DSLR RIG REVIEW

by Sebastian WöberJanuary 23^rd, 2010

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Another thing that might be our own fault, is that we didn’t find the ¼-inch screw to attach the camera. We probably lost it.
We may have created this problem ourselves. On the other hand, it should be noted that the camera mounting screw is not suspended on the base plate. We did not like that. This makes it easier to loose, and means you always have to store it separately. In our studio we had lots of gear and many ¼-inch screws in different lengths and shapes, but none of them would fit the Cinevate base plate. It requires a certain length a little bit longer than normal ¼-inch screws. Eventually we found the correct one, when we dismounted the hot shoe adapter.

The camera, when attached has a lot of three dimensional play, more than on the Genus baseplate. On the picture above, you can see a very practical use for the movement of the base plate.

After spending an hour with the base plate alone, we wanted to stop reviewing this gear. This is a feeling you might also get when using it on a shoot.
We put in some more hours anyway, and tried to get the whole thing to work.

One of the many major problems of this rig, is the quality of the screws. They are tiny (which is a good thing), but not fully lockable. Even when we used a lot of force, we always managed to pull out the rods somehow. This made us feel a little unsecure about this rig.

When the screws were open, we’d still have a hard time getting the rods in or out. It’s frustrating, because eventually that’s one of the main things a rig is used for.

Next, we tried the very interesting looking lens gear Cinevate supplied. The gear itself is very wide and has 6 metal threads. Quality looks good, but we don’t like the work that lies ahead of us. Not that we’re lazy, but we found that solutions by other companies were much quicker.

You have to find the set of the supplied screws, that are the correct size for your lens.
We used the screws we felt were right.
While really pushing ourselves to be speedy, we managed to insert the screws and fit the lens in 2 minutes. Redrock’s solution usually takes about 10 seconds.

The positive thing about Cinevate’s lens gear, is that it allows for a focus rotation past 340 degrees, because there is no screw in the way. Also, it’s rather inexpensive in comparison to the other lens gears. (We’ll add a list of all the lens gears we received later in this review.)

The good quality, screwless design, and price, are aspects we like about the Cinevate lens gears.

The gear looks really cool on the lens. This 7D has never looked so steam-punk before. We like that, but we’re still skeptical about this bulky solution, it will take up a lot of space in front of the lens or can block access to the iris control.