Best Rod Support System? Prices? Links?

S

SGFilms

Well-known member
Search field was not working so I decided to ask...What is your preferred choice for rod support system? The Letus is $700 which is a lot of money, so it there anything just as good that is a little cheaper than $700? Being a struggling filmmaker, it's tough to get a rod support system when you have literally no cash. And how much are rod support systems? Do we have a thread with a link to their sites and the prices?
 
indirails are cheap - although I have no experience with them. I use Zacuto's - expensive but worth it IMO. They work perfectly every time and let me do my job without fussing with them.
 
I'm moving toward Zacutos. Extremely expensive - easy to get to $1K just for rails! But hot dang those things are built like tanks and I only have 1 piece so far!
 
Cinevate's Proteus rails use a pretty cool idea in the way they raise and lower the camera without shims or a big rod poking out below the rails.
 
I'm a big fan of cinevate's myself but if you're on a super budget and just starting into this whole adapter mess then indirails should do the trick.
 
I'm not sure what "cheap " Rails mean, but i have been using both cinevate and indirails for a while now and they are both doing the job, while keeping my rig nice and light.
 
I guess part of the answer comes down to what the shooter's needs are. If you have an SGPro or a RedRock, you have slightly different needs than if you have a Brevis or a Letus just because of the way that the first two attach to the rods at a fixed height. Also, all those adapters are different lengths, which also comes into play when deciding how long the rails need to be. Flip module or no flip module? Matte box? Long zoom or telephoto lenses or all primes?
 
Our solid carbon 15mm rods are about 50% lighter than standard stainless 15mm, and approx 75% stiffer. On the rods alone, the weight savings on a 60cm set is .8lbs. An entire 60cm system, including the Proteus base plate system and tripod plate is only 1.9 lbs. I'd go out on a limb here and say that for stiffness and weight, there is nothing better at any price.
 
I have the Letus v2 setup, and I love it...

I bought it for a doc shoot in Haiti, trudged around the countryside for ten days in broiling heat, and didn't once regret the purchase. My main camera is an A1/LEX rig, which is pretty heavy with batteries/monitor/etc, and I needed something more substantial than the CAVision rods for that environment. I simply didn't have time to be fussing with camera support.

I did a lot of research, thought through and diagrammed my rig, and for my needs it came down to either the Letus V2 or a Zacuto setup. In the end the Z was simply out of my price range, but for my needs and budget, Letus definitely has the best setup on the market.

Just my $0.02
 
Chris Santucci said:
Redrock Micro baseplate and rods is rock solid:

http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c.472981/it.A/id.396/.f

The SG pro baseplate is too narrow and uses aluminum rods.

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Theres nothign wrong with aluminium rods, zacuto rods are aluminium. The redorck rods are too shiny, and the redrock baseplate is FAR too wide, much wider than is necessary. The SGpro cheeseplate is narrow certainly, but its wide enough to provide a lot of support and has all the same screws and mounting options as the standard broadcast wedge plate has. The quick release plate and mount are the same on teh SGp as they are on the redrock rods.

The SGpro rods are very solid, despite what Chris has said.
 
lovetrumpsfear said:
I have the Letus v2 setup, and I love it...

I bought it for a doc shoot in Haiti, trudged around the countryside for ten days in broiling heat, and didn't once regret the purchase. My main camera is an A1/LEX rig, which is pretty heavy with batteries/monitor/etc, and I needed something more substantial than the CAVision rods for that environment. I simply didn't have time to be fussing with camera support.

I did a lot of research, thought through and diagrammed my rig, and for my needs it came down to either the Letus V2 or a Zacuto setup. In the end the Z was simply out of my price range, but for my needs and budget, Letus definitely has the best setup on the market.

Just my $0.02
Click to expand...

Could you post a pic of your setup no one here has said they own or shown the new letus rods since they came out. I love the cinevate proteus system but for fun I wouldn't mind seeing the new letus rods properly rigged up.
 
I've both the Zacuto Universal / Z Riser set up and a Letus V2 and believe it or not, in many ways I prefer the V2. What I love about the V2 is the the mount to tripod is completely separate from the mount to camera. This allows much more flexibility in balancing. Balance with 35 adaptors and external monitors can be a pain if your rod rail / tripod head doesn't afford you enough fore and aft. By making the two mounts independent, you've got considerably more travel than the Zacuto. Also you don't have to take the system off the tripod to adjust the camera mount fore / aft as it uses what looks like a Manfrotto style sliding baseplate.

My only misgiving with the V2 is the size of the fastening knob/levers. They should be a little bigger to make torquing down faster/easier. Zacuto has the edge in this department.

The V2 did a nice job in threading the rods. So extending rods for odd sized lenses and such is a breeze.

The machining on the V2 is rock solid.

Recently I used the V2 without an adaptor but mounted a Nebtek HDS 70 off the rear rods via 15mm to 3/8" bracket to arm bones to ball mount to monitor. Balancing this on my Zacuto was impossible. The V2's separate bracket for tripod mount made balancing a breeze.

Overall, at 699 it's a great deal.

I had the old SG baseplate which was a joke with it's shims and such. It looks like they made huge improvements. I hope they've improved the rods as the ones I had always had issues clamping down on 15mm accessories. They seemed not quite 15mm. Just shy. Anyway, I ended up butchering it completely for spare parts. I use the bracket for my monitor mount.
 
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i vote proteus. Had the indie rails, cavision, and RR, and i finally settled on proteus for the form and rugged build.
 
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