Matthews Infinity Arm or Bright Tangerine Titan Support Arm

A

Alex Weinberg

Active member
Any one have any opinions on which is the better choice?

I want to buy 1 and never buy an articulating arm ever again.

The Infinity arm holds 15.4 pounds and the Titian 17.6 pounds.

The Infinity arm has quick release interchangeable tips, while the Titian has where it can adjust one of the tips even when it is locked and it is self supporting when it is not tightened down all the way.

There is a 50 dollar price difference between the 2.

-Alex
 
I have the Titan arm but have not used it extensively yet. Your description of the Titan is not quite correct. It is designed to not be fully tightened which actually allows all movement of course not just one tip. I stored mine fully locked up which appeared to be a mistake because when I unlocked it after a month it would not move at all. I was just about to give up on it when it released and has been fine ever since because I leave it semi tightened now. There is no need to lock it down completely. I doubt if you would be unhappy with either of these arms although I have zero experience of the Matthews arm. I'm looking forward to many years of use and enjoyment from my Titan.
 
I returned the Titan because the tension in each joint was uneven. When unlocked, the middle joint required more force to move it while the far ends would flop over easily with a monitor attached. that may be by design, but I wanted something I could adjust and reposition with one hand. This wasn't it. Havent tried the infinity arm.
 
I don't know the weight rating but zacuto makes several monitor arm kits. I think this may be the best design because the parts that attach to the monitor and whatever's on the other end have little locking hooks to keep things from swiveling. Does anyone else's arm do that?
 
"I want to buy 1 and never buy an articulating arm ever again."


The ball type arms are the strongest type of arm. Just not as convenient.


wc232000.jpg

6154.JPG


The bottom photo is of the Ultralight Control System arm. I have seen that used on film sets to use heavy monitors and accessories. You just don't see them used as much by the regular video guys for whatever reason. Likely because the systems require the loosening and retightening of two knobs instead of just the one as with "israeli" type arms.

"Ultralight Control Systems is the new contender in video monitor rigging systems. Originally designed to hold underwater strobe lights to camera housings, these hard anodized and machined aluminum components exceed the quality demands of the motion picture industry."


http://www.filmtools.com/ul8vimomo.html


I think they are substantially stronger than israeli type arms which is why WC has adopted them.





AND there is also the Matthews Infinity arm rated for 32lb capacity, 15lb horizontally:


1464616815000_IMG_636173.jpg
 
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This is the 1 piece of gear I cannot decide to save my life I never have this problem!

The Titan seems to appear more popular as no one with an infinity arm has chimed in.

The only concern with the Titian is if it will wear out over time and no longer be "adjustable" supporting the weight.

-Alex
 
Alex Weinberg said:
This is the 1 piece of gear I cannot decide to save my life I never have this problem!

The Titan seems to appear more popular as no one with an infinity arm has chimed in.

The only concern with the Titian is if it will wear out over time and no longer be "adjustable" supporting the weight.

-Alex
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Ha! I have this problem all the time. I've bought and un-bought so much kit in my head over the years.

There is also the Chrosziel Rambo at $320. Which is an insane price for an arm that doesn't look to be all that different from many others that are half the price. But you are paying for the "Chrosziel" name I guess.

I did read some people complaining that one end of the Titan is 1/4". The Infinity allows you to swap out ends. The Titan is obviously more sexy and BT is more of a "trendy" brand than stalwart Matthews. The orange version of the Titan is a bit hipster for my taste. I'm kinda over the color anodized thing.
 
I still think all of these have the issue of the monitor twisting at the point where it screws onto the arm and same where arm meets camera/mount...it's seems like a simple unavoidable flaw in a single point of attachment design. Unless there's some kind "anti-pivot" device in place I don't see a way around it, and it gets worse as the weight of the monitor increased or you move your whole setup around throughout the day.
 
The Titan has replaceable parts I believe. In the limited time i have used it I haven't experienced the uneven tension that has been mentioned here.
 
Josh Bass said:
I still think all of these have the issue of the monitor twisting at the point where it screws onto the arm and same where arm meets camera/mount...it's seems like a simple unavoidable flaw in a single point of attachment design. Unless there's some kind "anti-pivot" device in place I don't see a way around it, and it gets worse as the weight of the monitor increased or you move your whole setup around throughout the day.
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Ultralight Control Systems, & Wooden Camera, offer balls with Arri locating pins that provide a "anti-pivot" feature when attached to an Arri Accessory Mount. Both my Wooden Camera Top Plate, & Top Handle, have these Accessory Mounts, but these only deal with one end of the arm as I haven't seen other accessories that use this standard also, though I imagine they'll eventually trickle out.

Ultralight's arms seem to becoming the industry standard, at least at rental houses, but that may be due to how simple they are to repair, & I'm done with Noga Arms, or similar. Recently picked up Wooden Camera's version & prefer them over Ultralight's as they can be tightened without tools.

Ultralight's Arri Ball
ba-ac-ultralight-arri-adapter.jpg
 
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The Matthews Infinity Arm is 100% fantastic. I add a nato lock to one end, and a SmallRig swivel monitor mount to the other. It's effectively replaced my top handle. I bite the handle with the nato to the top of my camera, and then extend the arm out forward, and then left, mounting my monitor from above with the swivel. Effectively the arm doesn't move all day via hours and hours of abuse and me using it as my primary point of contact with the camera often, and the monitor is free to swivel in a fixed position. It couldn't be a better rig. You have the flexibility of a noga arm (so in a pinch you can flop sides or do whatever you need) and the convenience of a swivel. Highly recommend. Expensive, but what good tool isn't? Saves me countless minutes of futzing around on-camera. Rig it once, shoot. Cheers.
 
I should mention I've got a cine bag full of every noga arm, short, long, cine lock, WC ultralight, ultralight before it was WC, etc and they all sit in a box now. Nothing can be this arm IMHO. It's far superior to the ultralight multi-joint nonsense that, while strong, was too big and annoying to truly fall in love with. This arm is big and heavy yes, but once you use it you'll understand why I gush over it.

Join Adorama's VIP360 program and sample it for 2 months and see what you think. That's what I did. Even setup a return after the first few days. Then I kept playing with it and finally realized it was never leaving my kit.
 
An arm is rarely the correct grip component to use.

The OP does not describe what he wants to use the arm for.

Arms have been misused by camera departments since the DSLR revolution*.. leading to them being asked to do what they are not supposed to do - the manufacs bounced back by making products called Titan or whatever to try and solve a non existant problem.

For example - it is most unusual to want to mount a monitor not parralel to the horizon (or rather chip axis if you mount your camera dutch) - operating with an off axis monitor is very confusing.

An arm is therefore the wrong tool to mount a monitor as it is 'under constrained' as it offers too many freedoms of movement for the purpose of mounting one item parralel to another item. The parralellity should be driven by using a grip item with the appropriate freedoms of movement not by the operator going 'yep that looks straight'

Of course there is the single point problem at the monitor end too - which cannot be cured by a ridgid arm - one needs rosettes or arri style pins to get around that one.

Arms are handy for attaching two items where their axes might be misaligned in all six axes. For example tieing a camera hotshoe in a car rig to an angled wind shield (here the axis of the two imtems could be infinitely varying) is the perfect time to select an arm.

Arms may on occasion be handy for mouting monitors - for example when the camera is underslung from a dolly and ones normal solution puts the monitor in the wrong place and you dont have the ideal grip solution for that underslung instance.

Arms are the wrong tool for monitor mounting in 90% of cases.

The correct way to mount an operators monitor is a usually a grip item that constrains parrarlellity.. typically straight nato rails or suchlike (not rods) mounted at 90degrees to each other with rosettes or hard 90degree joins

*yes in film/cine digital times the A/C sometime uses an arm for a monitor - because the AC is not dealing with horizon - only focus and exposure - he/she does not need a constrained horizon.
 
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1/4-20 screw mounts should have died long ago along with the cold shoe. Everything should be standardized on something more robust and practical like a NATO mount.
 
adam j. richman said:
The Matthews Infinity Arm is 100% fantastic. I add a nato lock to one end, and a SmallRig swivel monitor mount to the other. It's effectively replaced my top handle. I bite the handle with the nato to the top of my camera, and then extend the arm out forward, and then left, mounting my monitor from above with the swivel.
Click to expand...
Do you happen to have a picture of this setup? Very interested:)
 
Paul F said:
1/4-20 screw mounts should have died long ago along with the cold shoe. Everything should be standardized on something more robust and practical like a NATO mount.
Click to expand...

There is nothing wrong with a 1/4 20 screw* - there is only misuse of that technology by idiot grips and idiot designers of kit.. screws/threads are designed to apply compressive load and are 'not constrained' in the anti clockwise rotational axis (aka they come undone!) and should therefore only be used in an environment where anticlockwise torque is not applied or is somehow constrained.

For example a DSLR has a 1/4 20 which works well for stills pics, when do motion filming you apply a pan it becomes problematic and a device for stopping rotation is needed.. that is why camcorders have a 1/4-20 and a pin in the bottom while cinema cameras have multiple 1/4-20 (or 3/8) mounts for the tripod plate.


* (in fact it is has an excellent S/W ratio - better than M6 the metric equivilent)
 
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