Reviews of Allstar Shoulder Mount Systems?

[Ned Wilson]

I'm in the market for a simple and affordable shoulder mount system. Currently, I've been eyeballing the All Star shoulder systems: http://allstar-cine.myweb.hinet.net/...cessories.html

Can anyone here comment on this model, the Dual H

Or this one, the Arri H

Looking to use it with my Epic. Would like to know more about the build, quality and customer service. Their website hardly inspires confidence but the designs are simple and affordable. I'm not a big fan of the overly complex "rigs" out there. I'm usually quite happy with Moosebars and a shoulder pad, so you can see why I may be intrigued by Allstars products. Just don't hear too much about people who actually use them.

Any first hand reviews would be much appreciated.

[Adam C Lubkin]

Regarding your concerns, All Star products are well made and customer service is good. He's been part of the Red community for years.

[Michael Ou]

I'm currently waiting for a reply from them to a question regarding a fitment problem between their Long dovetail plate and their Dual bridge plate. They do not fit without removing the bridgeplate's safety stop pin, so I inquired as to whether that was "normal" as the website said they were compatible. It has only been one day and no answer so far.

Their website needs improving upon, item descriptions and formatting can be better. No ordering interface or checkout. Order by email and pay with Paypal (customer pays the fees). I've purchased other items from them and for the most part, the items are pretty solid, shipping is fast (for overseas). I'm still up in the air with respect to support as I wait for a reply.

[Dave Blackham]

We use the 10 dovetail, shoulder pad and 19mm bar adaptor to mount two 100mm aluminium rods and have a set of handles mounted to the bars to allow forwards or backwards movement. The dual handles you mentioned with extentions would be fine for this.

We used Ronford Moose bar handles as we already owned them but he Allstar handles are good to.

We also added a x 100mm safety Nato rail to the left hand handle extention so as to fit a nato shoe to the 5 inch LCD which can be used on the nato rail.

Its very easy to just slide the bridge plate off the shoulder mount on to a Arri wedge on the tripod so is very fast to operate. Every thing stays on the camera excepting the LCD if you use it.

The other possibility is if you use the x Quick back to mount a V lock is to build a wedge mount, same as the Redmote uses and mount that on the rear of the Allstar shoudler mount. Its very easy to just drop the x batter mount on to the shouder pad mounted wedge if you want the battery to be low centre of gravity.

Next on the list to build is a handle mounted start stop button. Ill post here about this as there are some options out there we are looking at which might be best.

[Dave Blackham]

You can use this on off button called Spider Grip on/off module between the Allstar Arri rosettes as a button but will need a small battery/interface to use for Epic stop start. The circuit is in the Epic manual.

http://www.cameraaccessorysolutions.com/

[Ned Wilson]

Regarding your concerns, All Star products are well made and customer service is good. He's been part of the Red community for years.

So have you actually purchased and used their hand held kits?

[Dave Blackham]

So have you actually purchased and used their hand held kits?

We have on a number of occasions and customer service is good and products well made.

[Ned Wilson]

Can anyone tell me about the shoulder pad? How does it perform?

[Michael Ou]

I'm currently waiting for a reply from them to a question regarding a fitment problem between their Long dovetail plate and their Dual bridge plate. They do not fit without removing the bridgeplate's safety stop pin, so I inquired as to whether that was "normal" as the website said they were compatible. It has only been one day and no answer so far.

Their website needs improving upon, item descriptions and formatting can be better. No ordering interface or checkout. Order by email and pay with Paypal (customer pays the fees). I've purchased other items from them and for the most part, the items are pretty solid, shipping is fast (for overseas). I'm still up in the air with respect to support as I wait for a reply.

Well the short of it is, I received a reply indicating the safety lock pin is perhaps too long and that I should take a file to it. In other words, why don't you try to fix it yourself! Wow. Now I'm going to need to disassemble the rig and try to get some tight macro video showing the problem is not just a long pin, but rather an incompatibility with the milling channels. Yeah, I know, good luck with that one! If I have any success documenting the problem, I will put up a youtube post. But the point being, I'm starting to get a sense of the support being provided by Allstar. More to come.

[Michael Ou]

I received a follow-up email yesterday from Allstar and it was very helpful. Acknowledged, was the incompatibility with the two items, but more importantly, a solution to the issue was offered in the form of a possible exchange with a compatible, albeit sightly different plate. Being the impatient fellow I am, and the fact that the original plate's design suits my needs better, I have decided to keep the original piece, because I can indeed get it to work with some dremel work. Yes not ideal, but as long as it's my choice to perform the work and not the official offer from the company as a solution. Their acknowledgement and willingness to correct the problem within their means is good enough for me.
Hopefully the website will be updated soon. I find that I need to review the pages more than usual to get a sense of the systems and all the code numbers in order. Its a drag, but far better than if I need to make an international exchange. I do plan on ordering from them again.