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Cinevate Titan and Durus package.

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William Graydon

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Im being offered a Cinevate Titan MB and Durus FF package with everything included and extras for $1600 shipped. I plan to use this for my Scarlet (which hasn't arrived yet.)

What do you all think?

thanks in advance.
 
Do not buy the durus before you try it. It's to me done for small slr cameras, for a epic or scarlet it does not really work when you have an focus puller on your blind side since it then interfere with your side handle or mattbox on more compact lenses. You need something designed like the CFF-1 or the FF-4 to get the hand wheel far enough out on the side to be any use.
 
Thank you for the input Bjorn. I've seen it used with both Cine and photo lenses. That extra large gear also seems to fix any issues with interference.

But I was mainly referring to the price of the package.
 
William Graydon said:
Thank you for the input Bjorn. I've seen it used with both Cine and photo lenses. That extra large gear also seems to fix any issues with interference.

But I was mainly referring to the price of the package.
Click to expand...

Well, the bigger gears does not work well, it makes even half stiff lenses hard to pull. We used it (or ended up not using it) with ultra primes and with our old vantage B&L lenses. for the Super baltars there is no possible way to use it with a red clip on mattebox it might work with arri lightweight but it gets super cramped. And if you thinking of using it when having the camera on something like the clutch then you will have that focus wheel right in your ear/face/nose... or you take of your side handle and it work nice on the other side... but with the side handle in place it gets hard... You might be able to put it on a top mount (i did) but then that thing is so bulky so it for sure covers all the focus marks on the lens...

Trust me even really cheap (a few hundred USD) FF is better than the durus... for those cameras. For the RED One they might be perfect also for the alexa and other cameras that does not build so much out on the right hand side of the lens.

I sold the durus and bought the real deal CFF-1 from O'connor. In comparison I can tell you as much as I rather pull focus directly on the lens than using the durus. It's not built for the camera if you decide to use anything but long zooms or such.
 
I formerly owned the Titan and found it to be of pretty low quality, especially the plastic filter trays. They didn't hold the filters very securely. I after one embarrassing delay on set because of this, I sent it back to Cinevate. In the same price range, I've read positive reviews of the MB and FF from Shoot35, though I haven't used them myself.
 
Yeah. I was surprised by it myself, as I'd only heard good things. And their service is impeccable. I might have just had a bad experience, but to me the MB just felt like a cheap piece of plastic and those foam donuts were pretty cheesy. Also, another problem for me was that the opening in the back of the MB was too small for CP.2's. They said at the time they were working on a solution, but didn't have one then (about a year ago). Not trying to be a hater on Cinevate at all, just wanted to relay my experience.
 
Thanks guys! Seems like I'll be getting the Durus but opted to get the Oconnor O-Box instead for the MB someone else had.

Still haven't heard if anyone has used the Durus on the Scarlet. Photos would be Awesome!
 
I have both and I am selling both. Durus is built really well, just a little(lot) awkward to use. They brand their stuff as innovative because it's designed different.... Problem is, there is a reason why all the high end FF's and mattebox are basically the same. I finally went to Arri.

When I dropped a bunch of money on cinevate stuff, I thought I was buying nice... I was quite wrong. The mattebox is rather terrible in my opinion. The design always gets in the way. I've had pieces fall off from just sitting in the case... I know this because since I bought it 2 years ago, I have never used it for anything but one job and that was a timelapse. It was just sitting there. Also, one of the rod clamps never worked and a filter tray fell apart. Definitely not worth $1k. I understand why they have to price it like that and I bet it holds up better than some chinese stuff but $1k is to much.

The durus is so awkward to use sometimes that I rather pull by hand... Luckily I have a bartech remote for steadicam that I just power off the red for everything, well, at least up until I got my arri unit.

Just a little side note, I also had a cinevate shoulder mount that no matter how hard I tightened everything down, it could barely support a 5d with the durus. I asked cinevate about it and they said to put rubber in the joints...



I really hate to hate because they are nice people and put out some really nice equipment for certain rigs. If it was just one or the other, it wouldn't be such a big deal. But the nearly $5000 I spent on cinevate stuff... All fell apart after just more than a year.... Except for the durus(that thing is a tank) but it was kinda useless for the most part, except for with the 70-200 2.8 from canon. Also I love their Atlas sliders, except mine fell apart.

Oh btw, I have a durus and titan available for sale on the forums.
 
Bryant, thank you very much for your input. I agree, I also hate to hate, but your post, was very informative and honest. How much are you selling your Durus for?
 
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