Best shoulder mount/rail system

[Jon Chema]

Hey all,

What are the best, cheapest brands out there for shoulder mounts and rail kits? Obviously, there's Redrock Micro and Zacuto (sp?), but does any other company exist that sells close to the same stuff for cheap? I'm not dissing those two companies by any means, but I would think you could find the same stuff cheaper someplace else? Any tips?

 

[Evin Grant]

Those are the cheap(er) brands. Element Technica is really the way to go but you'll pay for the quality. As far as hand held you can get either an ET or Long Valley lightweight support and a shoulderpad like this one...

contact: stu@thehouseofpower.us for the shoulder pad.

ET LWS...

http://www.elementtechnica.com

Long Valley LWS...

 

[Marc Berger]

Have a look at the shouldermount from actionproducts too. Not the cheapest, but rock solid, comfortable, small and serves together with the basic plate as a solid tripod mount.
http://actionproducts.ch/apshop/catalog/index.php?cPath=43&osCsid=6ab4d3677097ea21cfb93b323bda08fd
Marc

 

[Shane Kelly]

Redrock is as cheap as I would go, I personally use Element technica. You'll find that the cheaper stuff will bend with the weight of the camera and drive you crazy. It's a false economy in my opinion. Stay well away from the Indian knockoffs.
The red rail system is not bad, did you not get the base production pack? I can sell you a red baseplate and shouldermount with 19mm rails for cheap if you want.
Regards,
Shane.

 

[rod bradley]

The Allstar shoulder mount is very solid very comfortable very inexpensive although not cheaply made. I've had mine close to a year, in regular use and lent out on several occasions and everyone has been pleased. It's held up very well.

 

[Jon Chema]

Redrock is as cheap as I would go, I personally use Element technica. You'll find that the cheaper stuff will bend with the weight of the camera and drive you crazy.

So basically, you get what you pay for? I just find it hard to believe that it costs upwards of $1,000 for a few machined rods. It seems like if I had the proper tools I could make one on my own for under $200 or so.

 

[Jason Osterday]

Hardly. A lot of these are custom machined parts on small production runs. This probably isn't the place to get into a machining conversation and which costs what. I think everyone will vouch for the ET brand and Zacuto makes good products for the money as well. They both stand by their products too, so you can use them as they're intended. Buy once rather than often, especially considering you're carrying $20k+ worth of gear on your shoulder.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

The rods are the cheap part, it's the other components which hold your rig together, that add the bulk of the cost. As Jason points out, there are machining costs, R&D costs, overhead of running a business and continuously supporting their customers. We're talking very low sales volume compared to other mass-produced products. Our little community of camera geeks who buy this stuff is pretty small. This isn't Hasbro making and selling Transformers toys, this is a handful of small companies making oddball camera parts a handful at a time.

There are a few "cheap" options out there and surely more to come as Scarlet gets closer to release.

 

[Jon Chema]

Thanks guys for putting that into perspective. Jeff that makes sense about the limited runs of these companies products. I figured that was the case.