro Force zoom controller, which also comes in an Arri rosette version. The dovetail plate is 8 inches long and compatible with Arri-style dovetail baseplates, like the BP-9, allowing the convenience of attaching baseplate-mounted cameras. The dovetail plate also supports direct camera mounting via two sliding blocks each featuring both a 1/4" and a 3/8" thread. These blocks adjust along the center of the plate and can be positioned at different ends of the plate to accept a camera on one end and another piece of gear on the other. Screws attach into these blocks from underneath.

The dovetail plate clamps onto the rail system just like the shoulder pad does, and both the plate and shoulder pad are adjustable along the rails. The rods holding the handgrips can be adjusted in and out and rotated. The rods are slightly thinner than 15mm rods and are hollow. On the rear of the shoulder pad is a female V-mount plate with three holes that with the right adapter can accept a V-mount or Gold-mount battery, or a counterweight. As it is, the plate is directly compatible with male V-mount accessories, such as Anton Bauer's VCLX batteries.

Key Features

• 8 inch dovetail plate compatible with Arri-type baseplates
• The plate also features 1/4" and 3/8" threads on sliding blocks
• Arri rosette handles, replaceable with optional Micro Force controller
• Female V-mount plate on the rear of the shoulder pad supports batteries and counterweights