Edelkrone: Worth Another Look

[Terry VerHaar]

Terry:

I've been looking to get a Modula 7. Whenever I went to their site, however, if you are in the US it redirected you to SmallHD.

My experience has been this:

- tried to sign up at their main site a few weeks ago, just to get on their mailing list; wouldn't let me so I emailed them and they told me about SmallHD becoming distributor
- Had a couple online chats with SmallHD folks while waiting for their Edlekrone pages to go live
- considered very carefully ordering a MOD 7 from SmallHD but was somewhat put off by the price and thought I'd wait until my Scarlet came, basically just procrastinating
- went to the Edelkrone site to further check their (very comprehensive) online catalog and saw the "Something Amazing..." post
- waited a few days to see what was up and stumbled upon the new pricing
- contacted SmallHD to see what their pricing would be and found out they couldn't match the MOD 7 price direct from Edelkrone
- placed the order with Edelkrone on Tuesday (11/24) and within 12 hours or so, got a shipping notice (free shipping)
- I await the arrival

Have you tried ordering lately?

 

[jaadgy akanni]

hehehe Terry that's exactly what I did- I waited to see what the "something amazing" was about before ordering from SmallHD 'cause somehow I suspected it had something to do with price adjustments. Anyway, now I' m having a hard time deciding between the Modula 7 and 9. Why did you decide to get the Modula 7?

 

[Terry VerHaar]

hehehe Terry that's exactly what I did- I waited to see what the "something amazing" was about before ordering from SmallHD 'cause somehow I suspected it had something to do with price adjustments. Anyway, now I' m having a hard time deciding between the Modula 7 and 9. Why did you decide to get the Modula 7?

While the extended handles look like they could be helpful, the double shoulder mount looks a little too bulky and might be overkill for a camera that won't be all that heavy. And, I don't intend to operate with a shoulder mount for extended periods. I thought the price difference wasn't worth it, either. On the other hand, the MOD 5 looked like the shoulder pad was just too small - OK for DSLR but not for Scarlet, IMO.

I bought this without any physical inspection (only web videos), so maybe I'll be wrong/disappointed. At $2200 it was a real risk, much less so at $1000. Having shopped for handles, rods, mounts, etc a LOT lately, this stuff seems well priced and good quality. We'll see... I'll post when I get it next week.

 

[WesG]

look forward to a review!

 

[Patrick Grossien]

me too... I'm really interested in how they hold up, because I'm still looking for some rigs for our university which are not overly expensive...

thanks for sharing Terry!

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I am not sure if I should be impressed with Edelkrone or with DHL, but my package is scheduled for delivery today. I ordered Tuesday, Jan 24th. It was processed and shipped very quickly from Ankara, Turkey and it is now on the DHL truck for delivery; barely three days! For anyone who has wondered about the quality and features, I'll share next week (I am shooting all weekend).

 

[Nicholas Davis]

Awwww man, you can't sneak in a little yay or nay?! :ihih:
Have a good shoot!

 

[Adam Michael Carr]

These things really look great. I'm stoked to hear what Terry thinks about the Mod 7.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

Awwww man, you can't sneak in a little yay or nay?! :ihih:
Have a good shoot!

Sad story... I had to go out for just an hour on Friday and, wouldn't you know, the DHL came about 5 minutes before I got back. The delivery required a signature so I missed out. Oh well, had to shoot all weekend so I'll get the delivery tomorrow (Monday) and report back.

 

[Paul J. Helin]

Thanks for taking the time to drop us fellow users a few lines on your impressions. I have been looking at mod 7 as well but have been a bit worried how front heavy it becomes after adding the full nine yards. It does seem to have good counter balance options but the whole thing might become heavy compared to a unit where the most of the camera is directly above the shoulder. Hoping for the best though. The price is quite appealing.

 

[Antony M]

I am not sure if I should be impressed with Edelkrone or with DHL, but my package is scheduled for delivery today.

Hi Terry, I look forward to hearing your opinions on the Modula 7.

DHL are brilliant. I sent a laptop from the UK on Thursday afternoon. It arrived with my friend in Portugal the next morning!!!

 

[Terry VerHaar]

OK - so I have my MOD 7 unit and I shot a short (well, sort of rambling) video of unboxing it. I am going to spend a few minutes cleaning that up so as not to bore you folks too badly. Then I'll post it. Let me say right up front that I had pretty high hopes and expectations for this rig and I am not at all disappointed! It is well designed and solid. I especially like how versatile it seems to be. Obviously, with only a couple of hours working with it, I haven't even scratched the surface of possibilities, but I am optimistic.

Meanwhile, here is a video that the Edelkrone guys pointed me to which explains their whole system way better than I could. Enjoy:

http://vimeo.com/35762810

Later...

 

[Adam Michael Carr]

Terry,
I'm still confused on how you got in touch with edelkrone directly. I see on their site that they only take calls on Wednesday and they are in Turkey so hours are pretty much opposite of here. I spoke with small hd and they told me that I have to order through them until they exhaust their inventory.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

Terry,
I'm still confused on how you got in touch with edelkrone directly. I see on their site that they only take calls on Wednesday and they are in Turkey so hours are pretty much opposite of here. I spoke with small hd and they told me that I have to order through them until they exhaust their inventory.

I ordered directly from their web site. Perhaps I slipped through a short window of time when they were working things out. Have you tried just to order from their store? I posted my experience a few posts back in this thread. Also, a few days after I ordered the MOD 7, I ordered a follow focus as well. They are backordered so it won't deliver until late February, Sound familiar?

EDIT: Hmmmm... I still have no problem going right to their store and adding things to a cart.

EDIT II: Now I do see that their Modula rigs seem to be restricted - saying they won't ship to US or Canada. I guess I got lucky as they worked things out.

 

[Adam Michael Carr]

hahaha right on. Sounds like you got lucky Terry. Still seems like a great deal. Hope you like it.

 

[Paul J. Helin]

Any further impressions on that Mod7, Terry? Would love to hear more! Even on that long and very informative video, I could´t help but be slightly worried that the whole rig is a bit front heavy. Especially when you slap a dressed epic/scarlet on that baby. Is there no way to adjust the camera backwards?

-Paul

 

[Terry VerHaar]

I apologize for being slow on posting my unboxing video - I had something come up but will try to do so very soon. Just so everyone is clear, I don't yet have my Scarlet so I can't really comment on exactly how that will work. I have played around with the rig (with my 60D) enough to believe that it will accommodate a Scarlet just fine. (In fact, there is a video on the SmallHD that briefly shows a rig with the Scarlet mounted.)

My basic impressions: I am VERY impressed with the design and build. The unit is a bit heavy because of its very beefy construction, but is also very well balanced. If you get the MOD 7, as I did, with the ability to extend the weight out the back, and add either some counterweights or a battery (or both?) I believe you will have NO problem achieving a good balance. Perhaps, as I said, at the expense of a little extra weight. Worst case, for me, if I feel the unit might be a little uncomfortable for long periods because of the weight, I might entertain getting the double shoulder mount for those times when I expect to shoot for long periods.

I hope that helps.

 

[Terry VerHaar]

OK - so I have been a flake on getting the info out on the MOD7 unit. I apologize; it has just not been a high priority as a few things have interrupted me. But, I have been asked about my experience so far, and specifically about how to attach the 5" LCD. I don't have my Scarlet yet (allocated and awaiting a shipping notice) but I do have the LCD and have attached it using an Easy Plate from Wooden Camera.

Here is a crappy iPhone photo:

I don't think I can tell exactly how things will work until I do get my Scarlet and play with set-ups, but I am confident it will work fine. I will sometimes shoot with my SmallHD DP4/EVF on the rig, in which case I'll control with the REDmote or perhaps the Side Handle. Or, Ill noun the LCD on top. I'll have to see.

As I pointed out earlier, there is a video showing a Scarlet on the Mod 7, so I know it will fit. It's on the Small HD web site.

Aslo, for those counting on my unboxing video, it really doesn't show off the various attributes as well as the Edelkrone video does itself but I'll try to get it yup soon.

 

[Dylan Couper]

Damn $1000 for a Mod7 is a great deal. I played with these at NAB last year. Never thought of getting one for the Scarlet until this thread. Thanks!

 

[Björn Benckert]

A few things I noticed...

1.The rods will not be in standard hight.
2.The way it's built will make your camera come out quite far from your body. With an epic/scalet and lens, matte box and follow focus I think you would not last for more than a few minutes without counter balance.
3. To counterbalance an scarlet with a big lens you need a lot if the camera is so much forward.

So to me it looks great if you use a canon 550D but an epic will simply not work since you can't get the pivot point behind the front of your shoulder.
And having 15mm rods in the wrong distance from the lens will not do much good. I think having 19mm rods is usually whats needed for big lenses any way and usually it's only when being on big lenses you need lens support. follow focus etc... so again it's a SLR thingy. The guy in the video seems very clever and I think if you gave him a scarlet he would design something completely different.

Here is a picture of our clutch configured in shoulder balance, no hands needed on handles even though it's a camera that has a lot of weight.

And here is a little video showing the clutch in "POV" mode. A client wanted POV with DOP hands in picture... So fisheye and lens on eye plane....

http://www.syndicate.se/Files/~usr/film/EPIC POV-CAM.mov