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not too much flexible 15mm rods advice

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MarcoLomiler

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Hey frends , i need some words about the most solid 15mm rods on planet.
I have been using zacuto's since my 7D rig , and now i feel it too much flexible for my Scarlet setups. it is too damm flexible.
and i have a Zeiss Contax 300mm on its way , ant i fell it wont be solid enough for it.
Wich brand of 15mm rails is more solid?
anything more solid tham zacuto will be fine for me.
i dont have money to upgrade all my accessories to 19mm.

Thanks.
 
MarcoLomiler said:
Hey frends , i need some words about the most solid 15mm rods on planet.
I have been using zacuto's since my 7D rig , and now i feel it too much flexible for my Scarlet setups. it is too damm flexible.
and i have a Zeiss Contax 300mm on its way , ant i fell it wont be solid enough for it.
Wich brand of 15mm rails is more solid?
anything more solid tham zacuto will be fine for me.
i dont have money to upgrade all my accessories to 19mm.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

I've never used Zacuto but Viewfactor's are nice (and a lot of different size options);

http://www.viewfactor.net/15mm-rods.html

And, this sounds nuts but I also have a set from this Camtree company (or whatever they call themselves these days, "Cinecity" sometimes) that are REALLY nice... and dirt cheap. I mean, super stiff... almost to a fault if you want to hacksaw them to different sizes, as they're really solid but I got them with some DSLR kit. I don't think you can buy them by themselves though, but with Viewfactor, you can and those are really nice.
 
hey frends Thanks for the references
i have been using zacuto rods since 2008 , and i dont have other brands or material reference .
 
Last edited:
Is it the rods themselves that are flexing or is it play in the rod support?
If the rods wiggle at all in the rod support, you need to address that first.
 
The Zacutos scarlet base plate are real stiff.
The rods are not.
 
Thought I'd jump into the water here as I've rigged a few cameras before :)

So the first thing is LWS 15mm rods are great for keeping rigs light and slender, but typically you are mounting via a bracket at the furthest end of your rod nearest to the camera and you are adding weight with accessories away from that mounting point. That's a physics thing really. 15mm tubes in general are pretty strong, but not as sturdy as 19mm. Carbon fiber is also good for light weight, but sometimes there's a bit of flex in the tubes.

If you want real strength, like if you're attempting to rig something like an Angenieux Optimo 24-290, you'll certainly want to go with 19mm and have two mounting clamps on each rod. Similar to how the DSMC Quick Release Platform Pack is setup. This provides the most rigid and solid connection.

I use a mix of stainless steel and carbon fiber depending on what I'm doing. I find I use 15mm LWS carbon fiber rods with good success with still lenses because typically the follow focus is mounted closer to the LWS bracket itself.
 
It is very flexible for me , i use 30cm rods in combination with Swiss plate with a battery plate , and with 15 or 20cm out of the plate , it is really flexible and get my rig unstable.
I will try element technica rods , Stainless stell.
Thanks for the tips guys.
 
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