Gavin Greenwalt
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Comparison Shopping
I've been in the market for a good shoulder rig for the last few years. In fact in high school I made my first shoulder system out of wood, and again in college developed "The Pod" which was a funky tripod head with water bottles for counter balances and a foam pad duck-taped on. However with the purchase of my Scarlet and then Epic the pressure to find a quality shoulder system was ramped up.
One of my big requirements was speed of switching from a tripod or dolly to a handheld rig quickly. Generally when I need a shoulder system I am shooting documentary work not narrative and need to be able to just pop it off and start shooting very quickly. After wandering around NAB like a crazy person and putting everything with foam in it on my shoulder for 2 years I finally managed to narrow my field of contenders to 4 contenders which met that needs. None of the cheap DSLR and REDRock/Redrock knock-off rigs met any of my criteria for comfort, quality or flexibility. You get what you pay for and you aren't paying enough IMO for something that lives on your shoulder for hours and hours on end. I also tried RED's gunner setup but it was 'too clever' for its own good in my opinion. While I could see Gunner being great at specific things, it wasn't enough of a generalist for my liking. It also fails at the tool-less quick transition from handheld to tripod.
On comfort the Action Products "Razor" was my favorite on the show floor. Combined with a dovetail it could also allow me to quickly pop the camera off the shoulder mount and onto a tripod dovetail in a matter of seconds. The downside was that it provided no means of directly attaching grips so I would need to attach and detach the handles to rails (assuming I had rails in every config). This would complicate quickly changing configurations. Also from a financial standpoint it was comparable in price to the Wooden system which would include grips and way more mount options. I like the Razor and would like to see it show up again in a future iteration just as comfy but as part of a more complete package.
http://www.innocinema.com/camera-su...kages/actionproducts-shouldermount-razor.html
Of the 4 systems I liked, the Wooden system was probably my least favorite from a comfort standpoint. It also had very little customizability for grip placement. Operating on a handlebar system both grips have to move in tandem and you have no control over their length. It's by far the least expensive option of the 4 and is very solid, but that came at the price of weight. If any of the rigs could survive the "drop-kick" test it would be Wooden, the thing is built like a tank, but at the cost of weight. One problem with both the Razor and the wooden system is that in order to get both a dovetail and a 15mm LW setup you need to attach a riser for the 15mm and then a bridge plate. Stack both of those on top of dovetail and then put a shoulder pad under that and you have multi-story tower with your camera well above your eye-line. That also adds a lot of weight by having a big heavy bridgeplate and a dovetail on your shoulder. I like the economy but the ergonomics of the two just weren't right.
http://x.corecommerce.com/RED/Shoulder-Rigs-RED/Cruiser-Rubber.html
The REDUser favorite definitely seems to be the RED Clutch. And for good reason. Although comfort was probably in third place of the systems I tried, with the RED QR, you could go from a tripod to handheld very quickly. The biggest problem with the RED system though is price. You have to buy a QR system for every tripod and you can't use it with a dovetail if you have anything mounted on your 19mm rods. As a result changing from handheld to dovetail appears to be impossible in many situations. The total stack height and speed is certainly better than either the Razor or the WC setup but it's not quite perfect. At $4,000-$5,000 it's also more than double the price of any of the other options. Ultimately it just wasn't what I was looking for.
http://www.red.com/store/products/clutch-shoulder-rig
The final contender and the system I finally ended up buying was the AeonCine Titan Lite. The Titan has a bridgeplate that screws directly to the camera and can mount onto a dovetail as is but the shoulder pad itself isn't a dovetail it cleverly snaps in under the camera keeping the camera as low and tight as a directly mounted shoulder pad. In fact the top of the shoulder pad actually extends up above where a dovetail would sit. The bridgeplate itself is extremely lightweight. I'm not sure I would trust it with a 50lb Optimo Zoom tilted straight down but for 99.9% of my shooting it seems perfectly sufficient for my day-in-day-out bridge plate. I'm not sure I would even trust my WC bridgeplate in that sort of situation either.
The Titan isn't cheap though. At $2,800 for the base package it's a bargain when compared to The clutch and in line with a Razor setup but still the price of almost 3 WC rigs and god only knows how many Redrock shoulder pads. Personally I felt the build quality, flexibility, comfort and configuration speed justified the price.
http://www.aeoncine.com/
The two systems I didn't get a chance to ever test in person were the All-Star and the Mantis... both of which appear very similar to one another however both suffer from the same problem as the WC in that you need a full bridge plate on top of the shoulder mount + a riser, resulting in the really high center of balance.
I've been in the market for a good shoulder rig for the last few years. In fact in high school I made my first shoulder system out of wood, and again in college developed "The Pod" which was a funky tripod head with water bottles for counter balances and a foam pad duck-taped on. However with the purchase of my Scarlet and then Epic the pressure to find a quality shoulder system was ramped up.
One of my big requirements was speed of switching from a tripod or dolly to a handheld rig quickly. Generally when I need a shoulder system I am shooting documentary work not narrative and need to be able to just pop it off and start shooting very quickly. After wandering around NAB like a crazy person and putting everything with foam in it on my shoulder for 2 years I finally managed to narrow my field of contenders to 4 contenders which met that needs. None of the cheap DSLR and REDRock/Redrock knock-off rigs met any of my criteria for comfort, quality or flexibility. You get what you pay for and you aren't paying enough IMO for something that lives on your shoulder for hours and hours on end. I also tried RED's gunner setup but it was 'too clever' for its own good in my opinion. While I could see Gunner being great at specific things, it wasn't enough of a generalist for my liking. It also fails at the tool-less quick transition from handheld to tripod.
On comfort the Action Products "Razor" was my favorite on the show floor. Combined with a dovetail it could also allow me to quickly pop the camera off the shoulder mount and onto a tripod dovetail in a matter of seconds. The downside was that it provided no means of directly attaching grips so I would need to attach and detach the handles to rails (assuming I had rails in every config). This would complicate quickly changing configurations. Also from a financial standpoint it was comparable in price to the Wooden system which would include grips and way more mount options. I like the Razor and would like to see it show up again in a future iteration just as comfy but as part of a more complete package.
http://www.innocinema.com/camera-su...kages/actionproducts-shouldermount-razor.html
Of the 4 systems I liked, the Wooden system was probably my least favorite from a comfort standpoint. It also had very little customizability for grip placement. Operating on a handlebar system both grips have to move in tandem and you have no control over their length. It's by far the least expensive option of the 4 and is very solid, but that came at the price of weight. If any of the rigs could survive the "drop-kick" test it would be Wooden, the thing is built like a tank, but at the cost of weight. One problem with both the Razor and the wooden system is that in order to get both a dovetail and a 15mm LW setup you need to attach a riser for the 15mm and then a bridge plate. Stack both of those on top of dovetail and then put a shoulder pad under that and you have multi-story tower with your camera well above your eye-line. That also adds a lot of weight by having a big heavy bridgeplate and a dovetail on your shoulder. I like the economy but the ergonomics of the two just weren't right.
http://x.corecommerce.com/RED/Shoulder-Rigs-RED/Cruiser-Rubber.html
The REDUser favorite definitely seems to be the RED Clutch. And for good reason. Although comfort was probably in third place of the systems I tried, with the RED QR, you could go from a tripod to handheld very quickly. The biggest problem with the RED system though is price. You have to buy a QR system for every tripod and you can't use it with a dovetail if you have anything mounted on your 19mm rods. As a result changing from handheld to dovetail appears to be impossible in many situations. The total stack height and speed is certainly better than either the Razor or the WC setup but it's not quite perfect. At $4,000-$5,000 it's also more than double the price of any of the other options. Ultimately it just wasn't what I was looking for.
http://www.red.com/store/products/clutch-shoulder-rig
The final contender and the system I finally ended up buying was the AeonCine Titan Lite. The Titan has a bridgeplate that screws directly to the camera and can mount onto a dovetail as is but the shoulder pad itself isn't a dovetail it cleverly snaps in under the camera keeping the camera as low and tight as a directly mounted shoulder pad. In fact the top of the shoulder pad actually extends up above where a dovetail would sit. The bridgeplate itself is extremely lightweight. I'm not sure I would trust it with a 50lb Optimo Zoom tilted straight down but for 99.9% of my shooting it seems perfectly sufficient for my day-in-day-out bridge plate. I'm not sure I would even trust my WC bridgeplate in that sort of situation either.
The Titan isn't cheap though. At $2,800 for the base package it's a bargain when compared to The clutch and in line with a Razor setup but still the price of almost 3 WC rigs and god only knows how many Redrock shoulder pads. Personally I felt the build quality, flexibility, comfort and configuration speed justified the price.
http://www.aeoncine.com/
The two systems I didn't get a chance to ever test in person were the All-Star and the Mantis... both of which appear very similar to one another however both suffer from the same problem as the WC in that you need a full bridge plate on top of the shoulder mount + a riser, resulting in the really high center of balance.
but to the Titan's credit it actually met my somewhat outlandish dreams. I've had a couple teething issues (one of the rosette joints was loose and needed a little tightening and locktite) but most importantly Aeon Cine has been really responsive feedback and made sure everything works perfectly. I'm more than happy to troubleshoot tiny glitches if it means the manufacturer is engaged and supportive. I would rather have a few tiny bugs that can be fixed quickly than to feel like I'm on my own without any support. I haven't had the Titan long enough to speak to its long term durability however the build quality overall feels generally excellent in my use so far and should I run into any problems based on my experiences with the Aeon Cine team I have no doubt I'll be taken care of in very short order. I don't review very many products but whenever I run into one like the Titan I feel obligated to share my experiences and put in a good word where a good word is due.
