Announcing Cinevate's Proteus "Cage"

Dennis Wood

Dennis Wood

DVXuser Sponsor
[FONT=&quot]This little project has been brewing on the back-burner for nearly 7 months and we finally got it sorted. The Proteus cage is a whole lot more than a handle, although for the Stillmotion.ca crew, it was immediately adoped as a crazy angle rig. The picturers are pretty self explanatory in terms of how you can use it. If you've got our Proteus rails already, the cage attaches to your existing tripod mount plate, converting it to a dual block design. If you don't use our rails, the cage will be available with the second block and tripod plate fully rigged. The "hot" shoe (not hot) attachment allows mounting mics, transceivers etc, the tool "pod" allows safe and handy storage of any adjustment keys, and finally, our 5/8 or 15mm universal rails blocks can mount in three different locations. The laptop/transciever clamp will also be available as an accessory. Made of CNC stamped/bent/machined components, the cage is 100% aluminum and powder coated for a lifetime of use. The bare rig is about 950grams, or just under 2lbs...so it's light but incredibly strong. We'll have the catalog updated tomorrow with pricing starting at $189 US[/FONT]

cagebare.jpg


cagelaptop.jpg


Note our follow focus mounted in a rather novel fashion!
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carmount1.jpg


carmount2.jpg


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Grab from the XH-A1, using CFXL and our Zeiss 35mm f2 lens.
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Great idea for studio work with a laptop! Rig must be getting quite a bit heavier though, how much does the cage weight? How is the laptop secured on that cage?
 
Thanks guys. Some of our long time customers know that our original jib design was shelved for something a lot sexier, lighter and stiffer...and that cage sure looks like it would work great on PTZ rig, no?

Joseph, we will indeed be stocking all the grip parts you see in those pics, so we'll be able to help our customers out a bit more efficiently. We've got collapsable diffusion frames, apple boxes and some more goodies coming in the grip department. The decision to expand to these products came from some frustration in having to make stuff ourselves. When our professional grip, Chris, get's excited about something he's never seen (and wanted) in the field, then I take that as pretty solid advice.

Gabriel, the unit is about 950 grams. The handle is machined to allow sliding clamps (for laptops, transceivers etc.), 15mm rails block mounting, or hot shoe adapter mounting. In other words, it does everything I've ever wanted aside from being a very solid handle. It sounds strange, but once you've got the handle on there, done a few low angle, "stable" transition shots, or just piled your rig into your back seat you'll never want it off. Even just tuning up a rig, you can lay it on its side without worrying about banging up your camera or worry about it rolling off a table.
 
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Funny thing on that car setup. It took longer to wash the car and put the roof racks on than it did to fit the rig! We used a few Manfrotto 6" pump cups and two Cartolini clamps to the roof rack. The end result was an incredibly solid rig.
 
Yes, between the Proteus cage, Shoulder Rig, Mattebox and 30cm version of our solid carbon rails, we've got that scenario 100% covered right now.

Our next product launch (in 1 to 2 weeks) will have our Proteus rails system owners tickled pink with how we've leveraged their investment yet again :-)
 
Dennis, whats the chances of you guys sending one of these down to Vistek in Toronto? I want to see the "Cage" on the cinevate rails with a D90 or 5D MKII, the cinevate follow focus, and the mattebox.
 
Well, once one of these SLR chips gets into a video camera that can scan it quickly enought to prevent rolling shutter nasties, then yep, they will move over to Fred's side of things :-) Regardless, it'll be pretty exciting to see what folks come up with the 5D..we'll have one here for a few days to play.
 
As a matter of fact, the cage was sized to clear our HPX500 mounted on the Proteus rails with our shortly links. It's also been checked out for use on a Bolex 16mm film camera that we've equipped with our carbon rails system and FF. We've fitted one of our aluminum film pitch focus gears on the HPX500's Fujinon lens and use it exclusively now with our FF and cage in place.

One of the things that drove me a bit crazy with our 2 channel wireless mic system was that there was no place to mount the receiver (and no shoe mount available for it) on the HPX500 without using gaffer tape. The Proteus cage top clamp was designed to hold it and anything else (like our netbook computer) using a toolless, very solid system.
 
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