Element Techinca Handheld Rig - Exxcellllent

[Rick Darge]

I was fortunate enough to borrow a beta unit of ET's handheld rig earlier this week. I had a 2 day shoot that was all handheld, full days. ET & Stephen Pizzo came through and hooked me UP. In one word, Awesome. The rig is very intuitive and easy to configure. The first thing I did to set it up, was put it on my shoulder without the camera. You get it comfortable, point it in the direction you want, and lock it down. Once that is done, itt takes a matter of seconds to slide the Red + ET baseplate onto the handheld dovetail. Once its on, you can quickly find your center of gravity by adjusting the entire camera forward or backwards on the dovetail as you would on your tripod. The arms can then be swung out 90 degrees ala 'Red handheld style' or you can swing them closer to your body. I prefer to have the handles right up to my chest. This rig gives people options and flexibility and thats what I love about it. It's also visually attractive and fairly low profile.

This review was brief, partly because of Gibby's in-depth review of his experiences with the unit. I couldn't agree more with his enthusiasm for the rig. It's truly one of a kind & its being made by a company that cares too much about what they make. These guys work day and night and are still perfecting the rig. It's going to rock some worlds when they finally go public with it.

I'll try to post some BTS pictures as soon as I get them.

 

[Don King]

Pics please?

 

[Rick Darge]

Pics won't be available until at least Tuesday. The guy who took them is swamped, as am I. Not to worry though, as I suspect it won't be long before we see production units rearing their heads in our airspaces. :clown2:

 

[Curran Giddens]

Hopefully they will be available for sale in the next 3-4 weeks. Thanks for the review.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

Pics please?

Here ya' go Don - please don't criticize the exposure - these are just snapshots -:wink:

Seriously folks - this is a MUST, MUST have. Fantastic. ET rules.

 

[Matthew Chuang]

Here ya' go Don - please don't criticize the exposure - these are just snapshots -:wink:

Seriously folks - this is a MUST, MUST have. Fantastic. ET rules.

those two look familiar. how's doug and john going?

 

[Gunleik Groven]

That looks really smart!

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

those two look familiar. how's doug and john going?

Doug & John rock! That snaps actually from a ROCK THE VOTE campaign we are doing with Doug - we shot De Niro in 4K on Tuesday - way too much fun!!

 

[Mitch Gross]

I love the "teleprompter" taped to the bottom of the mattebox.

 

[Andrew Walker]

It looks nice. Wouldn't mind giving it a try one of these days.

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

I love the "teleprompter" taped to the bottom of the mattebox.

That's the "Offholly-Prompter" - I can sell you a used one ....

 

[Mitch Gross]

If you ever need a REAL prompter, including battery powered and even a small one for handheld use, you know who to call...

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Very nice set up and I believe that's excellent.

But in between waiting for that sort of stuff,

need of handheld shooting pushed me in a self-made "home-custom" kit development

that consists a diverse parts I already have got from before.

I call it light handheld kit that also has lightweight lenses

Nikon 17 -35 mm Nikkor AF-D ED f/2.8

Angenieux FD 35-70 mm f/2.5-3.3

Angenieux FD 70-210 mm f/3.5

Canon FD L 50 mm f/1.2 (for available light shots)

Have a look at the pictures

 

[Joe G.]

It's a monster! How much did that thing weigh?

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

is there anyway to make it not sit a foot above your shoulder?
also, can you reverse the handles to be more level with the lens/MB?

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

It's a monster! How much did that thing weigh?

It looks like a monster but it is not at all.

I would need to exchange steel rods with fibers soon.

Other things are very light like a choice of lenses

(no PL monster zooms) and

Vocas lightweight 2xfilters matte box (CircPola+ND),

also have screw in filters even IR from Leica M8 set.

The base is All-star dovetail that makes life easy for each,

possible and different configuration.

Also Manfrotto Fig-Rig is light and makes balance between shoulder and

breast to easy handle and secure movement of the camera during

focus/zoom/iris manual adjusting operation.

Also you can a bit lean on shoulder/breast axis to use both hands and

arms for simultaneous adjustment of EVF, camera and lens.

This you cannot achieve with any other handheld.

Keep in mind this option.

is there anyway to make it not sit a foot above your shoulder?
also, can you reverse the handles to be more level with the lens/MB?

I make a cushion from tick and soft divider elements that you could find in any photo rucksack and then fix it with a tape.

To fix handles up or down for sure all is customizable.

 

[C.H.Haskell]

Nice DIY rig sangin, I just throw one of those cinema pads on my shoulder works for me but I did test the ET brace, beta version on a Burning Man feature and it was what you expect of ET...rock solid.

Mark when Doug's obama ad surface, clock is ticking!

 

[Johan Pabon]

Sanjin, wow, you are inventive.... I agree on the Allstar dovetail, it's a very nice solution. The way you made it is a quick solution to change from tripod to shoulderwork fast. I was looking for something like that.

 

[Rudi Herbert]

Ever notice that whenever Mark posts photos of the RED, somehow another 5-6 RED cameras manage to find their way into the frame?

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Hehe... I would do the same thing. If I had more.