The Clutch Review

[fREDeric ChAMbERlAnd]

Shooting with the Clutch for the past two weeks , here are my pros and cons :

PROS:
Chest and back pads are fantastic. Lots of adjustments for a perfect fit.
Quick release is rock solid and there is ZERO play when plates are attached together.
Machined parts are some of the finest I've seen in camera related accessories. Light years from the first generation of RED accessories.

CONS:
The rosettes were not tight enough out of the box, I had to tighten them all , and I was lucky to have a good mini torx screwdriver in my kit to tighten those very small screws. Watch out not to strip them as it will be hell to take them out of there.
There is a design flaw in my opinion regarding the rubber pad on the shoulder part. After only one week of use, one of the two rubber covers on the end of the pad is teared. Those two rubber "studs" are not glued like the rest of the pad and they can easily be "popped" out of their metal grooves. And so they are very fragile to any push or rub. While soft rubber is intended to be comfortable and should be handled and used with care, those two studs are doomed to be ripped off some time soon while used in very normal conditions.

In a few words, a great accessory with great assets and well taught out but for 5K, I should not be tightening screws on set and having parts failure on day 3 under normal use.
And for me , normal use is also working in hell holes with hail and rain at night in minus 3 celcius (last night for me).

I'm from the school where you buy the best stuff in every domain and then just forget about it so you can concentrate on your next shot, not on what screwdriver you need to tighten the screws on your new toy.

My 2 cents,

Frederic

 

[Nick Gardner]

Thanks for the review. How did you find the weight? 8 pounds is pretty damn heavy. That's gotta be at least 25% of the overall rig weight.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I saw the Clutch at NAB. Weight is alright once you have it on your shoulder. Or seems it would be with the lighter Epic brain. I didn't have the two of them together. Looks like it's made very well, I can definitely see where the shoulder pad could catch and tear as it did for Frederic. Surprised that the rosettes would need to be tightened down.

The Clutch is definitely intriguing and seems very comfortable on the shoulder (although without a camera when I tried it). But I'm going to use the ET Mantis I already have for the time being... Or at least I'll start with it and then see before I spend another $5K on the Clutch. I have too many other things I need to buy...

 

[Greg M]

The CLUTCH also comes with the new quick release system and riser plate for Epic. When compared with the Mantis it is most defiantly worth the price difference, the Clutch has many more components which make it infinitely more configurable to your body.

The only problem with buying the Clutch, is that you really have to buy an additional DSMC QR System to make using the Clutch practical. It would be nice if Red offered a package of the two systems.

 

[AnthonyFlores]

Thanks Frederic. I happened to LOVE it when I tried it at NAB, especially in terms of stability, ergonomics and overall feel. But I didn't use it in a real world situation like you did, so I respect your comments. Hopefully, especially if this affected any of the other owners, Red will take note and adjust these small issues. It seems to be the most premium priced product on the market, so it needs to work flawlessly. Still, I would definitely feel confident in getting one -- even if I have to tighten screws or eventually replace the pad. That's not ideal for a 5k product, but it just feel so far ahead of the other options I tried at NAB -- even the upcoming prototypes from other manufacturers.

Anthony