Gini Rigs Go Proprietary....

F

Framerate

Well-known member
First - Gini rigs & cages are good quality items, and usually available at good prices.

However.

The beauty of DSLR rig parts is that they are usually highly interchangeable - rods from this one, a camera plate from that one, handles from another one...etc. etc.

That beng so, there is nothing that is as 'standard' as the 1/4-20 thread - used for camera mounting, accessory monting, you name it. *everything* has the 1/4-20 thread.

Except the latest generation of Gini cages.

The one delivered to me had no standard threads at all (except one for mounting the camera) In their place were an array of smaller 10-24 holes. Lots of them - and every single one completely useless for mounting standard accessories (which, after all, is the whole reason for buying a DSLR cage)

When I contacted Gini, I had the rare priveledge of a reply - which was to inform me that he was about to produce 'adaptors' to enable those 10-24 threads to accept 1/4-20 accessories.

Whoopee! - extra costs, extra weight, extra faffing about - but extra profit for Gini....

All of his current cages appear to be cming with these non-standard holes - so, watch out if you order one.
 
Perhaps the best plan would be to contact him and ask for an asurance that your cage will have some 1/4-20 holes.

In my case, the ebay photo did show the 1/4 holes - but the delivered item had none.

I have raised an ebay dispute, and I daresay I'll be able to send it back - but I've already paid extra import duty, and then there's the cost of sending it back to Korea from the UK (which I don't think I'll get refunded)

All in all, Gini has me over a barrel.

The really annoying thing is that he must still have a supply of 'old' cage plates with the necessary 1/4 holes. I asked him to send just one (the bottom plate dodn't matter). He could have sent it by Korea post at very little cost - but after telling me about his forthcomng thread adaptors, Gini just ignored me.

Shame, because as I said previously, it's a really nice cage - but useless with those non-standard accessory threads.
 
I think the news of this should be spread far and wide. Hopefully, if he experiences a dramatic drop in sales, he'll reconsider. Or, if he does not, perhaps a competitor can spring up who has sense enough not to go the customer hostile and doomed proprietary way a la Sony, and take the sales from those who now refuse to deal with Gini Rig. Hit him in the pocket book, and hard. Spread the word. Boycott Gini Rigs as long as this nonsense goes on. Customers speak the loudest with their wallets.
 
OldCorpse said:
I think the news of this should be spread far and wide. Hopefully, if he experiences a dramatic drop in sales, he'll reconsider. Or, if he does not, perhaps a competitor can spring up who has sense enough not to go the customer hostile and doomed proprietary way a la Sony, and take the sales from those who now refuse to deal with Gini Rig. Hit him in the pocket book, and hard. Spread the word. Boycott Gini Rigs as long as this nonsense goes on. Customers speak the loudest with their wallets.
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+1
 
this is just terrible to hear. Many of us praised him so much until now. can anyone else confirm this with a recent gini purchase?
 
Wow that's just... dumb!
If it ain't broke, why fix it?
Furthermore, why in the hell is he making going to make you purchase the 1/4" adapter instead of the other way around? (1/4" to whatever his proprietary size is)
That way the user would have the option as to whether or not it's worth dishing it out.

Looks like a blatant money grab to me.
What a shame.
 
Just to clarify the problem -

The cage is comprised of two identical 'cheese' plates (top & bottom) and standard 15mm rods. He supplies that basic design with various handles that clamp on the rods, or are bolted to the top plate.

The plates used to come with a mixture of standard 1/4-20 threaded holes and other, smaller, 10-24 holes.

You can see by the photo that, now, the only 1/4 hole is the one used to mount the camera (not even Gini could change that -;) ) The rest of them are all 10-24 threads (in both plates)

P1000003.JPG crop.jpg
 
Devildog said:
might not be a fun option, but it sounds like a drill and tap could fix it pretty straight away.
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I certainly thought about drilling out the holes, and then using 1/4-20 bolts to secure the mic shock mounts and recorder mount.

However, the existing holes are drilled pretty close together, with very little space between them, or between the hole and the edge of the cage.

I think that enlarging them to accept a 1/4 bolt would seriously weaken the thing.

If you look at a picture of his previous plates (with 1/4 holes & some 10-24 holes) you'll see that there were fewer of them, and they were more generously spaced.
 
If Gini wants to take advantage of the market in a capitalist fashion, then the market shall speak...
 
dcarstens said:
If Gini wants to take advantage of the market in a capitalist fashion, then the market shall speak...
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Of course. But it's only fair that potential buyers be informed of what the product is, so they don't buy based on a reputation that no longer is accurate - that's how Framerate ended up with an unusable or compromised product. What should happen is that potential clients should be clearly informed about the new specs, and if they still buy based on that, then all's fair, and the market has spoken. But give people a chance to make an informed decision. I'd be majorly cheesed off if I were in Framerate's position of having bought something that was changed with no warning. And it was quite possible - I had Gini Rig on my list. This is sneaky and underhanded - Framerate didn't know and had to be informed by the Gini guy that an additional adapter will be available sometime in the future... too bad he didn't know that major complication ahead of time. Instead, Gini is trading on his good reputation - up till now - to in essence fleece his customers who unknowingly are buying a different product.
 
I've the older Gini cage with a mixture of 1/4-20 and 10-24 threaded holes.
As it is, I have nothing that need to mount on the smaller holes.
Thanks for the heads up, I was about to order a second cage.
 
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I just received my cage with the same problem. The picture he showed on the eBay auction is different as it still has those larger holes with less small holes. I am writing to him right now as he has a good reputation in supplying such great rig to me and also he amazingly accurate iFocus (Gini type Follow Focus) that I really like. Hate to ban him for something as small as "holes" issue. But it is a quality issue and I am going to have problem selling bunch of this cages later to my customers (I am a video reseller in Malaysia).

Thanks for the heads up even though it is a bit late by few days.:huh:
 
Don't misunderstand me; I think Gini is being an ass and fails terribly, then ends up fixing his product and needing to sell it at a lower cost in order to earn back some goodwill.

OldCorpse said:
Of course. But it's only fair that potential buyers be informed of what the product is, so they don't buy based on a reputation that no longer is accurate - that's how Framerate ended up with an unusable or compromised product. What should happen is that potential clients should be clearly informed about the new specs, and if they still buy based on that, then all's fair, and the market has spoken. But give people a chance to make an informed decision. I'd be majorly cheesed off if I were in Framerate's position of having bought something that was changed with no warning. And it was quite possible - I had Gini Rig on my list. This is sneaky and underhanded - Framerate didn't know and had to be informed by the Gini guy that an additional adapter will be available sometime in the future... too bad he didn't know that major complication ahead of time. Instead, Gini is trading on his good reputation - up till now - to in essence fleece his customers who unknowingly are buying a different product.
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That is too bad, I had the opportunity to check out one of their older rigs and was actually surprised by the quality of it. A local shooter here uses it with his t2i for music video work and it's pretty solid.

The best thing to do is EVERYONE who is concerned should send them a message about it. Make it short and too the point, so your complaint is clear. Maybe they will reconsider. I agree, an additional adapter just makes NO sense at all.
 
I ordered a shoulder mount, im very satisfied with my purchase (older adjustable camera mount plate version), but there where flaws, that I had to go and adjust.
I was very interested in the cage, as the price was very juicy. Its disappointing about the odd hole choice. Although, with that said, ill probably get one, and just use a tap.
I really dont think enlarging a few holes will weaken the cage, of course I wont be enlarging all the holes just a few select holes.
But yes, I do hope Gin comes around to some logical solution that doesn't involve adaptors or an extra cost to consumers.
 
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