Space Instruments, micro Worrall Gear Head

[Luka Sanader]

as a geared head buff, i was really happy to see this little head on a market. i cant say for others but Gearnex was a disappointment and hopes of new small GH really put a smile on my face. I talked to the Guys in Germany asking bunch of questions and they ware more then helpful. I was assured that its "as same as mini Worrall" when it comes to performance but its more versatile and more compact... I was also told that so far company made 11 heads but still there is no reviews anywhere. Apparently they sold 2 in Canada but they are in west coast, far form me to see them.

Basic model is 3000Eur without gearbox, single speed and two speed version with wadge plate and free wheel option will run for 1000Eur extra. they need 3 months to make your unit.

well 4500USD for new micro Worrall head is not that much as long as the head is good but it would be a total waist if this is another "sort of" GH on a market.

What do you guys think? any owners on a forum?

thanks

http://www.space-instruments.org/in...category_id=37&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBEr4d9XFiA

 

[RobMNeilson]

This does look promising. Please post here if you're able to find any reviews.

 

[Luka Sanader]

Rob, i called them again but person that speeks good English was not around. i will ask him for detail photos of inside the head and i will ask if i can post them on a forum. hopefully i will find one of 11 owners out in the wild. it looks its well maid and for what i understood its a base design of Mini CP Worrall with some new and improved features... since that last talk i have talked to Marty at VisualProduct about ways to improve CP and i have new set of questions for the Space Instruments guys. i would be willing to go to Berlin to test the head but the problem is they dont have them in stock, order and you shell get (in 3 months) i have two GH at work Mitchell and second version of big Worrall. i love big Worrall it works as a charm but its almost impossible to use it in todays workflow (it is 80lb).

 

[Nick Gardner]

The mini Worrall is a completely different design that the worrall. This new head is a scaled down version of the original, it doesn't seem to have anything in common with the mini.

Nick

 

[jordan levy]

seems that the pan wheel is working in the wrong direction? or am i wrong?
maybe it can be reversed…
but id be really interested in this, if it worked well, wish i could try it out before i put down the money and had them build it from scratch!

 

[Luka Sanader]

Nick, according to them new micro head is wire driven, same as Mini CP. top rocker is like on Worrall however there is no worm in a pan mechanism... main problme is that person that speaks good English down at SI is non tec guy, i asked bunch of questions and he had to "get back to me" in any case as soon as we have photos we will know for sure.

as for the build quality, how tight is the head and how long is going to stay like that... well that will be harder to find out. am operating GH for 20+ years now and am really not picky when it comes to design. every had has its issue, and everything can be improved. size, lack of people in camera department and in production in general, makes really hard to use older GH. the fact that this GH is smaller then two fluid heads i have at the moment is really appalling to me

jordan you are right Sir! wheel is going in opposite direction. i asked the same thing and i was told that on a normal model wheels move in normal direction and that this was made with prototype that didn have gearbox installed and therefore it was reversed (??)

 

[Nick Gardner]

Well then they fixed the wrong part. Pan was never an issue. The reason Cinema products switched to a piece of aircraft cable from a gear was because the gear wears. Since 90% of tilting is in the middle, the gear wears in the middle, and then when it is adjusted nice and snug in the middle, it is too tight at the ends. CP fixed that with a cable, and Arri copied the design and used a belt.

That being said, I own a Worral Head with the gear in it's original unajusted position, and it seams just fine. That might have been a problem if your head was on a studio lot doing episodic television 5 days a week all year long, for 5 years. But in the real world, it's probably not that big of a deal. I have some issues with the design of these guys head. There is a reason that the panahead, the Mini Worrall, and the Arri head all have more or less the same dimensions. This thing has too small of a radius on the arc.

Nick