List Price: $999.99
Sale Price: $325.00
Today's Bonus: 67% Off
I was nervous to buy this product considering there was only 1 review.... and it was a 5 star review, at that. To some that may seem awesome.. but to me it says nothing. I was looking forward to getting this to write a review almost as much as I was to use it.
Ordering/Receiving.
This process was easy as can be. I always love buying things from Amazon. The product came when they said it would and all the pieces were there and wrapped with care. I have no complaints about how the process of getting this piece went.
Opening the package.
Once you begin to unwrap everything, this is where things get a little nerve wrecking. First off, there are no instructions. .... You might think, "I don't need instructions, its straight forward." This is what I thought myself, too. I didnt even notice no instructions until I needed them! There are a lot of pieces and at first it gets a little confusing.
Assembly.
Being that there are no instructions, assembly took way longer than it should have. You cant assemble pieces together one at a time... it all has to be done together and lightly tightened before putting everything in its place. Otherwise nothing is flush. Also, another problem with tightening things down before everything is in place, the rods are made of a pretty cheap material. They're durable, dont get me wrong.. but they bend ever so slightly at the end when things are tightened so you can forget about moving anything. There are multiple sizes of allen wrenches needed, and they only provide you with one size. The screws are engineered in such a way that tightening them is impossible with everything put in it's place. There are also height adjustments that need to be made but you don't know what they are until it's put together.. and then you have to take it apart to get to those screws... and remember.. you cant just take one thing off. EVERYTHING has to be loosened and moved so the rods bend back to being straight.
Materials.
Look, I understand this is a great deal cheaper than almost anything else you will find with all that is offered. But I don't think there is ever a need for cheap plastics. CHEAP is the key here. The Matte Box is flimsy. I will without a doubt be buying a different matte box and fit it to this piece. The shoulder rest is a lightweight cheap type of foam. The impression I got from the pic was that it was counterweighted.... it is not. So it is front heavy. I will be having to MOD that as well to get some plate weights on it. The follow focus is pretty cool. It's unfortunate that the gear ring is this little piece of plastic that doesnt hold to the lens well... but with a big enough lens it works, OK. Small lenses, forget about it. It is smooth though and it does do its purpose... its just a little cheap. The C Support rod with handle is awesome. no complaints there. It's metal, and it's sturdy.
ALL TOGETHER.
Once it is all together, and you have gone through the headache of assembling and disassembling and reassembling over and over again, you know your piece of equipment inside and out. You notice that most of the components are plastic, even the rods... a very durable plastic.. but plastic. the Matte Box doesnt line up evenly to where the lens ends up.... making it hard to put any rings on the box to keep even more light out. You are frustrated at the people who engineered this piece because they clearly never fully assembled it themselves....
To bring some positive here, it was only 340.00. I do not expect the best at such a deal.. but you would hope for something that is at least engineered correctly. I am no engineer.. but I know when things are just not thought out. For the purpose of having something to help you stabilize your DSLR, this is a good piece to have. There are many areas of modding that can be done to this and it is possible with the design. It looks pretty cool, and it is comfortable to use. In all I rated this product a 3 because 4 is great, 5 is the best... this is good. It serves a purpose and for people just starting out.. you will have a wicked cool looking rig that will surely impress some. Just remember that you will end up wanting to buy different parts and exchange them out.
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