Indifocus products.

K

keaten

Active member
Has anyone used the indifocus shoulder rig, follow focus, and matte box? Just wondering how they are. And also if you have what type of shooting are you doing? Does the shoulder rig give you enough room to mount a monitor?

It would be great to hear some feedback. I am just trying to find the best setup for the best price.
 
I have the shoulder rig and FF. You get what you pay for. They're a great deal but there's obviously better and more well built pieces out there. If it's your first rig or you're on a budget, there's no harm in getting that setup.
 
I have the indifocus follow focus, rails and matte box. The swing away feature is a little wiggly if you do too much quick movement, but otherwise gets the job done well.

my only gripe about the FF unit are the gear rings, very difficult to center the lens exactly. Tim should come out with a different gear ring to really make the product excel, been trying to reach him about that on msn but no answer yet.
 
Used to have the shoulder mount rails with the shrigg rig and mattebox. Shoulder mount was pretty solid, but also pretty heavy. I'll agree with the mattebox. It does what it's supposed to do (which isn't much), but the swing away is pretty flimsy. I had to tighten it pretty often. Definitely good for cheap gear, but I'm moving towards a smaller, lighter setup for my 7D
 
advice

advice

Since your asking for advice... I will offer it. I researched this type of gear and every brand I could think of for 3 months. Finally, I landed a big job and pulled the trigger on a $900 setup... I spent the entire budget on pro gear and skipped the mattbox and the follow focus. Im SOO glad I did.

Ultimately I couldn't get over how attractive the redrock micro gear was and I bought the eyeSpy bundle, with 2nd handle grip, plus 3 micro mounts.

There are several main advantages to this lvl of gear. Its 100% customizable... every single piece attaches to every other piece, and can be mounted in 3 axises. It will last for 10 years or more, which means it has re-sale value. Finally, Everyone recognizes progear when the see it especially clients. I


Why you don't need a mattbox: Its primarily for filters, and shooting outside. There are other ways to block light (choose a shot that is not into the sun), and other ways to filter. Circular polarizers and NDs for photo lenses are fairly cheap. Mattbox filters are not cheap.

Why you don't need a followfocus: You can use a DIY solution that involves a zip tie and screw for $1. You can do rack focus yourself IF the camera is locked down. If the camera needs to be moving (dolly or crane, than someone else should be paying to rent the gear and to actually hire someone to run the follow focus. Running the camera via Shoulder/mount and running the follow focus together is quite hard. Its like buying a steady cam. Unless you have hours and hours to practice, than its not worth buying.

Back to the redrock gear, its fully pro, and reasonably priced compared to zacuto. The rails are Primarily for switching from shoulder to tripod easily, taking the camera off quickly for photos and battery changes. And for mount your audio gear, and of course providing a steady shot. (its easy to add small weights with zip ties and pads, that will save you $200)


Considering a good rig needs a decent video tripod, audio gear, decent lens choices, filters for those lenses, batteries, mem cards, etc. I would consider a rail system, a mattbox, and FF to be the last three purchases. In that order. Plan to spend more than $500 on each... and buy it in 3 pieces.



:Drogar-Thinking(DBG

nough said.
 
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I have the FF, rails, indiclamp, and quick release plate and everything is well built and works fine. I have redrock pieces as well and indifocus holds up. Tim is great and the customer service with them is fantastic.

If you have the money for a full zacuto or redrock rig then go for it, but indifocus is still quality gear for less money. I haven't had a single problem with anything I have ever pruchases from them.

I do agree that they need to redesign their gears though, tough to center and if you tighten them too much you could easily damage lenses.

Still a great company with a great spokesperson.
 
Thanks for the replies guys.

I guess maybe i should have titled this thread "what shoulder rig are you using?" I just have been researching a lot and trying to find the best one possible that isn't a huge rip off like some brands out there. The indifocus looks pretty solid at a fair price to me thats why I asked about it. This camera is mainly a b roll camera for me. being i have an hvx with letus. Just so many different shots you are able to get with the 7d.

So I guess my next question is...

What shoulder rigs, matteboxes, and follow focus's have you used and what do you dislike and like about them? I will also have a small hd monitor hooked up on mine. so for anyone that has had experience with that extra weight it would be nice to hear about it.
 
There are several threads on different sites discussing various camera supports, everything from DIY, RedRock Micro, to Zacuto, After looking at all of these I decided I couldn't/wouldn't spend more for the support than I did for the camera. I also knew I was not going to build one myself from scratch.

So I went in search of alternatives which I have shared in the several posts.

I decided to take pictures of my setup so people could see what it is and how it works. What I discovered is that I'm not very good at photographing products but here it is nonetheless.

http://www.frameyourart.net/7D2.jpg

This is a shoulder mount system which includes an accessories box, an adjustable back support, a counter wait (not shown), two hand grips, a telescopic support arm (not attached in picture), a CAVISION LCD swing away viewfinder, 15mm Carbon fiber support rods with quick release, and a 4x5 Matte box.

I have placed the accessories box under the camera to give it some additional height but it can also be attached on the back shoulder pad. The camera support can be adjusted to accommodate a larger camera like the EX1, the handles can be adjusted with the push of a button and the telescopic support arm is spring loaded and can be adjusted to rest comfortably on your stomach or waist. As an alternative to that you can attach the counter weight to the back pad and the 7D requires very little support.

Not only is there a substantial price difference between this setup and a Zacuto for example, but there's probably a bit of an ideological difference too. The aforementioned products are more configurable in the way a photographer might want to use it, this set up is probably what videographers are more accustomed to.

So I don't think choosing the right camera support is simply about price, although this setup is less then half the cost of a comparable set up from from Zacuto or RedRock, but about how you want to work. Clearly the 7D would benefit from either type of solution, and as you can tell I've approached it from more of a digital cinema perspective, which I'm not sure is the right approach. It works incredibly well in a production environment but it "hinders" the "gorilla" aspect of shooting with the 7D. I find myself detaching the camera from the support, removing the matte box (if I don't need filters) and holding the camera by the support rods. People don't pay attention to that and think I'm taking stills.

Since I've chosen this route the next thing is a follow focus, but I'm not going to pay $1200...

Anyway for others who are experimenting and looking for ideas I hope this helps.
 
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i love my indi shoulder support
i use their follow focus as well. tim is a great guy in my dealings, and helped me with a bunch of stuff. i also have an indislider from him as well. the shoulder support is rather heavy, and with 10lbs of counterweight on the rear ot make it balanced with a full setup (7 or 5/24-70/ff/matte/lcd/battery). i love it though, ive tried redrock, and a few other stuffs. the indi gear is way more customizable in handle positions than ANYONE i have used. i can deal with having to crank down a little bit on the handles to make sure its tight for the adjustability
 
I made my own shoulder support but I can tell you that a counter-balanced shoulder support is the most vital piece of equipment outside a viewfinder that you need for DSLR shooting. All the other equipment is a distant second to these two accessories.

Matte box...eh
 
try shooting at 2.8 and 60ss with low iso in the middle of the day....impossible
i use my mattebox for ND filters, and polarizer filters
 
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