Edelkrone Pocket Rig 2

simonpwood

simonpwood

Well-known member
***I have now added a review - below***

Has anyone used the Edelkrone Pocket Rig 2? Or seen any 3rd party reviews for it?

I have looked for reviews here and elsewhere to see if it would suit my needs (for a lightweight, discrete, rig for travelling and running & gunning).

I wonder if it addresses some of the issues with the first version (flimsy arm, fasteners prone to loosening etc)?

Any feedback or links would be appreciated, thanks.
 
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Ok so I bought this, along with a Focus One. They ship anywhere in the world with UPS, as UPS is relatively expensive it made sense to buy the focus at the same time (instead of buying it later and paying for the same postage twice). I have done a quick review with some bad photos; not my thing, my apologies.

The items were well packed in good quality boxes with cut foam.

This has been noted by others before, but its worth repeating again; when you hold these items you are immediately struck by the quality of the craftsmanship and attention to detail that has gone into building them. Its all CNC machined aluminum, and completely flawless. Everything is black, with the Edelkrone name etched in a white outline. It’s all very tastefully done and discrete (with none of these horrible anodized coloured parts you see from some rig makers).

Obviously this rig was designed specifically for DSLR’s, I doubt it would work with anything bigger.


Once you put it on your camera becomes unstable by itself, it tips forward until the lens is on the floor.



Putting a tripod plate on can change that though.



These arrived at the tail end of a documentary shoot I have been filming, so I have used these briefly for a couple of scenes. My review is based on this initial real world scenario, though it was only for couple of days.

Starting with the Pocket Rig 2.
First impressions; this is a solid piece of kit. Other crew on the set were immediately drawn to it, and wanted to play around with it. Everyone thought it was a pretty neat idea, myself included.



The Pros of this device are immediately obvious to anyone that looks at it: You have a small rig attached to your camera that acts as a baseplate, a shoulder stock, and includes 15mm rods. It is relatively lightweight. It is incredibly small when folded, and saves both space and weight in your bag.

However, the negatives only become evident once you actually start using it, and there are a few unfortunately. But I would preface this by saying that the negatives are fashioned through compromises necessitated by the small folding design, and not by actual design flaws.

Firstly though it’s worth noting the differences between the Pocket Rig 1 & 2. There have been some improvements (I don’t own Rig 1 so I am basing this of other reviews and videos made about the First Rig). This is just based on my superficial observations (the whole construction could be different and I wouldn’t know). These changes seem to have addressed a few shortcomings of the original design.

  • Classier Labeling; the old one had a big sticker on it.
  • Only 1 screw on the extending arm clamp instead of 2.
  • Butt stock is solid, not folding. Fewer hinges. It has a cut for the belt, instead of folding the butt stock.
  • The base is wider, for attaching to a tripod.
  • The rods can extend out for attaching a mattebox.
Here is the new arm clamp with 1 screw instead of 2:


Here is the new butt stock:


This design of this rig is based on the rifle principle; you pull the rig onto your shoulder to steady the camera in the same way you would steady a rifle. Some people don’t like this, and prefer having a rig that rests on top of the shoulder to take some of the weight (though this only works with some kind of counter balance). With a shoulder stock you still carry all of the weight, though its spread somewhat into the shoulder as it’s a point of contact.

I have always preferred shoulder stocks for DSLR’s as they are quick and easy and usually light weight. Some people find that their arms become numb or sore, and I usually find this after a full days filming with a shoulder stock. But the more you use it the easier it gets.

Pulling the stock tighter to your shoulder steadies the camera further, and this brings about the first comprise of this design. The stock uses a number of hinges in construction, and so these become points of weakness if you pull too tight. That said though the hinges are very tight (but still fluid) so they don’t collapse on you unexpectedly. If the stock is aligned straight then there is no give no matter how tight you pull. But as you bend the stock further down (to raise the camera relative to your shoulder, then the likelihood of the main hinge bending under pressure increases.

This photo shows the set up I was using on the documentary (I just put it on a tripod for the photo, obviously I was holding it for the shoot). It includes a 5Dmk3, Pocket Rig 2, Loupe, Follow Focus, Rokinon lenses (selection of), Rode Mic, Variable ND Filter, rubber lens hood. That was getting heavy, but comfortable enough. You can see the stock is at an angle (so that the loupe was in line with my face):


I usually like to have 1 handle for my right hand lower than the camera for pulling a shoulder stock tight. When I attempted this with the Pocket Rig 2 (by attaching an old handle to the right side rod) this became unstable. By lowering the pulling point so far below the hinge I created too much leverage, and the rig simply bends around the hinge as you pull it in. Now this only happens when the stock is already at an angle. If the stock is straight then its not an issue.

Its also not an issue when you hold the camera body with the right hand (which is just above the hinge and creates no leverage). So holding the camera with the stock at an angle is actually very firm, even when pulling the stock strongly. This is how they use it in the official video, and so this is how its probably meant to be. So I just need to retrain myself to get used to holding the camera instead of holding a handle.

Incidentally the only reason why you would want to have the stock at an angle is when you are using a loupe to view the scene (you bend the stock up to your face). In most other circumstances, like when using an external monitor you would have it straight.

Using it this way during the documentary shoot was fine, once I got used to the right hand position there was no problem, and nothing unexpected happened. It was a solid stock.

The rods worked well too. I had them out and attached the Follow focus to them and the lens without any issues. While I had no problem I did note a couple of instance where there could be problems for some uses though.

Firstly, a section of the rod unscrews to extend the rods further out (for a mattebox). It’s a clever design, but it means that if you have too much weight attached to one rod then the whole rod could unscrew by itself. This happened once with the handle on the rightside rod. It never happened with the follow focus; but considering that to unscrew, the rod would travel clockwise, in this case the follow focus leans right to the lens, so there is no room for travel and hence the follow focus cant unscrew when attached to the left side of the lens. Potentially though this could be an issue if you have the follow focus attached on the right side rod.

The other issue is the distance of unusable rod when its extended; yes you can now attach a mattebox, but it becomes impossible to attach a follow focus to match with any normal sized lens, see the photo:


So all in all I believe this an excellent gadget that does a lot of different jobs in a tiny well constructed package. There are a few small compromises though, but the pros outweigh the cons.

This is going to be my go-to rig for all run-and-gun scenarios, and for when I am travelling, or filming in public. When the Pocket Rig 2 is attached to the camera they both fit into the space in my camera compartment together, meaning I have saved a lot of space and weight.

There are Chinese knock-off pocket rigs available at cheaper prices on Ebay, but I wanted to support the guys that actually came up with the design. I’m pretty sure some of my payment will go into research and development at Edelkrone to design even better gadgets down the line.
 
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This shows what I'm talking about by adding a handle. The handle is somewhat lower than the hinge, and creates a lot of leverage. As you pull the rig into your shoulder, the leverage created by the low handle simply transfers that into a rotational movement around the hinge (with red circle). So instead of getting a super tight grip the whole thing starts to fold.

This only happens when you increase the leverage though. When holding the camera itself, it is practically impossible to cause the hinge to move (no leverage). Likewise if the stock is straight to begin with (not already bent) then I think the handle can be used.

 
Good write up. I had the first version but didn't care for it. Does this one have two holes in the base to prevent a QR plate from twisting?

I also have the the Focus One, and that one's a keeper. I especially like the single point of contact, allowing me to mount it from above on a single rod.
 
Yes, the base does have two holes, so the little brass spring from the QR plate fits in there nicely. Little details like that make a difference.

I am still not 100% sold on the follow focus. I mean, it works very well, there is no backlash so far as I can tell, and the reverse gear (for Nikon lenses) is brilliant. The standard of the construction is amazing, and the economy of the design is ingenious (in size and weight).

However, while the focus mechanism seems pretty intuitive for 1 focus mark, the whole idea kind of comes apart if you want to make 2 or more marks. There does not seem to be any way to get around this either, as marking the disk is pointless due to the way it works.

I am going to continue using it as a run-and-gun focus for the meantime and see if it grows on me, but I think for more complicated shoots I will continue using a larger, more traditional style follow focus that allows multiple marks.
 
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